For decades, the Chinese government has been denying the true extent of Chinese Christianity. In 2004, the government-backed Amity News Service put the number of Protestants at eighteen million. However, China Aid Association reported on 8 January 2007 that Yie Xiaowen, director of the Chinese State Administration for Religious Affairs, said in two internal meetings held in Beijing University and Chinese Academy of Social Science that the number of Christians in China has reached 130 million (ten percent of the population). The vast majority of China's Christians are Protestants who worship mostly in unregistered house churches. Even though repression and persecution persist and Christian leaders are still being arrested, the Chinese Church is dynamic. (ASSIST News Service)
