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Is it illegal to be a missionary in China?

Is it illegal to be a missionary in China?

Missionaries are still officially forbidden in China, and proselytizing is technically illegal. Nonetheless, more Christian activists are entering China openly. By some estimates, 10,000 foreign Christian workers now live in the country, more than half of them Americans.

How did missionaries affect China?

Among Westerners in modern China, missionaries were most numerous, and they knew the people best. Staying more continuously than journalists and tourists, missionaries provided information to Chinese in their homeland, and to the Western world through letters to family, reports to home missions, speeches, and books.

What role did missionaries play in China?

The missionary efforts and other work of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, between the 16th and 17th century played a significant role in continuing the transmission of knowledge, science, and culture between China and the West, and influenced Christian culture in Chinese society today.

When were Chinese missionaries allowed?

In the 1842 treaty ending the First Opium War missionaries were granted the right to live and work in five coastal cities. In 1860, the treaties ending the Second Opium War with the French and British opened up the entire country to missionary activity.

When did the Jesuits go to China?

1552
Ignatius of Loyola under Pope Paul III in 1540). The initial Jesuit mission to China was St. Francis Xavier’s ill-fated attempt to reach China in 1552, but the real formative period of the Jesuit mission in China was in the last seventy-five years of the Ming Dynasty (1368- 1644).

Who was the first Christian missionary in China?

He established a printing press for Christian literature. The first medical missionary to China was American Peter Parker who arrived in Guangzhou in 1835. He established a hospital which gained support from the Chinese, treating thousands of patients.

When did Protestant missionary activity peak in China?

Protestant missionary activity peaked in the 1920s and thereafter declined due to war and unrest in China. By 1953, all Protestant missionaries had been expelled by the communist government of China.

Who are some famous women missionaries in China?

Nineteenth-century women missionaries to China included two early explorers of Tibet, Englishwoman Annie Royle Taylor and Canadian Susanna Carson Rijnhart, both of whom undertook much more dangerous expeditions than famous explorers of the day such as Sven Hedin and Aurel Stein.

How many missionaries were there in China in 1860?

From 50 missionaries in China in 1860, the number grew to 2,500 (counting wives and children) in 1900. 1,400 of the missionaries were British, 1,000 were Americans, and 100 were from continental Europe, mostly Scandinavia.