Human Rights Watch: church ban for minors in China violates human rights
A new release by the human rights NGO highlights the increased pressure by Chinese authorities on Catholics in the shadow of "sinicisation" and the agreement with the Holy See on episcopal appointments. A member of an underground community merged into an official diocese laments that, “We started praying like we were thieves.” A United Front document has emerged calling for telling on parents who “instill religious ideas to their children”.
Milan (AsiaNews) – Human Rights Watch (HRW) released new blunt account today of China’s crackdown on Catholic communities, saying that it intensified after the 2018 agreement with the Holy See on episcopal appointments.
Titled China: Pressure on Catholics Escalates, the study says that the repression "contravenes or violates international human rights standards and law." It summarises developments in China's religious policy over the past decade, drawing on many reports previously cited by AsiaNews regarding the increasingly tight control imposed by Xi Jinping through a series of new regulations under the watchword of "sinicisation”.
It includes personal accounts by people with first-hand knowledge of Catholic life in China, as well as experts on religious freedom and Catholicism in China interviewed by HRW.
The account’s underlying thesis concerns the authorities' use of the agreement with the Holy See (renewed until October 2028) to pressure "underground" communities that had never sought to officially register by joining the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association or other Chinese Communist Party-controlled organisations.
A person who attended a church that was demolished, its cross removed, said that members were threatened and arrested. Speaking to HRW, they explained that they were left with “no other choice but to join the official church."
Another person said the agreement proved to be "a intelligent weapon to legally destroy underground churches," as senior underground bishops, persecuted for years, died or were replaced by officially appointed bishops.
On this issue, a particularly interesting story comes from a Chinese Catholic who fled the People's Republic in 2023 offering insight into what it means in practice today to accept this type of formal transition, which in theory should be done in the name of the unity of the Church in China.
“After forcibly joining the official church, our church was in a state of panic, and some priests were forced to leave the county,” he said. “We felt the Chinese government became more heavy-handed after the agreement. We started praying like we were thieves, gatherings for major holidays disappeared. We used to have mass in hours that everyone could join, which changed to unreasonable hours, so people cannot join. “
“The authorities,” he added, “also cancelled our choir singing and shuttered windows of the church so that prayers are not visible from outside. Children growing up now have no memory of church prayers or ceremonies.
“The church premises are strictly regulated, and we cannot bring children since bishops and priests are very much afraid of the government. At one point, before escaping China in 2023, I stopped going to the church to avoid government surveillance. “
The reference to the ban on minors' participation in liturgies and youth-centred activities in parishes is a crucial aspect of the suffering of Catholics in China today.
“The authorities,” reads the HRW article, “have increasingly restricted children’s access to Catholic churches throughout the country, especially since the promulgation of revised Regulations on Religious Affairs in 2018, which prohibit religious activities in ordinary schools and restrict the establishment of religious schools to national or provincial-level religious organizations, subject to state approval.”
“A Chinese academic who has interviewed dozens of Catholics said that, in the past, local governments ‘did not check a lot’ whether children were attending church services.
“However, the authorities now have started to strictly implement such bans, which a Catholic with firsthand knowledge of conditions in Shaanxi said in January 2026 ‘is aimed at cutting generational ties within the Catholic community.’”
The HRW account cites a case reported by ChinaAid in December on a church in the city of Xuchang, Henan province, which was closed because it “violated relevant regulations by allowing minors to enter the church to play music instruments”.
A September 2025 internal paper, ostensibly by the Central United Front Leading Group, states that parents in China “must not organize … home-based religious education to instill religious ideas to their children.” The document even calls on schools to "guide students to proactively report" such cases to the relevant authorities.
In addition to Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, concerning freedom of conscience and religion, HRW maintains that, on this specific point concerning minors, China is also violating Articles 28 and 29 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Both treaties, to which China is a signatory, recognise that the right to education does not permit interference with the freedom of individuals and entities to establish and direct educational institutions, provided that the education in such institutions conforms to the minimum standards that may be established by the state.
“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,” said Yalkun Uluyol, China researcher at HRW.
“Pope Leo XIV should urgently review the agreement and press Beijing to end the persecution and intimidation of underground churches, clergy, and worshipers,” while “The Chinese government should stop persecuting and intimidating worshipers for upholding their faith and spirituality independent of Communist Party control.”
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05/09/2005
