Colonialism, Imperialism, and Relations with Local Powers: China

Abstract

This chapter will explore the relationship of the Catholic Church in China with both imperialistic foreign powers and Chinese regimes in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This history is defined by great changes in the relative strength of various secular powers, from the Opium Wars through the Second World War and the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). A parallel history of Church-state relations tracks closely with China’s “century of humiliation” due to the connections of the Church with foreign powers, especially France. At the same time, the Holy See, Chinese Catholics, and foreign missionaries in China interacted directly with Chinese administrations across the modern era and often sought to remove or circumvent the power of foreign actors, ultimately succeeding in creating an indigenous hierarchy in 1946. However, soon afterwards, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) gained control of mainland China, expelled foreign missionaries, launched a “patriotic” Catholic movement that effectively severed the Chinese Church from the Holy See, and finally destroyed overt religious activity altogether with the Cultural Revolution. Despite these considerable changes, there were also important continuities in Church-state relations across the modern period. Although religious practice and scholarly research have shown that Christianity has repeatedly manifested in distinctly Chinese forms, at the level of popular perception and government policy, Christianity has been and continues to be approached as suspect and foreign. In addition, the Church has been caught up in broader shifting relations between the state and civil society, which could be cooperative or contentious depending on the time period and local circumstances. Questions of real estate and the management of educational and charitable institutions have been particularly vexing and enduring.KeywordsChinaCatholic ChurchRoman CatholicismImperialismChinese Christianity