Guide to the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. China Mission Records

The first Presbyterian Church in the U.S. (PCUS) missionary to China, Elias B. Inslee, arrived in 1867, and the mission was officially organized at Hangchow in December 1868. Financial difficulties and health problems initially hampered the mission’s work, but the situation slowly improved after 1871. Construction of schools, residences, and churches occupied much of the mission’s resources during the 1870s.

The mission’s work expanded greatly in the late nineteenth century, despite political and social turmoil in China. From two stations staffed by fifteen missionaries in 1883, the mission increased to ten stations and 71 missionaries by 1899. Rising anti-foreign sentiment in the wake of the Sino-Japanese war made the work more difficult but also brought increased urgency for action. As the new century began, the PCUS mission operated two high schools, sixteen elementary schools, and provided medical care in four locations in China.

Differences in the two regions where the PCUS focused its work led to the division in 1900 into the Mid China Mission and North Kiangsu Mission. Over the next several decades, the PCUS opened four new stations in the North Kiangsu Mission at Hwainfu (1903), Lianyungang (1908), Taichow (1912), and Yencheng (1920). Within the PCUS in China, communicant membership increased from 400 in 1900 to 2,516 by 1911. The first PCUS independent presbytery in China, Kiang Cheh Presbytery, was formed in 1906. In cooperation with the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.(PCUSA), the PCUS opened Nanjing Theological Seminary in 1906. In the same year the two denominations also worked together to form a Union Synod consisting of five presbyteries.

Following the Revolution of 1911, mission education programs increased, church membership rose, and native Chinese contributed more and more to the mission’s operations. In 1927, the first assembly of a native Chinese Protestant Church, the Church of Christ in China (Zhonghua Jidu jiao hui), was held.

As revolutionary forces swept China in 1925, nationalism and anti-Christian feelings undermined the mission’s progress and led to the mass evacuation of missionaries in 1927. By 1932, some political stability returned, and the mission began to recover its lost momentum. During the 1930s, the number of ordained missionaries declined, but the number of ordained Chinese leaders rose. The Chinese also began to take over the leadership of mission schools and hospitals.

In 1937, war with Japan once more brought destruction and turmoil to China. Mission compounds served as havens for Chinese refugees, and mission hospitals and schools that survived the war were filled to capacity. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, some PCUS missionaries were evacuated from China and others were confined to concentration camps by the Japanese.

After the end of World War II in 1945, many missionaries returned to China and began the rebuilding process. A survey committee sent by the PCUS Executive Committee of Foreign Missions decided to combine the North Kiangsu and Mid-China Missions. However, civil war broke out once again, and the Communist Party of China (CCP) defeated the Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) in 1949. An attempt was made to continue missionary service under the government of the People’s Republic of China, but it soon proved impossible as the United States and China entered into armed conflict in Korea in 1950, and the Chinese Communists began taking over mission institutions. The last PCUS missionaries left China in 1952.