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According to Release International’s
partner ChinaAid, ‘a harsh winter is
descending upon Chinese Christianity.’
Following the pattern of recent
years, since the beginning of 2024,
the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
authorities under President Xi
Jinping have significantly intensified
their crackdown on house churches.
Christianity is now firmly viewed as
a tool of the state used to bolster the
CCP’s authoritarian rule. The church
should deliver patriotic education,
interpret doctrines in accordance
with core socialist values, and
promote ‘Xi Jinping thought’. As a
result unregistered house churches
are aggressively targeted and,
increasingly, pastors are arrested and
given harsh prison sentences.
For example, ChinaAid reports that
since July 2022 members of the
Xi’an Church of Abundance have
been receiving oral summonses
and home visits from the police
and some residences have been
searched. According to the summoned
believers, officers threatened them in
relation to their jobs and children’s
schooling while demanding that
they surrendered church offerings,
provided false testimonies, and
accused their pastor of fraud and
spreading cults.
Subsequently, in August 2022,
the police detained the church
pastor, Lian Changnian, on the
charge of ‘fraud’ and placed him
under ‘residential surveillance at a
designated location’ along with two
other pastors. After further police
intimidation and harassment of
church members, the case entered
court in January 2024 and if found
guilty the pastors could face five
years in prison. The Xi’an Church of
Abundance is affiliated with the China
Gospel Fellowship, a national house
church movement with 10,000,000
congregants. It is one of the most
developed house churches in China.
On our website we profile a number
of prisoners of faith from China.
Below are short updates about
them. Please do continue to pray
for them and their families. You
can also download the profiles
from our website to share with
your church. These include prison
addresses so you can send a letter of
encouragement. (Please follow our
free Reach Out! letter-writing guide if
you would like to do this.)
Xi Jinping has intensified China’s crackdown on believers
CHINESE CHRISTIANS BRACED
FOR ‘HARSH WINTER’
Pastor
Wang Yi
Arrested Dec 2018
Sentence Nine years
Pastor Wang Yi is the influential
leader of Early Rain Covenant Church
in Chengdu. Following a raid on his
church he was arrested and later
convicted of ‘inciting subversion of
state power.’ News about Pastor Wang
has been blocked since his arrest and
the outside world knows little about
his situation. However, his wife, Jiang
Rong, was able to visit him in prison
in October 2021 which was their first
meeting in more than three years.
At that time Jiang reported that her
husband was healthy, although he
had lost a lot of weight, and had been
allowed to read in prison. Members of
Early Rain Covenant Church continue
to face relentless persecution from
the authorities but remain resolute in
their faith.