Chinese authorities expand crackdown on Christian house churches

October 27, 2025 Comments Off

Arbitrary detention, unfair trials, harsh sentences on the rise

(Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders, October 27, 2025) – The Chinese government’s October detentions of dozens of Christians from house churches indicate an acceleration of its campaign against religious freedom. Over the past two years, church leaders and congregants across the country appear to be increasingly targeted for arbitrary detention, unfair trials, and sentences of up to 15 years on baseless charges.

“The Chinese government’s arbitrary detention of church members marks an escalation in its persecution based on belief,” said Shane Yi, researcher at CHRD. “Beyond the trumped-up charges, authorities are blatantly violating the due process rights of those detained.”

Since October 9, police have carried out coordinated arrests of Christians from Zion Church congregations across China — in Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Shandong, among other locations — and from the Taiyuan Xuncheng Reformed Church in Shanxi Province, detaining church leaders, including Zion’s founding pastor, Jin Mingri.

The Zion Church reported that at least 22 people from its congregations across the country have been detained. Some face charges of illegal use of information networks, while the charges against others remain unclear. The detentions were marred by due process violations: one family member described a violent and warrant-free arrest; another struggled to locate their detained loved one. China’s Criminal Procedure Law requires police to notify family members within 24 hours of a detention, and guarantees detainees access to lawyers of their choice.

In June 2025, a Shanxi court handed down harsh sentences on charges of “fraud” to individuals affiliated with the Linfen Golden Lampstand Church and its congregations in surrounding areas. The leader of the church, Yang Rongli, received a 15 year sentence; her husband, pastor Wang Xiaoguang, received a nine year and seven month sentence; and church employee Li Shuangping was sentenced to nine years and two months. According to the court documents, the authorities characterized donations to the church as acts of “fraud.” The court argued that because Yang and Wang did not have a government-issued certificate of Christian clergy identity, and their congregations were not officially registered with the local government or the Three-Self Church, which seeks to align churches with the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party, the donations were illegal. Under international law, the right to religious freedom and belief does not require government registration or approval.

In January 2024, a court in Dalian sentenced pastor Kan Xiaoyong to 14 years and fellow church member Chu Xinyu to 10 years on charges of “illegal business activity” and “organizing or using a cult to undermine the implementation of the laws.” Kan led an online preaching platform called the Home Discipleship Network, and there is no publicly available evidence to suggest any violations of law.

The 2024-2025 sentences are consistent with CHRD-revealed trends. Between 2019 and 2024 CHRD documented 12 Christians convicted on allegations of “illegal business activity.” The charge has become a tool to target church leaders not approved by the state for accepting or using donations or for printing or selling religious books. A non-exhaustive statistic compiled in May 2025 by Chinese-language website Rights Defence Network highlighted the cases of 42 detained or imprisoned Christians.

These detentions and prosecutions of Christian house church leaders, members, and supporters violate the right to religious freedom, in tension with guarantees in international human rights treaties Beijing has signed, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and customary international law. Domestic law tries to limit worship to “normal” religious activity in state-approved congregations, leaving religious activity outside those groups vulnerable to official sanction.

In recent years, the Chinese government enacted a series of laws that restrict religious freedom through efforts to “Sinicize” religions, and stepped up persecution of religious groups, including Catholics, Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, and Falun Gong practitioners. In September 2025, authorities introduced a new regulation, the “Online Code of Conduct for Religious Professionals,” which bans the circulation of so-called unauthorized religious content online.

Chinese authorities should immediately and unconditionally drop charges against and release all individuals for exercising their right to belief. Authorities should also swiftly revise provisions in laws and regulations that restrict the freedom to worship to bring them into line with international law.

“There’s nothing ‘normal’ about Beijing criminalizing peaceful expressions of faith,” Yi said. “Each arrest shows Beijing’s disdain for law and intent to control belief.”

For more information, please contact:

Sophie Richardson, Co-Executive Director, Chinese Human Rights Defenders, sophierichardson[at]nchrd.org, +1 917 721 7473

Angeli Datt, Research and Advocacy Coordinator, Chinese Human Rights Defenders, angelidatt[at]nchrd.org, +1 934 444 6155

Shane Yi, Researcher, Chinese Human Rights Defenders, shaneyi[at]nchrd.org