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The number of Christians in China is between 23 million and 40 million, accounting for 1.7 to 2.9 percent of the country's total population, according to the Three-Self Patriotic Movement – China's governing body for Christianity, which celebrated the 60th anniversary of its establishment on Monday.

The statue of Michael the Angel, the guardian angel of St. Michael's Church (also known as French Legation Church and Dongjiaominxiang Church) stands in Beijing's winter coldness on Dec. 25, Christmas Day. [Photo by Chen Boyuan / China.org.cn]

However, whether this number includes believers who go to "home churches" – often clandestine gatherings of individuals in their homes – is yet to be verified, since the Chinese government does not encourage believers to attend home churches, and there are no official statistics showing how large the population of home church-goers is.

The Chinese government takes the "Three-Self" approach in administering affairs associated with Christians, as it does with other religious affairs in the country. The "Three-Self" approach is a strategy of "self-governance, self-support, and self-propagation," initiated in the early 1950s soon after the People's Republic was established in October, 1949, in a bid to remove foreign influence from Chinese Christian churches.

Catholic churches in China have no affiliation to the Vatican, meaning that the appointments of new cardinals and archbishops in China are made independently of the Holy See. Likewise, Chinese cardinals were not seen in the March 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.

Based on the framework of the Three-Self approach, Christian churches across China promote patriotism while loving the church, worship God while benefiting men, and try to merge religious doctrines with Chinese culture, shaping a uniquely Chinese Christian theology.

Christianity has been gradually localized according to the principles of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement since it "landed" in China centuries ago.

Statistics from the State Administration for Religious Affairs show that China has 139,000 public places for religious congregation, including 56,000 Christian churches.

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