China Intensifies Crackdown on Independent Churches With Arrests and Demolition

Church Leaders Detained as a Worship Building Is Torn Down

Police raids against the Early Rain Covenant Church in Sichuan province and the demolition of Yayang Church in coastal Zhejiang have brought renewed pressure on Christian communities that worship outside China's state religious system. As of January 22, 2026, the operations follow a nationwide crackdown on the Zion Church network in October 2025, when nearly 30 pastors and members were detained.

Early Rain, an influential unregistered Protestant congregation based in Chengdu, said police initially detained nine people after raiding leaders' homes and the church office. Five were released by the following day. Four remained in custody, including senior pastor Li Yingqiang and his wife, Zhang Xinyue.

More than a thousand miles away, authorities brought heavy machinery to Yayang Church in Wenzhou. Footage obtained by ChinaAid, a nonprofit organization that monitors religious persecution, showed bulldozers and cranes tearing down the building while hundreds of armed and special police officers guarded the perimeter.

The operations target two things independent congregations need to remain together: people who lead worship and places where believers meet. The earlier arrests involving Zion also targeted the internet connections churches use to share sermons and communicate when gathering in person becomes difficult.

Activists and human rights organizations describe the recent campaign as one of China's most severe crackdowns on religious freedom in decades. The actions fit a longstanding government effort to bring religious practice under state oversight, with growing pressure on congregations that reject that oversight.

What Happened to Early Rain's Leaders?

Early Rain said the nine initial detentions took place on a Tuesday. Its statement described a concerted effort by authorities to disrupt church activities, involving raids on both private homes and the church office. The specific grounds for the arrests remained unclear, and the church expressed concern for the safety and perseverance of those still detained.

Li Yingqiang had warned members in a November letter that a "storm gathering" threatened the congregation. As an elder responsible for helping guide the church, he urged families to prepare spiritually for another period of pressure.

I dearly hope that none of our families shall ever again endure such a storm. Yet as an elder appointed by the Lord to stand among you... it is my duty to remind you all to prepare yourselves before the storm returns.

Early Rain has already experienced the imprisonment of its founding pastor. Wang Yi was arrested in 2018 and later sentenced to nine years in prison for "inciting subversion of state power." He remains incarcerated and is not due for release until 2027.

For this congregation, the latest detentions therefore come after years of disruption to its leadership. Li's letter reflected the possibility that church families could again face the loss of relatives to detention, even while continuing their religious activities.

Demolition in Wenzhou

Wenzhou has a large concentration of Christians and is often called "the Jerusalem of China." The dismantling of Yayang Church places the latest campaign in a city where Christianity has a particularly visible presence.

ChinaAid's footage showed the destruction taking place behind a substantial police perimeter. Residents living near the church were reportedly driven away, while workers in the area were instructed not to photograph or record the demolition. Those restrictions accompanied the deployment of hundreds of armed and special police officers.

Bob Fu, ChinaAid's founder, condemned the operations in both Zhejiang and Sichuan. He argued that the scale of the mobilization pointed to a directive from the highest levels of government against independent religious expression.

The massive mobilisation against the two major independent church networks shows the central government is determined to stamp out Christian churches entirely, unless the church is totally indoctrinated into the party's ideology.

The destruction also sends a warning to other congregations that operate outside state oversight. Alongside the arrests in Sichuan, it shows pressure being applied to both church leadership and the physical spaces used for worship.

How Zion Became a Nationwide Target

Zion Church, founded by pastor Jin Mingri, also known as Ezra Jin, was once one of China's largest unregistered churches. Its network had thousands of followers across dozens of cities, giving the October 2025 operation a reach far beyond a single congregation.

Authorities detained nearly 30 pastors and church members in a coordinated sweep across seven cities and at least seven provinces. Jin himself was taken into custody in Beihai, a city in southern China.

By November 2025, 18 Zion leaders had been formally arrested and charged with "illegal use of information networks." The charge concerns the church's use of the internet to stream sermons and communicate with members, and carries a potential prison sentence of up to three years.

Formal arrest is a further stage in the criminal process after initial detention. The figure of 18 therefore describes those who had reached that stage by November, while nearly 30 describes the wider group initially detained during the October sweep.

Grace Jin Drexel, Jin Mingri's daughter, described her family's confusion and fear as they realized how widely the arrests had spread. Her father, a former Peking University student, converted to Christianity after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and had long prepared for the possibility of imprisonment.

The Zion operation was unprecedented in its scale and coordination. Its reach across a network of congregations also showed how a church that maintained connections between many cities could face simultaneous pressure in several locations.

The Main Events in Sequence

The pressure on Early Rain and Zion has developed over several years, with new restrictions on online religious activity preceding the nationwide arrests in 2025. The main dates place the latest operations within that longer sequence.

