[NYer]

Are they being persecuted for being Christian or for being Catholic?

In the majority of these countries, Catholicism is still the only christian faith practiced. In China, they are being persecuted for not succumbing to the "official" (government organized) Catholic Church.

[driftdiver]

“In China, they are being persecuted for not succumbing to the “official” (government organized) Catholic Church.”

You are misrepresenting the issue on purpose. They are being persecuted for being Christian. That they are Catholic (if they are) is a side issue. I know of many Christians who have been persecuted and had nothing to do with Catholicism.

[firebrand]

In 2000, the People's Republic of China government census enumerated 4 million Chinese Catholics and 10 million ‎Protestants[26]. The Chinese government once stated that only 1% (13 million) [27] of the population is Christian while the Chinese Embassy states that 10 Million (0.75%)[28] are Christian. The official figure in 2002, which consists of members from Official Protestant churches, is about 15 million, while some estimates on members of Chinese house churches vary from 50 million to 100 million.

The CIA World Factbook indictates that about 3% to 4% of all the population in China are Christians.[29] Independent estimates have ranged from 40 million[27], to 100 million[30], or even 130 million Christians in January 2007 (out of a total population of at least 1.3 billion people).[31][32]

In October 2007 two surveys were conducted to estimate the number of Christians in China. One poll was held by Protestant missionary Werner Burklin, the other one by Liu Zhongyu from East China Normal University in Shanghai. The surveys were conducted independently and during different periods, but they reached the same results.[10][11] According to these studies, there are roughly 54 million Christians in China, of which 39 million are Protestants and 14 million are Catholics as the most common and reliable figure among others.[10][11]

From Wikipedia.