At Least 50 Personnel Raid Family Church: Over 30 People Taken Away from Autumn Rain Covenant Church Gathering in Jiangyou

At Least 50 Personnel Raid Family Church: Over 30 People Taken Away from Autumn Rain Covenant Church Gathering in Jiangyou

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) said that a gathering of the Autumn Rain Covenant Church in Jiangyou, Sichuan, was raided by at least 50 local personnel in June, with over 30 people taken away and two leaders given administrative detention. Similar actions also occurred at a family church in Yueyang, Hunan.

A family church gathering in Jiangyou, Sichuan, was forced to terminate after dozens of local personnel entered the scene. The CECC revealed on August 20 that on June 14, at least 50 local government personnel raided a gathering of the Autumn Rain Covenant Church in Jiangyou, taking away over 30 believers to the Jiangyou detention center.

The CECC said that the remaining people at the scene were temporarily prohibited from leaving, and their identities were checked one by one. They were also required to sign a written statement, the content of which was not made public. Most of those taken away were released within two days, but church leaders Yan Hong and Wu Wuqing were given approximately two weeks of administrative detention on the grounds of "organizing and participating in illegal gatherings."

Figure: A page from the CECC's "China Observations" No. 7 regarding the suppression of family churches.

Such actions are not isolated incidents. The CECC also recorded that multiple unregistered churches in Yueyang, Hunan, were subjected to police actions around the same time, with some believers being interrogated for extended periods and required to provide fingerprints, blood samples, and voice recordings. As of July, several church leaders were still in detention.

The Autumn Rain Covenant Church has long been one of the most prominent groups among China's family churches. Its founding pastor, Wang Yi, has been serving a nine-year prison sentence since

1. The CECC said that in January 2026, at least nine church leaders and members were detained, with Li Yingqiang and Dai Zhichao being formally arrested, and Ye Fenghua and Jia Xuewei being placed under "designated residence surveillance."

The Chinese government has long required religious groups to register within the state-recognized religious management system and emphasized the need to crack down on "illegal religious activities" as part of its rule of law. However, family churches generally believe that registration often means accepting stronger organizational, personnel, sermon, and activity management, so some groups choose to continue independent gatherings.

The Jiangyou incident shows that religious governance is extending from fixed churches to small gatherings, cross-regional networks, and personal information collection. For believers, the risks are no longer just the suspension of gatherings but may also include administrative detention, identity information collection, and long-term monitoring.

What is worth attention in the future is whether the detained church members will face further criminal charges and whether local law enforcement will continue to target small private gatherings. If such actions continue to expand, the survival space of family churches will further retreat from public spaces to more hidden private networks.