Here is a story at the Salt Lake Tribune: “LDS Church suffers setback in China as government shuts down congregations in Beijing and other cities.” Here are the first two sentences:
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.
I attended the Beijing expat branch as a visitor a few years ago. The two branches (one for Chinese nationals, one for expats) are not simply separate units using the same location for meeting. The members of the two branches are prohibited from having any contact at all, and the branches worked very hard to abide by that restriction. So why were these branches shut down, or at least prohibited from holding their branch meetings as a unit? Here is the explanation offered by the relevant Civil Affairs Bureau in Beijing:
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.’”
Now you and I both know that if there is one thing the Church knows how to do (when it wants to) it is filing proper paperwork. This official explanation is almost certainly a pretext, the same sort of misleading and implausible explanation for questionable or simply unlawful governmental actions that Trump officials now routinely offer.
The Trib story gives a better explanation, noting that “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.” So China isn’t just picking on the LDS Church, it is targeting lots of churches as well as other organizations.
An even broader explanation is the up and down, give and take rhythms that authoritarian regimes use to modulate domestic policy in line with foreign relations. When things are good with the West, China and Russia are more tolerant of organizations with ties outside of those countries to operate, albeit with a variety of restrictions and bureaucratic requirements. When there is tension, oversight and regulation gets tightened or foreign businesses and organizations are simply shut down, as is happening now in China.
Trump’s tariff war against China is certainly part of the story here of increased tension. Church units in Russia went through a similar arc over the last thirty or so years, initially allowed to operate, then stringently limited. I’m not as familiar with the details for Russia. Perhaps a reader can add some details in the comments. I know that not so long ago LDS missionaries from outside the country were permitted to proselyte in Russia and there were thousands of LDS members there.
What’s the moral of the story? Here’s what I think. The relentless support that LDS leaders and most of the LDS membership has given to Trump and, in earlier years, his radically conservative predecessors (remember Ezra Taft Benson?) has come home to roost. There are consequences for supporting stupid, reckless politicians and giving them power. Trump is so stupid that, even now, he does not understand that the direct burden of tariffs falls on businesses and consumers who pay for imported products, not the countries shipping those products. So it’s hard to have much sympathy for the Church getting kicked out of these countries given decades of unwavering LDS support for the politicians and policies that have undermined the more moderate working relationship that the US had cultivated around the world in prior years. If global tension is bad for LDS missionary work (and overseas stakes and activities), then LDS leaders and members shouldn’t support stupid, reckless candidates who incite global tensions.
What do you think? Does anyone have similar stories to share about restrictions on LDS activities in other countries? Counterexamples are welcome, of course.
Wheat & Tares 
And of course the LDS Newsroom site (now part of LDS.org) has exactly zero stories on this development. LDS activities in the most populated country on earth get shut down, and the “Newsroom” carries not a word about it.
Nelson’s temple?
China is really the second to go, as it appears the Russian temple ceased to be realistic long ago. I suspect that many more will follow. When an American church is so identified with an American government that displays open hatred for the rest of the world, the church should not be surprised when the rest of the world turns against it.
Everything the church and its members do has consequences. Members voting for Trump in such large numbers and then buying into the entire Fox/Trump narrative supporting his actions, lies, policies, and programs. LDS politicians like Sen. Lee and his divisive, insensitive comments about the assassination of a Minnesota senator, and his thoughts and prayers for any Republican hurt. Then there’s Utah’s Governor with his Disagree Better Campaign, where he ignores any disagreements he may have with someone, does what he wants, sees how wrong it is, and then apologizes. Or, Sen. Curtis, who does the Utah Nice, listens, and then does what he was going to do all along, making an excuse about how complicated it is to make his decisions when we know he just has a different style in kissing the King’s arse. Finally, there is the church itself, which never says anything clearly about anything unless it’s the height of a temple steeple in a lawsuit against some city’s building codes.
“By their fruits ye shall know them.” We all know that, or at least should, but I think many members of the church give the church a pass on the things it does, just like MAGA excuses Trump for his crimes, indictments, statements, and actions. Trump was right about his followers not caring if he killed someone in plain sight on 5th Avenue. We see the same thing with members not caring how many billions the church has and how much of it goes into real estate and getting more before helping the poor.
Chet, re: Nelson’s temple (in Shanghai, right?). If I recall correctly, within days after Nelson’s surprise announcement, the Chinese government said they were also caught by surprise and that there would be no temple.
Israel is another nation of interest. Very pro USA but there will not be a temple of our Faith in that country anytime soon. Why? Simple answer – while modern Israel is becoming more and more secular JESUS does not form part of their religous ideology. He is seen as an imposter. If any temple is to be built in Israel it will be patterned on that of ancient Israel and not Latter Day temple doctrine concepts. Just thinking aloud. The continued slaughter of the Paelstinian peoples in Gaza in my opinion are war crimes.
When I saw your headline I thought you’d read this article https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-14/trump-us-xi-china-trade-renewables-tariffs/105526196 about China surging ahead on renewable energy while America stops.