• 2015: President Xi Jinping began championing the policy of Sinicisation of religion.
• 2018: Early Rain founding pastor Wang Yi was arrested. He was later sentenced to nine years in prison.
• September 2025: Authorities issued an Online Code of Conduct for Religious Professionals.
• October 2025: Nearly 30 Zion pastors and members were detained in a nationwide operation.
• November 2025: Eighteen Zion leaders had been formally arrested and charged. Li Yingqiang warned Early Rain members to prepare for renewed pressure.
• By January 22, 2026: Early Rain reported new detentions, while authorities had begun dismantling Yayang Church in Wenzhou.
• 2027: Wang Yi is due for release.

The September rules and October arrests are especially relevant to churches that had turned to the internet after physical gatherings became harder to hold. The latest raids and demolition extend that pressure to leaders' homes, church offices and worship buildings.

Why Online Worship Is Under Pressure

The Online Code of Conduct for Religious Professionals issued in September 2025 effectively banned unlicensed groups from holding online sermons, organizing activities for children or raising funds online. These restrictions closed off a digital "grey space" that many churches had relied on during earlier crackdowns.

For a congregation spread across several cities, an online sermon allows members to hear the same teaching without entering the same building. Internet communication also helps leaders maintain contact with believers when regular meetings become dangerous. Zion's use of those tools is now central to the criminal charges against its leaders.

Christian groups and legal experts have described a shift in enforcement. Previously, an unregistered church might first receive a warning, then a fine, and eventually face detention if it refused to comply. Recent accounts suggest authorities are moving directly to arrests, skipping those preliminary steps.

Church leaders have also faced charges such as "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" and "illegal business operations." In the pressure on Zion and Early Rain, attention has shifted toward "illegal dissemination of religious information," targeting the methods congregations use to remain connected. Early Rain's statement nevertheless left the specific grounds for its latest arrests unclear.

What Sinicisation Means for Churches

President Xi Jinping's policy of Sinicisation requires religions to conform to Chinese culture and, more importantly, Communist Party ideology. In practical terms, the government seeks to ensure that loyalty to a religion does not take priority over loyalty to the state.

The state religious framework recognizes the Three-Self Patriotic Movement for Protestants and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association for Catholics. These organizations operate under official oversight, are required to display patriotic symbols and often incorporate government texts into religious services.

Millions of Chinese Christians instead worship in unregistered congregations commonly called "house churches," including Early Rain and Zion. The term refers to communities operating outside the approved system, even when they have grown into large networks. Many members regard state interference in religious life as a violation of their faith.

Yalkun Uluyol, a China researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the government views religious practice through the demands of political loyalty. He described the consequences for congregations that refuse to reshape their worship around those demands.

President Xi Jinping's government appears intent on reshaping religious practice to serve the Chinese Communist Party's interests, and congregations that fail to do so face harsh persecution.

The conflict therefore concerns more than registration paperwork. It reaches into who directs a congregation, what is taught during worship and whether religious communities can maintain independent relationships among their members.

Believers Continue Meeting Under Pressure

Church members have reported continuing to meet in smaller, more discreet groups even as large gatherings become dangerous. These meetings reflect the determination of believers to sustain communal worship after the detention of leaders or the loss of a building.

Some church leaders believe persecution can strengthen faith, a view Jin Mingri expressed before his detention. Core members of these congregations often understand the pressure as a test of their resolve rather than a reason to disband.

Early Rain's concern for the perseverance of detained members belongs to that same religious outlook. Li's November letter asked families to prepare for suffering while acknowledging his hope that they would never have to endure another crackdown.

The government has the capacity to demolish buildings and imprison leaders. Believers who continue worshipping privately present a different challenge: religious practice can persist through small meetings and personal commitments even when a congregation loses its most visible structures.

Foreign Condemnation and China's Response

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the arrests and called for the immediate release of detained church leaders. Germany's commissioner for freedom of religion also spoke out against the violations.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded by reiterating that all religious activities must comply with national laws. It rejected foreign interference in China's internal affairs, presenting the issue as one of domestic legal authority.

The opposing positions reflect the central conflict surrounding the crackdown. Foreign officials and rights advocates are calling for religious freedom and the release of detainees, while Beijing insists that religious activity remain subject to its rules.

As of January 22, the consequences are concrete: Early Rain has leaders in custody, Yayang has lost its worship building to demolition, and 18 Zion leaders had reached formal arrest by November. Smaller gatherings continue, but the combination of physical raids and restrictions on online activity has narrowed the ways independent churches can keep their communities together.

Key Points

• Early Rain said nine people were initially detained; five were released, while four remained in custody, including Li Yingqiang and Zhang Xinyue.
• Authorities used bulldozers and cranes to demolish Yayang Church in Wenzhou under a heavy police presence.
• Nearly 30 Zion pastors and members were detained in October 2025 across seven cities and at least seven provinces.
• By November, 18 Zion leaders had been formally arrested and charged with illegal use of information networks, carrying a potential sentence of up to three years.
• September 2025 rules restricted online sermons, activities for children and online fundraising by unlicensed religious groups.
• The campaign follows Xi Jinping's policy of bringing religious practice into line with Communist Party ideology.
• Foreign officials condemned the arrests, while China defended its religious regulations and rejected foreign interference.
• Early Rain founding pastor Wang Yi remains imprisoned and is due for release in 2027.