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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 Human Rights Watch report.
The group said in its report that the increased pressure is part of a decade-old campaign to ensure religious groups align with Communist Party ideology.
The Associated Press reported that the Chinese government has rejected the claim, saying Human Rights Watch is “consistently biased against China.”
China’s Catholics have long been split between a state-run church and an underground church loyal to the Vatican. In 2018, Pope Francis reached a deal allowing the Chinese government 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)
“A decade into 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. “Pope Leo XIV should urgently review the agreement and press Beijing to end the persecution and intimidation of underground churches, clergy, and worshipers.”
The Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson’s office told The Associated Press that Human Rights Watch “fabricates all manner of lies and rumors, and lacks any credibility whatsoever.”
The office added that the government “oversees religious affairs in accordance with the law and protects citizens’ freedom of religious belief and normal religious activities.”
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A man looks on at a Catholic church in Zhuozhou, China’s northern Hebei province on April 22, 2025. In 1951, newly communist China severed ties with the Holy See, forcing Catholics to choose between membership in the state-run Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association or non-sanctioned churches loyal to the pope. But under Pope Francis, China and the Vatican signed a 2018 agreement allowing both Beijing and the Holy See a say in appointing bishops in an attempt to close the schism in China’s 12-million-strong Catholic community. (Photo by ADEK BERRY / AFP) / To go with AFP story Vatican-religion-pope-China,FOCUS by Mary Yang and Isabel Kua (Photo by ADEK BERRY/AFP via Getty Images) (Adek Berry/AFP)
Human Rights Watch said its researchers are not allowed into 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 proposes candidates for bishop, which the pope can veto, though the full text has never been made public.
In June 2025, Pope Leo XIV, who had just become the pope, appointed a Chinese bishop under the 2018 agreement and said he would continue to honor the deal “in the short term.”
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Pope Leo XIV waves as he arrives at Saint Joseph’s Cathedral in Bamenda, on the fourth day of an 11-day apostolic journey to Africa, on April 16, 2026. (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 there,” Leo said. “It’s a very difficult situation. In the long term, I don’t pretend to say this is what I will and will not do, but after two months, I’ve already begun having discussions at several levels on that topic.”
Since 2018, Human Rights Watch says Chinese authorities have pressured underground Catholics to join the state-run church through detentions, disappearances and house arrests, citing accounts from unnamed individuals who have left China.
The report also said China has tightened ideological control, surveillance and restrictions on religious activity and foreign ties, including requiring state approval for clergy travel, while officially recognizing and closely overseeing 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 Communist Party ideology.
Human Rights Watch said authorities have taken sweeping steps to curb religious practice, including tearing down churches and crosses, blocking gatherings at unregistered churches and seizing religious materials not approved by the state.
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The group said the broader “Sinicization” campaign has also led to intensified crackdowns on Tibetan Buddhists and Muslims.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.