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By Micah McCartney
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Worship service at a prominent church in the southwestern Chinese city of Jiangyou was cut short Sunday morning by dozens of police officers, and two senior members remain in custody, members of the congregation say.
Videos shared on the church's Telegram channel show the moment the raid began at the church in Sichuan province, about 100 miles north of Chengdu, the provincial capital.
The account's administrator, who appears to be outside China, cited witnesses as saying the force numbered 60 to 70 personnel from multiple agencies, including local police, Religious Affairs Bureau officials and state security officers.
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Early Rain Covenant Church
The officers can be seen surrounding and berating the congregation, which included young children, as members sing a hymn in quiet defiance.
Thirty-one people were taken away in groups to a detention center for questioning. Officials tried to pressure them into signing statements without disclosing what the documents said beforehand, but most refused, according to the Telegram statement.
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By 11 p.m., most had been released, except for two church elders, Yan Hong and Wu Wuqing.
"We are still verifying the latest custody status and whether new formal charges have been filed," Bob Fu, the founder of Midland, Texas-based nonprofit ChinaAid, told Newsweek.
Family members who went to the detention center seeking information were told Yan and Wu had been sentenced to 14 and 15 days of administrative detention, respectively, said citing sources familiar with the matter. These family members had not yet been presented with legal notices stating the charges—an omission common in past police raids, according to Fu.
Newsweek reached out to China's National Religious Affairs Administration via email for comment.
“About 1 to 2 percent of Chinese adults identify as Christian, according to the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS), a national survey conducted by Renmin University.
While Christianity is not banned, Beijing maintains tight controls over religious activity and places some of the world's most extensive restrictions on organized faith groups. Public worship outside state-sanctioned venues is prohibited, and places of worship must register with the authorities.
Religious groups are also subject to extensive oversight, including restrictions on teaching, publishing and online activities.
Beijing Bristles: 'Normal Religious Activities'
The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday defended its handling of religious affairs and dismissed criticism as interference in the country's internal affairs.
"The Chinese government manages religious affairs in accordance with the law and protects people's freedom of religious belief and normal religious activities," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said. "We firmly oppose interference in China's internal affairs under the pretext of so-called religious issues."
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Early Rain Covenant Church has become emblematic of the challenges facing China's independent Christian congregations amid what rights groups and observers say is an intensifying crackdown on unregistered religious activity.
The Presbyterian church has been repeatedly targeted since authorities launched a crackdown in December 2018 that saw founding pastor Wang Yi and more than 100 congregants detained. Wang was later sentenced to nine years in prison on charges including "inciting subversion of state power."
Wang had refused to register the church with the state and openly opposed President Xi Jinping's campaign to "Sinicize" religion by coercing churches to subordinate their doctrine and practices to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Several pastors, deacons and other church members were reportedly detained in a coordinated police operation in Chengdu and another Sichuan province city, Deyang, on January 6, per China Aid. The action followed a string of similar operations targeting unregistered churches, including a crackdown late last year on a nationwide network of house churches known as Zion Church.
These cases are part of a “clear pattern” in which the central government seeks not only to regulate Christianity but to criminalise core religious practices, from Sunday school to weddings, Fu said. "Independent churches represent one of the largest remaining sectors of civil society beyond Party control, and Xi Jinping’s government appears increasingly unwilling to tolerate that independence."
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