A new human-rights report has renewed scrutiny of the position of China’s underground Catholics, alleging that state authorities are using the country’s political and legal machinery to force clergy and faithful into the government-approved Church. Human Rights Watch says the pressure has grown sharper under President Xi Jinping’s policy of “Sinicization”, with the result that many Chinese Catholics now face a stark choice between compliance and continued persecution.
The report, published on 15 April, argues that the 2018 agreement between the Holy See and Beijing has not eased life for those Catholics who have remained outside official structures. Instead, it says, the accord has been used as a framework within which local officials can insist that underground communities regularise their status by joining the state-backed Church. Human Rights Watch said its findings were based on interviews with nine people living outside China who had direct knowledge of Catholic life inside the country.
