Chinese Salafists are not a unified organization but "a patchwork of relatively independent mosque / prayer-congregations" loosely connected through overlapping networks of students, teachers, and Ulema from shared overseas institutions and circles of study.
These congregations are mostly concentrated in Northwest China, Yunnan, and Henan and are united by the presence of charismatic religious authorities.
[2] According to modern cultural anthropologist Leif Manger, the differences between the Sailaifengye and the Yihewwani are that the Sailaifengye are an apolitical movement focusing on the Wahhabi ideal of scriptural fundamentalism, which became an arguing point as they viewed the Yihewwani were too influenced by Chinese cultural accretions.
[3] Akin to the Salafists in Saudi kingdom, the Sailaifengye in their movement rejected the militant oppositions against a state that were raised by Al-Qaeda.
The sect was first imported into Hezhou of Gansu province but has now spread in many other regions, notably Ningxia, Qinghai, Yunnan, Tianjing with support of Saudi religious organizations.
The Yihewani had become secular and Chinese nationalists; they considered the Salafiyya to be "heterodox" (xie jiao) and people who followed foreigners' teachings (waidao).