Government support for freedom of religion or belief in China
A Westminster Hall debate on government support for freedom of religion or belief in China is scheduled for Wednesday 18 March 2026, from 2:30pm to 4:00pm. The debate will be led by Marie Rimmer MP.
The People’s Republic of China’s population was estimated to be 1.41 billion in 2024. According to 2021 estimates by the US Government, the majority of the population, 52.2%, are atheist or unaffiliated, 21.9% are followers of folk religions, 18.2% are Buddhist, 5.1% are Christian, 1.8% are Muslim, and Hindus, Jews, and Taoists comprise less than 1 percent.
Chinese law regulating religious beliefThe People’s Republic of China’s constitution (Article 36) states that its citizens “shall enjoy freedom of religious belief”, and that “no state organ, social organization or individual shall coerce citizens to believe in or not to believe in any religion, nor shall they discriminate against citizens who believe in or do not believe in any religion.” However, it also states that “the state shall protect normal religious activities” (normal religious activities are not defined); that “no one shall use religion to engage in activities that disrupt public order, impair the health of citizens or interfere with the state’s education system; and “religious groups and religious affairs shall not be subject to control by foreign forces”.
In practice the Chinese state strictly regulates religions, and under President Xi Jinping it has furthered efforts to “sinicise” religions in China, that is “becoming ‘Chinese in orientation’ and aligning with Chinese culture and customs”, according to Humanists International.
The Chinese state officially recognises five religions: Buddhism, Catholicism, Islam, Protestantism, and Taoism. It has established seven state-controlled organizations to manage the affairs of affiliated religious communities: the Buddhist Association of China, the Chinese Taoist Association, the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association and Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China, the Protestant Three-Self Patriotic Movement and China Christian Council, and the Islamic Association of China. These institutions are under the supervision of the government’s State Administration for Religious Affairs and the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) United Front Work Department. According to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an agency established by the US Congress to monitor the right to freedom of religion or belief abroad, religious groups in China that belong to one of the five recognized religions “must register with the government to practice legally”.
Restrictions on religious belief in the CCPThose who belong to the Chinese Communist Party or its affiliated youth organisations, numbering around 281 million people according to the Pew Research Center, are “officially banned from engaging in a broad range of spiritual traditions”.
However, according to research conducted by Pew in 2023, around some 6% of CCP members formally identify with a religion such as Buddhism, Christianity, Islam or Taoism, and “this is nearly on par with the 10% of Chinese adults who are not party members, according to the 2018 Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS)”.
China perpetuates “severe violations of religious freedom” according to USCIRFUSCIRF in its 2026 annual report, recommended the US Government designate/redesignate 18 countries as “Countries of Particular Concern”, including China.
USCIRF said that in 2025 “China perpetuated particularly severe violations of religious freedom”. Chinese authorities “sought to exert complete control over religion through an extensive web of laws, regulations, and policies that do not conform to international human rights standards”. It detailed several actions in 2025, including restrictions on clergy engaging in online religious activities, and the continuation of the state’s sinicisation policy:
In September, the government published regulations that ban clergy from engaging in online religious activities outside of government-approved websites. Authorities continued to pursue the state’s coercive “sinicisation of religion” policy, which seeks to integrate the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) political ideology into every aspect of religious life and forcibly assimilate ethnic minorities, including through co-opting or prohibiting their unique religious traditions and destroying or modifying their houses of worship. Chinese President Xi Jinping touted the sinicisation of Tibet and Xinjiang during his visits to the regions in 2025.
The report details restrictions on Uyghur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists and Christians in particular.
It says that “at least half a million predominately Muslim Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic minorities remained imprisoned or held in other internment facilities in Xinjiang”. Adding that “authorities continued to expand forced labour programs and residential boarding schools used to forcibly assimilate the population”.
Authorities “cracked down on Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and disappeared and imprisoned monks who publicly or privately honoured the Dalai Lama”.
Law enforcement bodies “ramped up its targeting of independent Protestant religious leaders and house church congregations”, and “despite increased engagement between the Vatican and China, underground Catholic clergy faced government pressure to align with state-controlled Catholic organisations”.
The report also says that the government “imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners, Church of Almighty God members, and followers of other unrecognized religious groups that authorities deemed illegal”.
In December 2025, responding to a statement by the EU’s representative office in China on human rights, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry Guo Jiakun, rejected its criticism of China’s human rights record. Mr Guo said that “Historic achievements have been made in the cause of human rights and the advancement of socialist democracy and rule of law in the country, a fact that anyone without prejudice can see and recognize”. Noting that “China’s Constitution fully guarantees citizens’ freedom of speech and freedom of religious belief”, he added that “China is a country governed by the rule of law, where everyone is equal before the law, and human rights cannot be used as an excuse to evade legal punishment”.
For more on the treatment of Uyghurs and Tibetan Buddhists see Commons Library briefings:
- UK supply chains and Uyghur and Turkic Muslim forced labour in China, November 2024
- Persecution of Buddhists in Tibet, December 2023
In a 2023 article on religion in China, Pew said Buddhism, particularly Han Buddhism rather that Tibetan Buddhism is treated “more leniently than Christianity or Islam”. Chinese President Xi Jinping “frequently praises Han Buddhists for having integrated Confucian, Daoist and other traditional Chinese beliefs and practices”.
