CHINA: Religious persecution and issues – Bimonthly Digest June 16-30
Buddhists
30.06.2025 – China, national crackdown on Master Di Shen’s Buddhist group
Bitter Winter – On May 29, starting at 9 a.m., Chinese authorities launched a major operation in multiple cities, including Beijing, Qingdao, and Dalian, as well as in several provinces like Sichuan, Guizhou, and Zhejiang. They sent out a large number of police and military personnel to raid temples and spiritual centers connected to Master Di Shen’s Buddhist group.
During these raids, many Buddhist monks, practitioners, and followers—including some visiting from Taiwan—were arrested. Police forcibly entered the temples and took people away, regardless of their age. Those detained were taken to holding facilities where they were pressured to sign “letters of repentance” or pledges to conform to government demands.
16.06.2025- Two Tibetan Buddhist monastery leaders sentenced for Dege dam protests
RFA – Authorities have sentenced two senior Tibetan monastic leaders to three- and four-year prison terms for their roles in rare 2024 public protests against a planned Chinese hydropower dam project, two sources in the region told Radio Free Asia.Sherab, the abbot of Yena Monastery in Dege county’s Wangbuding township in Kardze Tibet Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province, was sentenced to four years in prison and Gonpo, the chief administrator, sentenced to three years, said the sources, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals. It wasn’t immediately clear when the sentences were handed down.
Falun Gong
30.06.2025 – 74-year-old Gansu woman dies after years of persecution for practicing Falun Gong
Minghui – A 74-year-old woman in Qingyang City, Gansu Province died on May 19, 2025, after suffering years of persecution for practicing Falun Gong.
Ms. Guo Caiping took up Falun Gong in 2005 and soon recovered from rheumatoid arthritis and other illnesses. Despite the ongoing persecution of the practice, she felt compelled to tell people not to fall victim to the communist regime’s slanderous propaganda against Falun Gong. While distributing Falun Gong informational materials on December 28, 2015, Ms. Guo was arrested and her home was raided.
26.06.2025 – 44-year-old Liaoning woman sentenced to 4 years for seeking to overturn husband’s 4-year prison term
Minghui – A 44-year-old woman in Huludao City, Liaoning Province, was sentenced to four years and fined 20,000 yuan, her family learned on June 19, 2025.
Ms. Liu Cong’s wrongful conviction stemmed from her efforts to seek justice for her husband, Mr. Luan Changhui, a 55-year-old boat engineer. Mr. Luan was arrested on July 20, 2021 for practicing Falun Gong, and was sentenced to four years on November 30, 2021 by the Lianshan District Court. He was admitted to the Shenyang City First Prison on August 6, 2022.
Ms. Liu, also a Falun Gong practitioner, represented her husband as his family defender during his trial. After he was sentenced, she filed an appeal with the Huludao City Intermediate Court.
20.06.2025 – Lockup guard told Falun Gong practitioners they should “donate” their organs
Minghui – After seven Falun Gong practitioners in Lingyuan City, Liaoning Province, were arrested together, two of them were asked to donate their organs. They refused, knowing all too well the state-sanctioned forced live organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners.
Ms. Wang Xiuyu, Mr. Wu Dianming, Ms. Zhang Hongmi, Ms. Song Shuzhi, Ms. Liang Jin’e, and Ms. Wang Liying were arrested on May 8, 2025, while studying Falun Gong books at the home of practitioner Cheng, whose first name wasn’t known.
Over ten officers broke in, seized Ms. Wang Liying, a native of nearby Jianping County who had been on the run to avoid the persecution, and dragged her to a police car. The police also videotaped the remaining six practitioners and threatened them not to talk or move. Ms. Liang passed out during the arrest and was carried to the police car
19.06.2025 – After being relentlessly tortured in prison, Jilin woman faces prosecution again for her faith
Minghui – Ms. Dou Lina, 66, from Siping City, Jilin Province, is facing prosecution because she practices Falun Gong. Ms. Dou was arrested on April 22, 2025, as soon as she left another Falun Gong practitioner’s home. The police took her to her home and confiscated her laptop and Falun Gong informational materials.
The police told Ms. Dou that she would be detained for 15 days. When her family went to the Siping City Lockup to pick her up on May 7, 2025, they were shocked to learn that she had been transferred to the Siping City Detention Center and that the police submitted her case to the Tiedong District Procuratorate.
