As far as historical factors go, the biggest thing you should know about is called the Tai Ping rebellion.
en.wikipedia.org...
Short version: "God's Chinese son" Hong Xiuquan (that's the title of one of the major biographies of the guy), successfully establishes a theocracy in
China, and tries to conquer the whole thing. The result is a ~14 year civil war from 1850-1864.
He wasn't Catholic actually, but it has a lot to do with their skepticism of Christianity in general.
On the other hand, there are now or soon will be more Catholics in China than in Italy.
Also, there's the whole Communism thing. As far as the party is officially concerned, every religion is evil. They know that practically speaking,
every religion is actually a rival to the party.
That's basically the whole thing against Falun Gong. It was all good and Chinese and had people exercising and such and everything was dandy...
...except then lots of people really got into it. Somebody would send out an email about practicing Falun Gong in the park and 10,000 people would
spontaneously show up to practice together. Then things got ugly. The idea of thousands of 'boxers' getting together has a bunch of precedents in
Chinese history and they almost all spell out revolution.
If I had to guess at how the people in power over there really see things...
I'm guessing they understand that they can't really check the spread of 'western' religions into China. If they are going to spread, they will spread.
And I suspect they are at least a bit relieved that it is Catholicism and Christianity in general that is out in front, instead of Islam.
edit
on 2-8-2011 by 11andrew34 because: typo
edit on 2-8-2011 by 11andrew34 because: clarification
edit on 2-8-2011 by
11andrew34 because: typo