BREAKING: Authorities in eastern China demolished Yazhong Church in Wenzhou after months of arrests & escalating pressure on independent Christians.
Sources say officials imposed checkpoints and an information blackout before church was reduced to rubble.
https://t.co/9tWckfDdrs
Hoping this will start a much needed conversation:
Why China’s Persecuted Christians View Western Advocates with Skepticism
为什么中国被逼迫的基督徒对西方辩护持怀疑态度
https://t.co/wxfN1oG7sL
I was honored to be joined last night by these brave women who were persecuted for their religious faith in China and are speaking out about it. China's war on faith is a battle the Communist Party will lose. You can read their stories in my new book, China’s War on Faith.
ChinaAid Factual Update
Regarding latest persecution against Early Rain Covenant Church
January 12, 2026
(Video clip showing church leaders and members of Early Rain Covenant Church including Elder Li Yongqiang singing the praises of the Lord in facing persecution against them.)
ChinaAid has received and corroborated information indicating a continued escalation of pressure, detentions, and surveillance targeting members of Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu and surrounding areas following the January 6, 2026 church-related incident.
Key verified developments include:
• Administrative detention of seminary student Song Haibing by Liangshan police for 10 days, with confiscation of personal electronic devices.
• Police summons and temporary detention of Sister Shu Qiong on January 11, reportedly linked to Sunday worship activity and online circulation of police documents.
• Expanded residential surveillance, including daily in-person checks ordered by local authorities.
• A violent physical assault on rights advocate Chen Yunfei after warnings related to online speech, resulting in documented injuries.
• Ongoing lack of legal transparency, with families of multiple detainees reporting no receipt of formal legal documents and uncertainty regarding charges or detention locations.
ChinaAid notes that several individuals remain incommunicado or missing, while others are confirmed to be held in detention facilities in Deyang and Zhongjiang. Family members—including elderly parents and children—have been forcibly displaced or placed under psychological distress as a result of these actions.
ChinaAid continues to monitor the situation closely and calls on the Chinese authorities to immediately disclose the legal basis, locations, and conditions of detention for all affected individuals, to cease extrajudicial surveillance and harassment, and to uphold China’s obligations under its Constitution and international human rights commitments regarding freedom of religion and belief.
ChinaAid will provide further verified updates as information becomes available.
OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: IRF Summit is formally adopting Pastor Jin Mingri, also known as Pastor Ezra Jin, as part of our 2026 Religious Prisoner of Conscience advocacy campaign.
Grace Jin Drexel, daughter of Pastor Jin and an American citizen, will participate in the 2026 IRF Summit, taking place February 2 and 3 in Washington, D.C.
Pastor Jin is the founder and lead pastor of Zion Church in China. He was detained on October 10 along with dozens of other members of the Zion Church network, one of the most prominent unregistered church networks in China. He is being held on allegations of "illegal use of information networks” but is still awaiting formal charges.
By adopting Pastor Jin as a focus prisoner of conscience for our advocacy campaign, IRF Summit places the collective advocacy power of dozens of partner organizations and more than 1,700 annual attendees behind the effort to advocate for the immediate release of Pastor Jin.
At #IRFSummit2026, you will have the opportunity to join our cries for justice for Pastor Ezra Jin, and the thousands of others around the world who are being detained simply for exercising their fundamental right to freedom of religion.
