On 14 August, dozens of police officers raided an Early Rain Covenant Church (ERCC) group gathering and detained one of its members, Xing Hongwei, a well-known Christian author, for allegedly “assaulting a police officer”.
According to Weiquanwang, a group of more than 50 Christians were meeting at a teahouse in the Wuhou district of Chengdu in Southwestern province of Sichuan for Sunday worship, when around 30 uniformed and plain clothes police officers raided the place. Announcing that the gathering was “illegal”, the officials locked the door and ordered everyone to produce their ID details. Xing Hongwei, known by his pen name ‘A Xin’, was taken to a local police station by force after he refused to give his details.
In a statement issued on its Telegram channel on 15 August, ERCC said: “Brother A Xin was sitting in the teahouse. He ignored the police officers’ demand for registering his ID details, but he did not ‘attack the police’. His criminal detention is the authorities’ religious suppression. This is renewed crackdown on the Early Rain Covenant Church following what happened on 9 December 2018. This is consistent and ongoing crackdown. We urge the police to stop its oppression and suppression of the Church and abandon the Cultural Revolution mindset of treating ERCC members as second-class citizens.”
A Xin is an activist-turned-writer, who participated in the pro-democracy protests in 1989 and was jailed for three years in 1992. According to ERCC, he is “a gentle man” who has devoted himself to charity work and education, esp. research on missionaries. He has published a biography of Samuel Pollard entitled Love China with His Life and translated several books about missionaries.
In February 2019, he was detained for 10 days after speaking up for Pastor Wang Yi’s elderly mother, who had been beaten by Chengdu police.
In 2021, he fell critically ill with acute meningitis. He is still suffering from serious health problems, for which he needs continuing medical treatment. His family and friends are concerned about his condition and wellbeing while in detention.
More than three years have passed since the authorities raided the ERCC and arrested over 100 church members and leaders. While Pastor Wang Yi and elder Qin Defu remain imprisoned, harassment and intimidation against church members has continued unabated.
In the same statement, ERCC said, “…members of the Church have been subject to prolonged discrimination and threats from the government; families of co-workers have been under prolonged surveillance, guarded, followed and summoned; members have been evicted and even made homeless for no apparent reason; Church meetings have been monitored and harassed, with threats of being raided at every meeting…”
In addition, Green Pastures (“Qingcaodi”) Church in Deyang, Sichuan, a church planted by ERCC, has also been targeted by the authorities. Both elder Wu Jiannan and elder Hao Ming (an ERCC member and retired leader from Green Pastures Church) have been held in detention since November 2021. They are facing trial for “fraud” charges.
Meanwhile, Elder Zhang Chunlei, leader of Guiyang Love (“Ren’ai”) Reformed Church, is being prosecuted by Guiyang Intermediate People’s Court charged with “fraud” and “inciting subversion of state power”. In Shanxi province, preacher An Yankui and co-worker Zhang Chenghao of Taiyuan Zion (“Xuncheng”) Reformed Church are waiting for verdict following their trial on 5 August on charges of “illegal border crossing”.
Hao Ming, An Yankui and Zhang Chunlei were among the signatories of a joint statement by house church leaders following the enactment of the Regulations on Religious Affairs in February 2018, of which ERCC’s Pastor Wang Yi was one of the initiators.
CSW’s Founder President, Mervyn Thomas said: “CSW is troubled by the ongoing harassment of the members of Early Rain Covenant Church, Green Pastures and Love Reformed churches. The long-standing challenges faced by the ERCC church members in being able to meet together for collective worship – a right enshrined in international law – is of particular concern. This ERCC congregation has had to worship in a teahouse because their church property was seized more than three years ago, and yet the Chinese authorities still target and punish them for taking part in church activities by subjecting them to intimidation and detention. We call for the release of all those detained and awaiting trial for peacefully exercising their rights, including the immediate and unconditional release of Christian writer A Xin, who has serious health issues. The Chinese authorities must end its prosecution of church leaders and cease all violations against all religion or belief groups in the country.”
