Christianity in China 6:00, 2006 (Ref: AS06521)

Description

We look at the growing Christian population in China.

Officially 21 million Chinese are Christians – just 1.6% of the population. But hundreds of thousands are now joining underground churches, beyond the reach of China’s communist government.

The real number of Christians is probably 65 million, or 5% of the population and growing.

Most new converts are found in towns, but Christianity’s roots in China go deep into the rural areas where European missionaries preached in the 19th century.

This report starts in Hunan province – home to mostly ethnic-Tibetans – and then moves to the underground meetings in Beijing.