American missionary Caleb Rowen has witnessed firsthand China’s tightening restrictions on religious faith and practice.
From 2006 to 2016, government policies prohibiting missionary work did not feel strictly enforced, Rowen said. Cross-organizational outreach, partnerships, and Bible translation projects took shape and flourished in this season.
The Chinese government “just turned a blind eye,” he said, “until they didn’t.”
In 2014, the Chinese government started cracking down on Korean missionaries and went on to expel entire Western mission agencies in 2018. In the same year, it shut down prominent house churches and arrested pastors like Wang Yi of Early Rain Covenant Church. It seemed as if overnight, half the missionaries whom Rowen knew had left China. CT is using a pseudonym for Rowen, as he is concerned about his safety for speaking with Christian media.
“[God] laughs at restrictions, and so do we, because we know that no system on earth can keep the lid on this thing—this chain reaction that God initiated with the cross,” said an American missionary in China. https://t.co/LgaThcpSgw
— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) May 11, 2025