From the second half of the 19th century, due to the various unequal treaties imposed on China by the imperialist powers and constant missionary incidents, Chinese Christians decided to shake off the control of foreign missionary organizations and create China's own churches.

In 1873, Chinese Christians founded the first church of their own. After that more such churches were founded. In 1918, the Association of Domestic Mission in Chinawas founded, which was the first Christian organization governed, supported, and disseminated by Chinese Christians.

After the non-Christian movement, the leaders and common Christians of Chinese churches realized that Chinese must have their own Christian belief and set up Churches of their own, so as to indigenize Christianity in China.

The National Christian Conference held in Shanghai in 1922 initiated the Chinese Christian indigenization movement. In this conference, the principles for Chinese churches were put forward as self-governing, self-support and self-propagation.

The establishment of the principles and the development of indigenous churches breathed new vigor into Chinese churches. In terms of organization, Christianity in China began to merge and innovate towards indigenization. Various religious sects began to be merged and the concept of China was highlighted. As for the attitude toward politics, the Indigenization Movement expressly opposed unequal treaties, and actively participated in actions to abrogate all unequal treaties.