The church was under the dominion of foreign mission boards in the areas of administration, finance and personnel. Though some positive results were achieved in the previous hundred or so years, by 1949 there were still only 700,000 Christians in China. Since the 1980's, the Protestant Church has printed 20 million copies of the Bible, including the Bible in Korean, Miao, Lisu, Jingpo and other minority languages. As we work toward a system of governing the country by law, legislation concerning religion will protect normal religious activities more effectively. Government officials and people of different walks of life in society are taking a more objective attitude toward religion, helping create a better social environment for the practice of the freedom of religious belief.
China is a country covering a vast area and with a large population.
In the countryside, farmers have a low educational level and are strongly influenced by feudalistic ideas. There is still a long way for Chinese people to go to reach the goal of governing the country fully by law. We have not worked out a national Religious Law yet. In some places, the phenomenon of ignoring the law still exists. Followers of religion are scattered in rural and remote areas, where some grassroots cadres, due to their own shortcomings, do not follow the spirit of current religious policy correctly.