It will be interesting to see if China will extend its ban to Hong Kong.
LDS Church Suffers Setback in China as Government Shuts Down Congregations in Beijing and Other Cities
Peggy Fletcher Stack
| July 4, 2025, 11:48 a.m.
| Updated: 1:15 p.m.
In recent months, several Chinese municipalities across the giant Asian nation have shut down congregations of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints without warning, citing a failure to register with the government.
The closed branches ranged from Nanjing in the eastern province of Jiangsu to Jilin Province in the north. The most recent “banning,” however, was aimed at the two branches in the capital of Beijing — one for expatriates and one for Chinese worshippers.
On June 22, the Civil Affairs Bureau of the Chaoyang District in Beijing announced that “the ‘Mormon Beijing Branch’ carried out activities in the name of social organizations without registration, which violated the provisions of the … ‘Regulations on the Administration of Social Organization Registration.’”
Accordingly, the edict declared, “the Beijing Branch is hereby banned.”
The global church, headquartered in Salt Lake City, has never been one of the five faiths legally recognized in China. Those are Buddhism, Catholicism, Islam, Protestantism and Taoism (the only native Chinese faith; the others all were imported).
But it has operated openly for more than two decades, say Latter-day Saint experts on China who didn’t want their names used because they were not authorized to speak about this, with the tacit understanding of the religious affairs bureau and other government agencies.
As part of this understanding, Chinese members and foreign members of the church in China have been organized into separate congregations.
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When asked about the latest clampdown, the Utah-based church did not comment directly on the status of the branches in China.
The church “strives to honor, obey, and sustain the law in every country and encourages its members to do the same,” spokesperson Doug Andersen said Friday. “In places where laws are evolving and subject to interpretation, it seeks understanding through dialogue and adapts to changing environments as needed.”
The June 22 Beijing edict appeared to be primarily aimed at the branch for Chinese nationals, experts say. But because the congregation for Chinese members and the branch for foreign ones meet in the same facility at different times, their underlying lease was affected.
Expats meeting on Zoom
In the aftermath of the government’s moves, the president of the English-speaking branch in Beijing sent an email last week to his congregants saying, “We are transitioning to online church meetings via Zoom beginning this Sunday, June 29th. Leasing discussions are underway with the Jintai building management. We plan to meet in this manner until further notice.”
Members say the church’s signage — subtle though it was — has already been removed.
“As a member who has participated in the daily activities of the LDS Beijing branch, I am heartbroken,” Ziyang Shen, who now lives in Salt Lake City, wrote in an email to The Salt Lake Tribune. “The church strictly abides by China’s laws and regulations, and strictly prohibits members in China from actively preaching, and even strictly prohibits Chinese believers from meeting with American believers. These are not just in the laws and regulations, but I have seen them with my own eyes.”
Disallowing the congregation to meet in person will affect “the religious life of hundreds of church members in Beijing, China, including more than 100 members of the first branch (foreign members),” Shen added, “many of whom are staff members of the U.S. Embassy in China.”
Latter-day Saint Chinese experts point out that this latest crackdown is not just aimed at branches, but is focused on many other nongovernmental organizations and faith groups with headquarters outside of the Asian nation.
On top of that, they say, many of these harsh consequences originate with local districts and may not necessarily be coming from the central government.
Latter-day Saint attorney Cole Capener, who has lived and worked in China for nearly four decades, believes these developments point to a wider effort.
“Given the proximity in time and the scope of the closures,” he said, “I suspect that this is part of a national campaign directed from Beijing.”
Shanghai Temple still stalled
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) President Russell M. Nelson announces eight new temples in April 2020, including one in Shanghai.
That seemed to be the case five years ago after President Russell M. Nelson announced that a temple would be built in Shanghai — and local Chinese officials pushed back.
Within days of Nelson’s remarks, the Shanghai Municipal Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau said twice on its website it knew nothing about a “Mormon temple” being built in the city of more than 24 million people.
The bureau first wrote, “foreigners are not allowed to establish religious organizations or areas of religious activity within China’s borders” and “the news that the American Mormon church announced that it is building a temple came only from the American side.”
Later, the Shanghai organization repeated the statement about foreigners, insisting it “knew nothing about [the American Mormon church … building a so-called ‘temple’ in Shanghai].”
To this day, the church has not announced a site or released a rendering of a temple for China’s most populous city.
Eventually, one expert says, he believes the expats will find a way to work within the system to register the faith and be able to meet again in person, given that members have already agreed not to proselytize or discuss their religion with others.
He is more concerned about future congregations of Chinese nationals — many of whom joined the church in Utah or other countries. Will they ever be able to meet in person or even online or will they be permanently blocked from worshipping together?
