The number of foreign missionaries living in mainland China today are at historic lows.
While the number of foreign missionaries has never been high since the rise of the Communist Party, the situation had been getting better since the 1990s. The early 2000s were the golden years for Chinese missionaries with China opening up to foreign business and investment, but in 2019, the situation took a drastic turn.
Foreign missionaries have never really been legal in China, but they were tolerated for about a decade and half. Many government officials appreciated the expertise of the foreign missionaries who were willing to come and live in China – often times with no official pay.
However, everything changed with the increase of persecution against Christians in 2019, when China passed laws specifically targeting Christians and Christian missionaries. Though there isn’t enough data to show how many missionaries were forced out of China after 2019, there was a mass exodus of the foreigners involved in typical missionary efforts like humanitarian work, language training, education, and coffee shops.
In 2021, China introduced the landmark regulation banning foreigners from running private tutoring centers. This one single measure gave a devastating blow to the foreign missionary community that no one saw coming. To make things more disastrous for missionaries, China even banned online foreign education tutoring. Many of these schools and platforms were run by foreign missionaries. Once this measure was passed, tens of thousands of foreigners (many of them missionaries), were forced out of the country.
Several foreign missionaries thought they were safe if they were employed by a Chinese university. That all changed when China forced the closing or merging of more than 100 Chinese university foreign language departments.
China went after Christian NGOs when they passed a law passing direct supervision over foreign humanitarian work from civil and cultural agencies to the Ministry of Public Security (the police). Thousands of foreign missionaries were forced out of China over night.
On May 1, 2025, China’s National Religious Affairs Administration went after any missionaries that they were not able to remove from the other measures when they enacted the new rules for foreigners engaged in religious activities. This measure launched a new assault on foreign missionary “tent-making” operations like coffee shops. These businesses often provided jobs and contributed to local market, but they were also used as fellowship meeting points, distribution centers, and provided financial support for missionaries.
Almost overnight, the foreign population in metropolitan centers like Shanghai saw a drop in foreigners by 64% and Beijing by 40%!
Only 10 years ago, BTJ could travel to any city in China and find foreign missionaries living and working beside Chinese believers. Today, to run into foreign missionaries living in China is very rare.
Eugene,
My understanding from someone who went into China when the doors first opened: the underground church asked the missionary sending organizations to not send missionaries and divide them up again. Unity is more important to them than what the missionaries could offer. Perhaps this is God’s answer to their prayer along those lines.
Have a strong day in the Lord.