The party was raided by the police: Ding Xing An was arrested after he went to Indonesia to study theology.

On 18 October, at approximately 9.30 a.m., two family church gatherings in the economic development area of Jiangxi Ping commune were entered by the police. In a house in Phoenix Hills, Ding Xing An is sharing the Bible with the believers. According to information received by the Chinese Aid Society, some 40 police officers and other law enforcement personnel were involved and 27 Christians were taken away.

More than a week later, most of them had returned home. Twenty-five persons were released and Ding Xing An and his fellow worker, Toying, remain in criminal detention. The families received a detention notice on 20 October concerning suspected “cross-border” cases. The case refers to a visit to Indonesia in September, where Timingan and others attended seven days of theological training.

Why is a short religious study trip a reason for detention? China Aid AssociationIt is reported that there is insufficient public information on which border regulations are specifically suspected of being violated. However, the operation took place in a private home, where detention continued to take place in training activities abroad, indicating that law enforcement agencies were concerned not only with the immigration and immigration procedures, but also with the way in which independent churches maintained faith education and transnational contacts.

Ding Xing An was not a preacher from the beginning. He was in his 40s and held management positions in a State-owned city in Hainan, where he also studied higher education. In 2022, he left his previous job and returned to Gangxi Ping commune with his wife, who had been a former secondary school teacher, and began to establish a family church. They visit the elderly, the sick and the disabled, and the number of people meeting has gradually increased, and today about 80 people are attending two regular gatherings.

For the local believers, the police operation of 18 October cut off more than a Sunday check. The religious network that the Tinghing Ans and Ting Xian have established over the years includes daily relationships such as accompanying patients, entering the family and learning with young believers. When the organizers are taken away, these relationships are suddenly re-arranged and participation in a meeting becomes a decision that requires a measure of legal risk.

The religious system of governance in China requires collective religious activities to be carried out in authorized places and organizations. The Church of the Independent Family insists on organizing its own prayers and teaching, and there has been a long-standing conflict with the official registration requirements. This interesting change is the background to an offshore theological training experience that has been used as a background for criminal detention. If normal travel and religious learning of citizens are used as a breakthrough in organizational control, State intervention in religious activities extends from meeting places to exchanges between believers and groups abroad.

Similar events are not without precedent.United States International Religious Liberty CommissionAnyan Kwe, leader of the Shanxi Family Church, was previously recorded as having been sentenced to one year in prison for travelling to Malaysia to attend a Christian conference. These cases, which coincided with the Jiangxi incident, reflect growing tensions between the cross-border learning of independent churches and official religious governance. However, training outside the country is not in itself sufficient proof of a violation of the law, and specific criminal liability remains dependent on the acts and legal elements charged.

In Ping, the story of Dinghing An highlights in particular the conflict between individual choice and State management. He quit his job of stabilization and went back to his own country; Several years later, church gatherings were subject to large-scale law enforcement and individual studies abroad were also the subject of detention. When a belief can be secure only within officially defined organizational boundaries, so-called religious freedom can easily be degraded into administrative authorization.

After the police operation, 25 released believers were able to return home, while Ding Xing An and Liang Hoon Ping were still in custody. The two venues may be reopened or may be dispersed, but for church members the morning of 18 October has changed their understanding of an ordinary Sunday gathering.