Protestants
27.06.2025 – Linfen Covenant Home Church protests sentences imposed on its leaders
Bitter Winter – In 2022, “Bitter Winter” reported that a police raid on a parent-children camp of Linfen Covenant Home Church in August led to the arrest of Pastor Li Jie and Elder Han Xiaodong in October, followed by the arrest of Elder Wan Qiang on November 9. As a result, Linfen’s Covenant Home Church was “liquidated” on November 16 of that year.
On June 23, 2025 “Bitter Winter” reported that alongside the verdicts issued against a group of defendants from the Golden Lampstand Church—also of Linfen, Shanxi—on June 20 Pastor Li Jie and Elder Han Xiaodong of the Covenant Home Church were also sentenced in a separate case. They received sentences of three years and eight months, surpassing the three years that had been agreed upon during the trial. Additionally, Elder Wan Qiang was sentenced to one year and eleven months. The charges against them included “fraud,” a common accusation levied against house churches that refuse to join the government-controlled Three-Self Church.
25.06.2025 – Chaos in the Xi’an church of abundance case trial
China Aid – Pastor Lian Changnian, a senior pastor of the “China Gospel Fellowship” from Henan, founded the Church of Abundance in Xi’an. On August 17, 2022, the church was raided. The Shilipu Police Station in Xi’an detained Pastor Lian Changnian, Pastor Lian Xuliang, and coworker Preacher Fu Juan under “residential surveillance at a designated location” on suspicion of “fraud.” The three were secretly held in government-designated locations, where they were subjected to torture, including starvation, beatings, forced ingestion of unidentified drugs, and prolonged denial of bathroom access. On August 19, 2022, the Xi’an Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau officially banned the church. Pastor Lian Changnian was later released on bail due to illness.
23.06.2025 – Heavy jail penalties in the Linfen Golden Lampstand Church case
Bitter Winter – On June 20, 2025, ten Linfen Golden Lampstand Church members in Linfen City, Shanxi Province, were handed severe sentences for “fraud,” now a popular charge to repress independent religion. The case against the church leader, Yang Rongli, and her husband, Wang Xiaoguang, was separated from the one of the ten Christians sentenced on June 20.
In 2018, “Bitter Winter” reported on the persecution of the Golden Lampstand Church, a house church in Linfen City, Shanxi, and the destruction of its worship site. The congregation is part of a Sola Fide network with over 50,000 members, and the church cost nearly 2.6 million USD to construct.
20.06.2025 – Faith under attack: ten members of Golden Lampstand church falsely accused of ‘fraud’ and sentenced to harsh prison terms
China Aid – The Golden Lampstand Church in Linfen City, Shanxi Province, was handed down a harsh sentence today (June 20). Ten church members were each sentenced to multiple years in prison on charges of “fraud.” Among them, core member Brother Li Shuangping was sentenced to nine years and two months in prison, fined 100,000 yuan, and received the harshest sentence. The cases of Yang Rongli, the church’s founder, and Pastor Wang Xiaoguang will be handled separately. This trial not only severely violates legal justice but also highlights the Chinese authorities’ increasingly aggressive and unabashed systematic suppression of Christian house churches.
16.06.2025 – Anhui, three-self church repressed for resisting surveillance cameras
Bitter Winter – At the end of May, police arrested six Christians from Huainan City, Anhui—Zhao Hongliang, Shang Lei, Xu Yongshui, Xu Kehong, Yang Tongguang, and Huang Yuling—and transferred them to the procuratorate for prosecution on charges of intentional destruction of property.
These individuals are part of the Covenant Church in Panji District, Huainan City, which is officially registered and affiliated with the government-controlled Three-Self Church.
Xie Jiao
20.06.2025 – Chinese Communist Party launches a campaign labeling Bodhi Gong as a “Criminal Gang”
Bitter Winter – The China Anti-Xie Jiao Association, controlled by the CCP through the United Front, has initiated a campaign to categorize Bodhi Gong as a “cross-border criminal gang,” applying Chinese organized crime laws to it.
Bodhi Gong, also known as Bodhi Meditation, was founded by Grandmaster JinBodhi, born Di Yuming in 1965 in Hebei province, China. Established in 1991, this Qigong organization has faced significant persecution following the prohibition of Falun Gong in 1999. Di Yuming professes to have acquired insights from Buddhist teachings in Tibetan monasteries and asserts that he overcame various childhood illnesses through self-cultivation practices.
