Gray Market

In the terminology of sociologist Fenggang Yang, the segment of Chinese religion including Churches, communities, mosques, and temples that are not part of the red market, i.e. refuse to join the five official religious organizations, yet are not listed as xie jiao. Religious organizations in the gray market are illegal, but being active in one of them (unlike being active in a xie jiao) is not a crime. They were alternatively persecuted and at least half-tolerated for decades, until the new regulation on religion indicated the CCP’s intention of no longer tolerating them.