by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – At a recent meeting in Wuhan, Christian media in China were instructed to increase their coverage of Xi Jinping’s thoughts and key Communist Party documents, according to a religious liberty and human rights magazine.
The meeting, held on April 17 and 18, was a plenary session of the Three-Self Church’s Media Ministry Committee. It was presided over by Pastor Wang Jun, Vice President of the China Christian Council and director of the Media Ministry Committee. Pastor Gu Mengfei, Secretary General of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, also attended, Bitter Winter reported.
Pastor Geng Weizhong, another Vice President of the China Christian Council, urged Christian media to focus more on promoting Xi Jinping’s directives, particularly those related to the United Front. Pastor Gu Mengfei emphasized the importance of this year’s Two Sessions in fostering national unity, combating separatism, and promoting the Sinicization of religion.
China’s Christian (Protestant) media, legally allowed only under the government-controlled Three-Self Church, already include significant portions of Party propaganda. However, at the Wuhan meeting, officials made it clear that this level of propaganda was insufficient and should be increased.
The directives align with broader CCP efforts to integrate religious practice with socialist values, pushing Christian communities to align more closely with Party ideology. Bitter Winter reports that the United Front continues to intensify its campaign to control religious expression, making clear that even officially sanctioned churches are not exempt from political influence.
Earlier this year, the Chinese government boasted about its intensified crackdown on independent religious groups in 2024. “China’s public security authorities intensified efforts to dismantle cult organizations in 2024,” the state-run Global Times reported. “They have worked to curb the growth and spread of cult organizations, mitigating potential threats to national political security and maintaining social stability.”
In the 2025 World Watch List by Open Doors, China is ranked 15th out of 50 for severe Christian persecution, up four spots from the previous year. This rise is due to stricter regulatory enforcement, resulting in the shutdown of unregistered churches and heightened scrutiny of official ones. Open Doors estimates there are about 96.7 million Christians in China.
Since the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949, Christianity has experienced significant growth, increasing from 4 million Christians to an estimated 58 million Protestants and 9 million Catholics by 2010.
Despite ongoing intense persecution and strict government controls, current estimates suggest that there are between 80 and 100 million Christians in China, including both officially registered members and those in unregistered house church communities.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
A new U.S. intelligence assessment reveals that last month’s airstrikes against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure largely succeeded in destroying the heavily fortified Fordow enrichment facility, while only partially damaging two other sites–Isfahan and Natanz–raising concerns over Iran’s ability to resume uranium enrichment within months.
Israel has launched a forceful military intervention in southern Syria aimed at protecting the embattled Druze minority, after more than 500 people were killed in four days of bloody conflict in the province of As-Suwayda. The fighting, sparked by sectarian tensions between Druze militias, Bedouin tribal fighters, and Syrian regime forces, was intensified by alleged atrocities against Druze civilians–prompting Israel to act.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition plunged into deeper crisis Wednesday as the ultra-Orthodox Shas party announced its ministers were resigning from the government in protest of the failure to pass legislation exempting yeshiva students from military service. The move, while not an official departure from the coalition, further weakens Netanyahu’s grip on power, reducing his effective support in the Knesset to just 60 out of 120 members.
U.S. President Donald Trump called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday following a deadly Israeli military strike that hit Gaza’s only Roman Catholic church, killing three civilians and wounding several others.
Concerns are mounting over the fate of six Americans detained in South Korea for attempting to send 1,600 bottles filled with Bibles, rice, $1 bills, and USB drives toward North Korea by sea.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has issued a sharply worded letter to Israel’s Interior Minister Moshe Arbel, accusing his office of systematically denying visas to Christian groups seeking to visit the Holy Land. The letter, first reported by Channel 12, conveys Huckabee’s “profound disappointment” and warns of diplomatic fallout if the issue is not resolved swiftly.
In a major conservative victory for fiscal responsibility, the U.S. Senate passed a $9 billion rescissions package early Thursday morning, aimed at cutting waste, fraud, and partisan excess from federal spending. The bill, endorsed by President Donald Trump and crafted by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), claws back billions in taxpayer funds from controversial foreign-aid initiatives and public broadcasting outlets long criticized for their liberal bias.