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 aims to educate them about the social and political position of Christianity in China. Many, if not most, Chinese Protestants thought that the manifesto was too radical. The Methodist Church in China refused to sign the manifesto, as did, initially, the Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui (Anglican Church in China). Both issued alternative manifestos of their own. All Anglican bishops in China later caved in and signed "The Christian Manifesto", and almost all of them became TSPM associates. Initially, foreign missionary societies were perplexed by the manifesto that had been preceded by mixed messages. It was labeled as a partisan