I agree with you summation of why China is closing down branches of an American religion.
Our Prime minister is in China at present meeting with the Chinese president and with a trade delegation. Our PM has not been able to meet with trump (he will not grovel). Trump has chosen this time to demand Australia state whether we would defend Taiwan if China attacks it without saying whether he would.
We also have a joint military exercise with America and 18 other countries (30,000 troops) involved.
I served a mission in Venezuela many years ago. In those days the Bolivar was worth 4.3 to the dollar–not bad. Of course, we all know how the Venezuelan economy is doing nowadays. It was during Chavez’s tenure as dictator that the American missionaries were withdrawn. Was it something that the U.S. had done that made Chavez hate America so much? Maybe–but still, there’s no question that in the end he was left without excuse for his horrid rule as dictator.
The Freiberg Germany temple was built in what was then Communist East Germany. The temple was approved and built while (1) Ronald Reagan was the US President and (2) Ezra Taft Benson was president of the Quorum of the 12. Both Reagan and Benson being extremely outspoken anti-Communists and the LDS church, especially its membership, being supportive of both men and their politics. This history seems to suggest that reasons for nations favoring or disfavoring the LDS church are deeper than what appears on the surface.
I can understand why the church would not announce being shut down in China. The current personality cult in China would undoubtedly take extremely repressive measures against both native Chinese members and potentially against Western members previously attending services. The surveillance state in China is extreme and the government probably has better attendance stats than the clerks in those branches. Due process does not exist in China. The government could easily make up an excuse to detain members if they felt the church was orchestrating a PR campaign to pressure being reinstated. I’ve attend services at the Beijing expat branch (granted a long time ago) and the division between the native branch and the expat branch were rigorously followed.
As much as I criticize the church on transparency (or lack thereof), I do think staying quiet and working in the background is best in this case.
Who is the bad guy here? The Chinese government and communist party for restricting basic religious freedom? Or the LDS Church for exaggerating its progress in countries like China and Russia. On this one I’m not taking a side.
On the Freiberg temple, my understanding is that the East German bureaucrats just got tired of the incessant requests from Mormons to be allowed to go to the Swiss temple and actually made the suggestion to build one in East Germany. i doubt said bureaucrats knew who Ezra Taft Benson was.
And josh h’s suggestion that the Church exaggerating its progress in countries like China and Russia somehow makes it a “bad guy” on the level of Chinese restrictions on basic religious freedoms smells an awful lot like “well, she shouldn’t have worn such a short skirt.”
I’m connected by mission ties to the church in Ukraine. Russia, less so, but I hear things through other people. In the last 20 years, Putin has effectively made the Russian Orthodox Church a state religion, and has severely curtailed the activities of all other religious groups perceived to be foreign in some way, including but definitely not limited to the LDS church. From what I’ve heard, for at least a decade now, LDS missionaries in Russia can’t do a lot of the proselytizing activities that are common on most missions and can only refer to themselves as “volunteers”. I doubt there has been significant growth in the church for some time. Ukrainian friends have said that growth in Ukraine slowed a lot after the 1990s when I was there. I don’t know how many missionaries are still going to Russia, but my guess is it’s way down from the peak 20-30 years ago, and possibly it’s mostly Russians assigned within their own country.
Since 2010, Russians were traveling to either Helsinki or Kyiv to attend the temple. I expect that travel became more difficult after 2014, and non-existent after 2022. This may have been part of the reason President Nelson announced a temple for Russia early in his tenure (2018, I think), but I don’t see one being built in the forseeable future. It is also telling that Russia is basically its own area, with its own entirely Russian area presidency. I would be curious how much contact there is between them and the rest of the leadership structure of the church, whether any GAs ever travel to Russia and visit members there. I’m guessing not much. It very much feels like a retreat to cold war isolation, which the USSR was just coming out of when I went on a mission.
I wonder if it has anything to do with Utah’s refusal to sell land to Chinese businesses.
https://www.deseret.com/politics/2025/07/15/utah-governor-cox-blocks-chinese-land-buy-by-provo-airport/
I was a member of the Chengdu ex-pat branch for 1.5 years and saw first-hand the perversity of Chinese “Freedom of Religion”. In all cases Freedom of Religion doesn’t really exist there. Even if you (the church) follow all the rules and regulations, you are still existing at the sufferance and whims of the party. Any assumption that regulators had a real reason to shut down a branch is likely false. Instead, Chinese treatment of expats and foreign organizations is more likely one of applying leverage for tangentially related negotiations.
The tie to church as a proxy for Trump is stretching things at best. The LDS Church is not the first or only religious organization to get oppressed by China. One need only look at the crackdown on Tai-Chi and Falun Gong for a darker and scarier picture. Above all, what the chinese government is afraid of with these organizations is the ability to organize people outside party controlled channels. No matter how much the church tries to re-assure the government that they are respecters of the law and not a threat to government, there will be distrust toward any group that can routinely get people to meet together and work for a common cause without direction from the government.