Three-self Patriotic Movement

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Chinese Christianity gradually cut off religious and economic links with foreign missionary organizations due to special reasons, and thus indeed began its independent development. A large-scale three-self patriotic movement (self-governing, self-support and self-propagation) started.

In 1950, a group of celebrities led by the representatives of the National Council of the Chinese Young People's Christian Association released a declaration calling on the Christians to cut off their links with the imperialist powers so as to really realize the principles of self-governing, self-support and self-propagation of Chinese churches, and to love both China and Christianity. Since the beginning of the Korean War, the US government announced to freeze the Chinese assets in the US. This embogged some Chinese Christian organizations that had been dependent on the assistance offered by American missions in a difficult economic situation. As a result, with the support of the Chinese government, various Christian organizations and groups made independence plans and quickly realized the principle of three-self.

In 1951, Christian sects jointly established a committee, pushing the Three-Self Patriotic Movement to its climax. In 1954, Christian leaders and celebrities held a meeting in Beijing and formally established the Three-Self Patriotic Movement Committee of the Protestant Churches of China. From then on, all Christian sects in China completely cut off their links with foreign missions, and got on the track of independent development and patriotism.