Register here: https://t.co/KVkr82wtez
【锡安109教案】曾在土耳其坐牢2年的美国牧师安德鲁为锡安教会祷告并分享他在土耳其坐牢的心路历程 |全球为中国祷告日 |International Day Of Prayer China
“当我在土耳其被监禁时,我成为世界上被祷告最多的人之一,有一个中国家庭教会的网络将我的监禁的事情,印制了100万��宣传册,并将这些册子分发给各教会。
所以当时有很多很多中国人,我想当时有数百万中国人,为我祷告,我对此非常感激。”
安德鲁牧师也坦诚分享他在监狱中所经历的软弱和困难,并提醒基督徒为被囚的牧者同工祷告时不要轻视这些艰难:
“然而,残酷的迫害仍然可能比我们大多数人预想的要难,而且我认为有一种倾向,在基督徒的圈子里,尤其是西方世界,将遭受迫害理想化。我们期待超自然的力量、超自然的喜悦、强大的感受到上帝的存在,那将是一种置身于恩典的泡泡中。
有些人确实遇到这样,我也是这样预期的,所以我感到非常惊讶,当事情的发展完全出乎我的意料时,我不堪一击。我在监狱里破碎不堪。我当时非常害怕。我的信仰让我感到孤立,只有我一个是基督徒,以及很多不确定因素。
正如鲍���提到的,嗯,我有三个终身监禁的判决悬在我头上,我崩溃了在那种压力下,我觉得我是世界上最脆弱的人,而神的确重建了我的心,在我被释放之前。
我变得更强大了。我获得了更深的亲密关系,相比我入狱前就已经有的,但是在那件事发生之前,我崩溃了,所以那是一段极其软弱的时期。
然后我出狱后,我开始聆听伊朗人和朝鲜人的故事,是的,甚至包括那些同样经历苦难的中国人。
当他们身陷囹圄时,并不像我读过的传记里说的那样,而且我此后一直与中国的教会领袖们交流,那些因信仰而被监禁的。在这些私人谈话中,有些人也和我分享说那个真的很难。其中一些人告诉我:“安德鲁,我们都曾在狱中挣扎求生”,
所以我钦佩这些锡安领袖的勇气和他们传达的信息,他们从看守所传递出来的信息。他们的确很鼓舞人心,但���们不应忘记,他们中的一些人可能会遭遇困境,他们可能会遇见试探。正如我们为他们祈祷,让我们不要轻视他们不得不忍受的困境。”
Thank you, Pastor Andrew Brunson. @KelvinD65466925 @BobFu4China @chinaaid @fanghong00
Pastor Andrew Brunson pray for Zion Church detained pastors and co-workers, he also shared his 2-year experience of imprisonment in Turkey prison. He said,
"when I was imprisoned in Turkey, I became one of the most prayed for people in the world, and one of the house church networks in China produced a million brochures about my imprisonment and distributed these around the church. So there were many, many Chinese, I think there were millions of Chinese, who were praying for me, and I was very grateful for this."
Pastor Andrew also shared his real suffering and weakness during the detention and reminded christians not to ignore the hardships.
"And yet, intense persecution can still be more difficult than most of us expect. And I think there’s a tendency in Christian circles in the West to idealize suffering persecution.
We expect supernatural strength, supernatural joy, a strong sense of God’s presence — as if we will simply be in a bubble of grace. And some people do have this, and it’s what I expected. So I was very surprised when things turned out very differently, and I broke.
I broke in prison.
I was very afraid.
I was isolated in my faith — the only Christian — and facing a lot of uncertainty.
As Bob mentioned, I had three life sentences hanging over me. And I broke under that pressure, and I thought I was the weakest person in the world.
But God did rebuild my heart before I was released.
I came out stronger. I came out with a deeper intimacy than I had before I went to prison.
But before that happened, I broke — and it was a time of great weakness.
And then after I got out, I started to hear stories of Iranians and North Koreans, and yes, even Chinese believers, who also struggled when they were in prison — not like the biographies I had read.
Since then, I’ve talked with Chinese leaders who’ve been imprisoned for their faith, and in private conversations some of them have shared with me that it was difficult.
One of them told me, “Andrew, we all struggle in prison.”
So I admire the courage of these Zion leaders and the words they shared — their messages from prison.
They’re truly inspiring.
But we should not forget that some of them may suffer very difficult things. They may be tested.
And as we pray for them, let us not minimize the hardships they may have to endure. "
The speech is very inspiring and moving.
https://t.co/7qk9wAVDvW via @YouTube
【锡安109教案】美国国际宗教自由委员主席为锡安教会祷告,呼吁释放 |全球为中国祷告日
Vicky Hartzler, Chair of USCIRF pray for Zion Church | International Day Of Prayer China
https://t.co/dOWdam8WG7 via @YouTube (中英文字幕)
@BobFu4China@chinaaid#锡安109教案#prayforzionchurch #IDOPChina #IDOP