Police Detain and Later Release Two Early Rain Covenant Church Leaders After Sunday Questioning

Armed police officers entered a hotel ballroom in the south-western city of Jiangyou at 11:00 local time on Sunday and detained two leaders of Early Rain Covenant church during a service. The church said at least 50 officers took part in the raid. More than 30 members and leaders, including Yan Hong and Wu Wuqing, were placed in police vehicles and taken to the Jiangyou detention centre for questioning.

The remaining congregants, including elderly people and children, were locked inside the ballroom and required to undergo identity checks. Officers in plain clothes stood on the stage and repeatedly ordered the group to stop singing hymns. Early Rain Covenant stated that officers offered release in exchange for signing an affidavit but did not disclose its contents.

The congregants refused and were released at 18:00. Those taken for interrogation were released between 21:00 and 23:00 the same day. The church issued a statement about the detentions on Monday via Telegram and shared photographs and videos showing officers surrounding seated worshippers.

Early Rain Covenant was founded in 2008 in Chengdu. Its founding pastor, Wang Yi, was detained in a raid in December 2018 and is serving a nine-year prison sentence for inciting subversion of state power and illegal business operations. The church said the grounds for detaining Yan Hong and Wu Wuqing remain unclear.

Chinese authorities have not responded to the statement. Chinese authorities reported in 2018 that there were 44 million Christians in the country. The government requires Christians to attend only state-sanctioned churches led by approved pastors; many instead join underground congregations.

In October last year, authorities detained 30 leaders of Zion Church, another large underground Protestant group, across seven cities. Its founder, Ezra Jin, remains in custody. Bob Fu, founder of the monitoring group ChinaAid, said the raid shows that the Chinese Communist Party continues to treat peaceful Christian worship as a threat to state control.