China detains more than 30 Early Rain church members during service

Police officers surrounded Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu and took more than 30 members for interrogation as Sunday worship was underway, with several children also taken in the sweep. Church-linked reporting said about 50 to 60 officers forced their way into the meeting site and removed congregants by bus and police vehicle, including elders Yan Hong and Wu Qing and members Liu Yingxu, Nie Bo, Li Benli and A Xin.

The operation was the latest escalation in a long campaign to bring the unregistered church under tighter state control. Early Rain has refused to join the state-controlled Three-Self Patriotic Movement, placing it at the center of Beijing’s broader effort to curb independent religious life and other unsanctioned civil society activity.

Early Rain has lived under pressure since a sweeping crackdown in December 2018, when authorities detained around 100 congregants, including pastor Wang Yi and his wife, Jiang Rong. ChinaAid said more than 160 Christians were apprehended over two weeks that month, while the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said Wang Yi was detained on Dec. 9, 2018, during police raids on the congregation. Wang was later sentenced in December 2019 to nine years in prison on charges including inciting subversion of state power and illegal business operations.

The church’s treatment has remained a closely watched test of how far Chinese authorities will go to police belief outside officially sanctioned channels. Wang Yi, who served as pastor of Early Rain Covenant Church from 2005 until his arrest, had been outspoken about keeping the church separate from Chinese Communist Party control. That stance has made the congregation a lasting symbol of the state’s intolerance for religious communities that operate beyond its approval.

The June 2026 raid followed another round of arrests earlier this year. Human Rights Watch reported in January 2026 that Chinese authorities detained six members of the Chengdu-based underground Protestant church, including leader Li Yingqiang, and later summoned two other congregants before releasing them after questioning. Those detentions were tied to charges of picking quarrels and provoking trouble, underscoring the continuing pressure on unregistered Christians in China.

Together, the arrests show that Early Rain is not facing a single isolated raid but a sustained campaign. For congregants, the cost has been repeated detention, criminal charges and the removal of family members from worship services. For Beijing, the message is broader: independent faith communities remain acceptable only when they submit to the state.