The mission in China in the seventeenth century still draws the attention of many theologians and missiologists today. This mission, which in the first hundred years was predominantly led by the Jesuits, was remarkable in several regards: the Jesuit missionaries adopted a policy of accommodation to Chinese culture; they evangelized “from the top down”; they propagated indirectly by using European science and technology; and they adopted an attitude of toleration toward Confucian values and rites. Moreover, the mission is well known for the Chinese Rites Controversy, which fueled theological debates in Europe at the end of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. However, the development of a local theology in China is one of its lesser-known aspects, though nothing comparable can be found in other missions of the same time. This development originated from the European background of the missionaries, but more significantly hinged on the cultural, social, and political context of China. This overview will first discuss this context, and next the theological issues that had impacted theologies of mission.