The government also “encourages some activities that it considers to be part of China’s cultural heritage and has financed the renovation of some folk religion temples”.
A May 2024 article by the Council on Foreign Relations similarly states that the government in China has begun to take a different approach to “indigenous religions”, and “over the past few years, some have begun to enjoy government support”. Buddhism (not Tibetan Buddhism), Taoism, and folk religions “are seen as indigenous faiths with fewer overseas ties”, compared to Islam and Christianity.
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office policy on FoRBIn March 2025, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) told the UN General Assembly that the UK remained “deeply concerned about the severity and scale of FoRB violations and abuses in many parts of the world” and “unequivocally condemns incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence, wherever this occurs”. It noted a recent increase in Islamophobia, anti-Muslim hate crime, and antisemitism.
The FCDO has previously stated that FoRB is “an integral part” of its work on human rights, and that it integrates it into its wider work on strengthening the rules-based international order, advancing democratic values, promoting good governance, and contributing to conflict prevention. UK aid is also allocated to those “most vulnerable” or marginalised, which can include minority religious or belief communities.
The department also says it “considers the intersectionality of human rights” and recognises that women and girls from religious minorities can be particularly vulnerable because of their faith.
In 2022, the FCDO said that the department’s position is that “where FoRB is under attack, other basic rights are threatened too”. Attacks on FoRB, it states, can involve denials of freedom of expression, detention without trial, impunity for attacks on property and people, and often contributes to conflict and the growth of extremism.
2023 analysis by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) notes that FoRB became more of a priority in the FCDO’s human rights work since 2018 under Foreign Secretaries Jeremy Hunt and Dominic Raab.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s FoRB toolkit: How the FCO can help promote and protect this human right, 2016, provides an overview of actions that the department can take to promote FoRB.
The Labour government’s policy on FoRBIn July 2025 the UK’s Special Envoy on FoRB, David Smith MP, announced “a new commitment to the centrality of FoRB in our foreign policy” and set out a framework for action. This followed consultation with the FCDO Minister with responsibility for human rights, Lord Collins.
Mr Smith said that the UK Government’s “overarching goal” was a reduction in the number of countries in which FoRB is “significantly curtailed” and to promote FoRB internationally. The work has five strands:
1. Upholding FoRB within international organisations, including the UN and its Human Rights Council.
2. Employing UK diplomatic networks to work with specific countries to encourage changes in behaviour and to legislation and policy to support greater FoRB. The ten focus countries for the UK are Syria, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam, Algeria, India, Nigeria, China and Pakistan.
3. Strengthening international coalitions, such as the Article 18 Alliance and the International Contact Group on FoRB
4. Mainstreaming FoRB efforts throughout FCDO work.
5. Engaging with human rights organisations and civil society groups, to share experiences and encourage mutual respect and understanding.
The Special Envoy intends to report annually on his work.
Government statements on FoRB in ChinaAsked by Lord Dodds in July 2025 what assessment the government had made of “recent reports of continued severe restrictions and persecution of Christians and other religious minorities in China; and what representations they have made about that issue to the government of China”, Baroness Chapman responded:
The environment for freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) in China is restrictive, which includes the persecution of Christians and other religious minorities. Chinese regulations on religious activity severely restrict religious and cultural expression in China. This Government stands firm on human rights, including the right to FoRB. We raise our concerns at the highest levels: the Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary, Chancellor and Energy Secretary all raised human rights recently with their Chinese counterparts.
More broadly, this Government champions FoRB for all abroad. We work to uphold the right to FoRB through our position at the UN, G7 and other multilateral fora, and through bilateral engagement.
The recent launch of our FoRB strategy on July 8 outlines our approach to promoting and protecting the right to FoRB globally, of which China is one of ten focus countries. We continue to do all we can to encourage FoRB across China.
Further readingThe links below give further information on FoRB in China:
- BBC News, Why is China set to approve a new law promoting ‘ethnic unity’? 10 March 2026
- United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, U.S. Policy Addressing China’s FoRB Abuses against Uyghurs (Spot light podcast), 13 February 2026
- Open Doors, World Watch List 2026: China, January 2026
- Uk Visa and Information, Country policy and information note: China: non-Christian religious groups, December 2024 (accessible), Updated 30 January 2026
- CSW (Christian Solidarity Worldwide), The Supremacy of the Party: China’s Weaponisation of Legislation and Policy to Curtail Freedom of Religion or Belief, October 2025
- Commons Library research briefing, The UK and global freedom of religion or belief, 9 July 2025
- Amnesty International, The State of the World’s Human Rights: China 2024, April 2025
- Human Rights Watch, World Report 2025: China: Events of 2024, January 2025
- Commons Library debate pack, UK supply chains and Uyghur and Turkic Muslim forced labour in China, 4 November 2024
- Council on Foreign Relations, Religion in China, 15 May 2024
- US Department of State (Office of International Religious Freedom), 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: China (Includes Hong Kong, Macau, Tibet, and Xinjiang), April 2024
- Pew Research Center, 10 things to know about China’s policies on religion, 23 October 2023
The current government have set out its overall approach to FoRB in two speeches:
- Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Warsaw Human Dimension Conference 2025: Statement by UK Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief, 13 October 2025
- Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, UK approach to freedom of religion or belief: Lord Collins' speech, July 2025, 8 July 2025