The Nanjing-based Amity Printing Co. printed 80 million copies by mid-November 2010.
This year, it reached the milestone of its 150 millionth copy since 1988.
Those who attended the anniversary celebration included Guo Wei, director of a department of the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA), Fu Xianwei, chairman of the China Christian Council (CCC), officials from Jiangsu, partners of Amity Printing, and Ke Wei, director of United Bible Society China.
Amity’s chairman Qiu Zhonghui said that Amity has remained faithful to its mission of serving Churches and Christians at home and abroad and has developed its activities by combining charity work and business in the past three decades. He added that the company plans to promote a new round of internationalisation to serve more people in need of the Bible.
SARA director Guo Wei stressed that the company has printed Bibles in more than 100 languages and exported them to more than 70 countries, establishing itself as a global leader in the printing of the holy text.
She expressed hopes for continued cooperation between the company, CCC and the Three-Self Movement (TSPM) to print enough Bibles to meet demand.
Established in 1988, the Amity Printing Company is a joint venture between the Amity Foundation and the United Bible Societies.
In 1987, the first bible came off the production line in Nanjing. By August 1988, the joint venture had printed 500,000 Bibles; by 8 November 2012, that number had risen to 100 million.
According to Amity, many Christians could not afford to buy a Bible in the 1980s, and it was hard to find a place selling them.
Many were forced to copy the Scriptures by hand, word for word.
Now the company sells bibles for 10 yuan a copy (US$ 1,45), an affordable price for everyone.