China Christian Council

(中國基督教協會). A national religious affairs organization of the Protestant Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM), established in Nanjing city, the capital of China’s eastern Jiangsu province, in 1980. Abbreviated CCC, it unites all officially-registered Protestant churches and is in charge of lay training and theological formation of the clergy. State Bureau of Religious Affairs administers the CCC; as a social organization, it is managed by the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Through the CCC, the registered Protestant churches participate in the World Council of Churches – a worldwide inter-church organization founded in 1948 and located in Geneva, Switzerland. The CCC has used this organization to create the illusion of religious freedom in China, but, in reality, it strives to stop Chinese house churches from entering the international arena.