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.