THE SACRED REPUBLIC OF CHINA

WHEN CHINA'S Roman Catholics celebrate Easter next weekend, churches like the Nantang church in central Peking will be filled to overflowing. If last Christmas was anything to go by, the crowds outside will be swelled by busloads of nervous security police. But many Catholics won't be in conventional churches at all: rather, they will be worshipping "underground", in clandestine, illegal churches, often in people's homes.

Christianity is flourishing in China, and the government is nervous. It is 17 years since the anti-religious policies of the Cultural Revolution were finally relaxed, and many new converts have been attracted since. According to the most recent statistics, there are about 4 million Roman Catholics attending the 4,300 churches run by the government-controlled Catholic Chinese Patriotic Association, the official Catholic church. Yet the government remains fundamentally hostile to religion, and much Chinese Catholicism therefore remains underground. Outside the official church, there are an estimated 6 million "unofficial" Chinese Catholics.

China also has 20 million Protestants, but it is the Catholics who cause the government the greatest concern. It is nearly 700 years since the Italian Franciscan missionary Montecorvino founded the country's first Roman Catholic church, but the relationship between China's rulers and the Vatican remains problematic. Since the triumph of Communism in 1949, there have been no diplomatic relations between Peking and the Holy See. China's official Catholic church does not recognise the supremacy of the Pope; the Vatican, meanwhile, has diplomatic relations with Taiwan. The potential for tension is obvious. The Communists - whose economic reforms have not shaken their basic desire to cling on to power - are all too conscious of the role of the Catholic church in the demise of Communist rule in, for example, Poland.

The Vatican appoints no official clergy and has only the most secretive links with the unofficial clergy, since harassment is still widespread. "House church" meetings are regularly raided, and their leaders imprisoned. The Chinese constitution still guarantees freedom of religion, but any activity deemed by the government to undermine "national unity" is illegal.

Even for the official Catholics, the problem of serving two masters remains. They must, for instance, co-exist with the country's strict birth control policies. Yet there are positive aspects even to this conflict. Unwanted babies, mostly daughters, are frequently abandoned, particularly in rural areas, and Catholic families will often quietly adopt these "foundlings".

China's swift evolution from communism to capitalism is having a mixed impact on Christianity on the mainland. There are many young people who bemoan the loss of traditional Chinese values, and are turning to religion to fill the "spiritual vaccuum". But there are also those within the church whose faith has, paradoxically, weakened since the days of serious persecution, and have joined their nation's headlong rush to make money.

"Catholics today are no longer as enthusiastic as they were," says Ji Fuxiang, the 71-year-old priest at the Liujiabin Catholic Church in Kunshan, Jiangsu province. "They are all busy making money and do not have time to come to the Church to pray."

Main picture: members of the Miao tribe in Yunnan province mourning the anniversary of a relative's death. Far right, top: an 89-year-old Catholic from the Nu tribe. Far right, centre: nun with adopted chaoshengzi - a foundling whose parents abandoned her because of China's birth control policies please write something more sensible to go in this space Near right: preaching to women of the Ashi tribe, Yunnan province. Centre right: hearing confession, Shaanxi province - there are not enough churches to go round. Far right: Tibetan family group. Emily (centre) is a Catholic; her son and her daughter- in-law are Buddhists