Chinese authorities detained leaders and members of the Early Rain Covenant Church in China on Jan. 6 amid the nation’s continued persecution of Christians. Among those detained, the whereabouts of some individuals remain unclear.

As of Jan. 12, ChinaAid reported that six Christians from the church were either detained or placed under house arrest, and the detention location of only two of the believers was known.

A pastor of the church, Dai Zhichao, is being detained at the Deyang City Detention Center, and a church member, only known as “Lin,” is being held at the Zhongjiang Detention Center. The other four congregants, Elder Li Yingqiang and his wife Zhang Xinyue, Ye Fenghua, and Jia Xuewei, are likely being held in undisclosed locations, as confirmation of their whereabouts has been difficult to obtain.

Yingqiang and his wife, Xinyue, reportedly left a video message for their children in the event of their arrests. In it, they tell their children, “If one day you do not see mom and dad anymore, remember the hymn we sang together today.” The couple proceeds to sing “as the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people.”

The Early Rain congregation has been the target of persecution at the hands of Chinese officials for many years due to its “unregistered” status.

Christians may only legally attend registered churches in China, and those registered churches are required to incorporate the “core socialist values” of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) into their services.

This requirement is the result of President Xi Jinping’s increasingly oppressive desire to indoctrinate religions with his communist agenda. Article Four of the Regulations on Religious Affairs Act, which went into effect in China on Feb. 1, 2018, mandates that the nation will “actively direct … religions to adapt to … socialist society.”

Many Christians disagree with the CCP’s communist ideologies and, thus, try to avoid being forced to incorporate them into their church activities. This is a main reason many congregations forgo registering with the state.

In 2018, Early Rain’s then-leader, Pastor Wang Yi, refused to register the church with the state.

Yi wrote an open letter, which was published on Dec. 12, 2018, in anticipation of his potential arrest, which, indeed, came to pass.

In it, the pastor states that he “firmly believe[s] that the Bible has not given any branch of any government the authority to run the church or to interfere with the faith of Christians.” Yi was detained in 2018 and sentenced to nine years in prison in 2019 for “inciting to subvert state power” and “illegal business operations.”

Yalkun Uluyol, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, denounced the CCP’s detention of Early Rain Church members.

“The Chinese government has ushered in the new year with new arrests of underground Protestant church members,” Uluyo stated. “The government should immediately free those detained and let them freely practice their religion.”

Story by Lynn Arias

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