Anyone looking for a brief overview of Chinese Christian history should check out Richard Cook’s Darkest Before the Dawn. In addition to orienting readers to the major events of Christian missions in China, there is an extensive bibliography for further reading.
I have always thought that in order to understand the Chinese Communist Party’s attitude toward (or shall we say fear of) religion, one needs to study up on two key events: The Boxer Rebellion (1900) and the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864). Both of those movements started out as quasi-religious and morphed into anti-government political movements that weakened, and eventually led to the downfall of the Qing Dynasty.
God’s Chinese Son, The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan, by Jonathan D. Spence,
Reviewed by Tony Lambert