By 1952 the Chinese Communist Party had suppressed all organized resistance to its regime and stood unopposed, or so it has been believed. Internal party documents--declassified just long enough for historian Paul Mariani to send copies out of China--disclose that one group deemed an enemy of the state held out after the others had fallen. A party report from Shanghai marked "top-secret" reveals a determined, often courageous resistance by the local Catholic Church. Drawing on centuries of experience in struggling with the Chinese authorities, the Church was proving a stubborn match for...