Chinese authorities have detained several leaders of a major underground Christian church, in what appears to be a widening campaign against religious groups operating outside state control.
Leaders Taken in Sichuan Province
According to a statement from the church, police took Li Yingqiang, the leader of the Early Rain Covenant Church, from his home in Deyang, Sichuan province, on Tuesday. His wife, Zhang Xinyue, was also detained.
The sweep also included the arrest of pastor Dai Zhichao and lay member Ye Fenghua. At least four other members were reportedly taken in for questioning and later released, while others remain out of contact.
A Pattern of Intensifying Pressure
This action follows a series of moves against unregistered, or "house," churches. In October, authorities arrested 18 senior members of the Zion Church in a nationwide operation.
Furthermore, in December, Human Rights Watch reported that around 100 members of another unofficial church in Zhejiang province were detained after protesting a church demolition.
"The recent detention of Early Rain members appears to be part of the Chinese government’s blatant attack on house churches in China," said Yalkun Uluyol, a China researcher at the rights NGO.
One church member was summoned under the vague charge of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble," a commonly used legal instrument against perceived dissent.
The Long Struggle of Unofficial Churches
Early Rain is one of China's most well-known unofficial churches. Its founder, the prominent legal scholar and activist Wang Yi, was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2019 for inciting subversion of state power.
The church, along with Zion, faced a previous major crackdown in 2018, which led to the closure of physical premises and a shift to online sermons and small, private meetings.
However, new rules introduced in September now ban unlicensed religious groups from holding online sermons, closing another avenue for worship.
"The message is that the big organised churches will be completely crushed," said Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China. "Some of them, including Early Rain and Zion, had afterlives as online communities. That is now completely ending."
Corey Jackson of the Luke Alliance noted that pastors were warned by police last year that there would be "no leeway" for unlicensed churches by 2026.
Despite constitutional guarantees of religious freedom, President Xi Jinping has promoted the "sinicization of religions," tightening ideological control. Experts like Professor Yang Fenggang suggest that while large churches may be broken up, the underground Christian movement is likely to persist in smaller, less visible forms.
The US Congress select committee on China stated on X that Early Rain was targeted for refusing "to bow to the Chinese Communist party." Chinese public security bureaus in Deyang and Chengdu declined to comment on the detentions.
