The Communist Manifesto was a one-party state under the rule of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). Unlike their mass-based counterparts of the Second International, the CPSU and other Leninist parties like it in the Third International expected their members to know the classic works of Marx, Engels and Lenin. Further, party leaders were expected to base their policy decisions on Marxist-Leninist ideology. Therefore works such as the "Manifesto" were required reading for the party rank-and-file. Therefore the widespread dissemination of Marx and Engels' works became an important policy objective; backed by a sovereign state, the CPSU had relatively inexhaustible resources
The Christian Manifesto work of a faction within the Chinese Church. China Inland Mission, naively, brushed off charges of imperialism on the grounds that churches they had founded were relatively independent. When it was discovered that even "devout believers" had signed the manifesto, it was attributed to political pressure. When missionaries finally realized the implications of the manifesto, they had no choice but to condemn it, regarding it as a unilateral termination of their relationship with Chinese Christians. Although Chinese Protestants took no immediate action against missions, the manifesto marked the beginning of the end. The manifesto did not specify a time frame