The Chinese government is increasing pressure on underground Catholic communities to join the state-controlled church while tightening surveillance and restrictions on an estimated 12 million Catholics, according to a report by Human Rights Watch.
The group said in its report that the increased pressure is part of a decade-old campaign to ensure religious groups align with the Communist Party’s ideology.
The Associated Press reported that the Chinese government has rejected the claim, saying Human Rights Watch is “consistently biased against China.”
Chinese Catholics have long been divided between a state church and an underground church loyal to the Vatican. In 2018, Pope Francis reached an agreement allowing the Chinese government to play a role in appointing bishops to ease tensions.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during an international business meeting at the Great Hall of the People on March 28, 2025 in Beijing, China. (Ken Ishii/Pool/Getty Images)
“Ten years after Xi Jinping’s Sinicization campaign and nearly eight years since the 2018 Holy See-China agreement, Catholics in China face escalating repression that violates their religious freedoms,” Human Rights Watch researcher Yalkun Uluyol said in the report.
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A spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry told the Associated Press that Human Rights Watch “invents all kinds of lies and rumors and lacks any credibility.”
The agency added that the government “supervises religious affairs in accordance with the law and protects citizens’ freedom of religious beliefs and normal religious activities.”
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A man looks on at a Catholic church in Zhuozhou, China’s northern Hebei province, April 22, 2025. (Adek Berry/AFP)
Human Rights Watch said its researchers are barred from entering China and that the report is based on interviews with people outside the country who had firsthand knowledge of Catholic life in China, along with experts on Catholicism and religious freedom.
The 2018 agreement stipulates that Beijing nominates candidates for bishop, which the pope can veto, although the full text has never been made public.
In June 2025, Pope Leo
POPE LEO
Pope Leo (Alberto Pizzoli/AFP via Getty Images)
“I’m also in ongoing dialogue with a number of people, Chinese, on both sides of some of the issues that are out there,” Leo said. “It’s a very difficult situation. In the long run, I don’t pretend to say this is what I will and won’t do, but after two months I have already started having discussions at different levels on this subject.”
Human Rights Watch says that since 2018, Chinese authorities have pressured underground Catholics to join the state church through detentions, disappearances and house arrests, citing stories of unnamed individuals who have left China.
The report also said China has tightened ideological control, surveillance and restrictions on religious activities and foreign ties, including requiring state approval for cleric travel, while officially recognizing and closely monitoring five religions: Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism, Protestantism and Islam.
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Xi Jinping said in 2016 that he would “Sinicize” the country’s religions, a policy aimed at aligning religious practices with the Communist Party’s ideology.
According to Human Rights Watch, authorities have taken sweeping steps to curb religious practice, including tearing down churches and crosses, blocking gatherings in unregistered churches, and confiscating religious materials not approved by the state.
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The group said the broader “Sinicization” campaign has also led to intensified repression against Tibetan Buddhists and Muslims.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
