Religious persecution and issues – Bimonthly Digest January 16-31
Catholics
26.01.2026 – The Catholic Church of China officially implements centralised control of travel documents, clergy placed under a “quasi-cadre” surveillance system
China Aid – On December 16, 2025, the 9th Joint Meeting of the 10th National Committees of the Catholic “One Association and One Conference” (the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association and the Chinese Catholic Bishops’ Conference) was held in Guangyuan City, Sichuan Province.
The meeting reviewed the 2026 work plan and formally adopted an internal regulation with significant political control implications — “Provisional Regulations on the Standardized Management of Exit-and-Entry Travel Documents for Catholic Clergy,” which symbolizes that Catholic clergy in China have been officially incorporated into a party–state–style “quasi-cadre management system.”
Protestants
28.01.2026 – “Besieged city” in Wenzhou, Zhejiang: the Yayang Church case reveals a new normal of religious repression in China“.
China Aid – In Wenzhou, long known as “China’s Jerusalem,” the boundary between faith and power is undergoing a violent redrawing.
In the early hours of December 15 last year, while most residents were still asleep in the cold mountains of southern Zhejiang, more than a thousand armed police officers in dark-colored uniforms surrounded the Christian church in Yayang Town, Taishun County.
According to eyewitnesses, flashing police lights and the loud crashes of forced entry brought to an end more than a decade-long standoff between this church and the authorities.
More than a hundred believers were subsequently loaded onto buses, and all communication signals inside the church were cut off.
This was not an isolated law enforcement action. The Yayang Church case is becoming a new window through which to observe how Beijing, through its “Sinicization of religion” policy, is systematically dismantling non-official belief systems.
27.01.2026 – Beijing tightens restrictions on Christian clergy, China’s church pulpits are becoming another platform for propaganda
China Aid – Within China’s increasingly dense network of religious regulation, the “spirituality” of the clergy is being assigned a precise political definition.
Earlier this month, the National “Two Associations” of Christianity in China issued a detailed Code of Conduct for Clergy in China (hereinafter, the Code).
This document is not simply a set of professional ethical guidelines; it more closely resembles a declaration of political loyalty, requiring clergy, while spreading the “Gospel,” to first and foremost serve as advocates of Chinese Communist Party policies.
At the outset, the Code establishes “four criteria” for the selection and evaluation of clergy, with “political reliability” ranked first. This phrasing continues Beijing’s consistent demands on religious communities over the past few years.
22.01.2026 – Elder Li Yingqiang and brother Lin of early rain covenant church confirmed charge with “inciting subversion of state power”
China Aid – According to the latest information from Chengdu Early Rain Covenant Church since the arrest of church elders, coworkers, and members on January 6, 2026, only one person—seminary student Song Haibing—has been released, on January 19. The remaining seven individuals are still being held.
It is reported that Song Haibingwas administratively detained on the charge of “obstructing the law enforcement of state security organs.”
Authorities have yet to return his mobile phone, computer, and some books confiscated during the search of his home.
Lawyers have now confirmed that Elder Li Yingqiang and Brother Lin have been charged on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power.”
As for the other five detained believers, their families and lawyers are still unable to obtain information regarding the specific reasons for their arrests or the charges involved.
19.01.2026 – A Chinese christian reflects on the House Churches’ Bitter Winter
Bitter Winter – Within the landscape of Christianity in China, the “Three-Self Church” represents safety and legality—but it is a church tightly controlled and distorted by an atheist government.
By contrast, the “house church” stands for fidelity to authentic faith, and for that very reason has become the primary target of persecution and suppression.
Since 1949, the Chinese Communist Party has never ceased its campaign against house churches.
This persecution is not accidental; it is part of a systematic strategy of religious control, pushing uncompromising believers underground and stripping them of the freedom to gather and to express their spirituality.
The Zion Church incident of 2025 marked a shocking escalation of this repression, drawing widespread international attention and condemnation.
19.01.2026 – Who are the churches that China is persecuting?
China Aid – On the night of December 14, over 1,000 police officers surrounded Yayang Church in Wenzhou, Zhejiang.
At 3 a.m. they burst into the church “with extreme violence.” Over 100 adult members of the congregation who had chosen to remain inside were arrested; those with children had left earlier in the evening.
The police put black hoods on the congregants and took them away.
From December 13 to December 17, Christians in Yayang were detained in a large-scale operation, according to Bitter Winter, a magazine that covers religious liberty and human rights in China.
This included but was not limited to the detentions at the church itself. The total number detained is unclear. Authorities accompanied this crackdown with a firework display in the town square on December 15 that drew attention from outside.
Falun Gong
29.01.2026 – Mute and emaciated, 74-year-old man dies 20 days after prison release
Minghui – When Mr. Gao Xingtai was finally released on medical parole, after serving a seven-year term for practicing Falun Gong, he was emaciated and mute. He died 20 days later, at the age of 74.
Mr. Gao of Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province, was the last of the three practitioners to die following their arrests in April 2018 for reading Falun Gong books together.
The other two, both women, also died, one in June 2018 and the other in April 2023.
24.01.2026 – Mother and son sentenced to six years for practicing Falun Gong
Minghui- A mother and her son in Linghai City, Liaoning Province, were sentenced to six years and fined 15,000 yuan on December 26, 2025, because they practice Falun Gong.
Ms. Lu Suping, 69, a former real estate worker, and her son Mr. Jiang Nan, 45, a tutor, were arrested at their shared residence on June 2, 2025.
As soon as Mr. Jiang opened the door at 1:40 p.m. that day, three plainclothes officers rushed in and shoved him to the ground.
They handcuffed him and yelled “Freeze” at his mother and their two guests who practice Falun Gong—Ms. Wang Yanjie, 67, and Ms. Niu Fang, 53.
While one officer kept watch on the three women, another officer began searching the home. More than ten agents soon arrived and joined the raid. Two of them wore body cameras to record everything.
23.01.2026 – Falun Gong practitioner recounts abuse she experienced at the Yunnan Province second women’s prison
Minghui – The Yunnan Second Women’s Prison is a prison designated to incarcerate female felons.
After the persecution of Falun Gong started in July 1999, the prison has also become a place to imprison and torture female practitioners who were sentenced for exercising their constitutional right to freedom of belief.
Minghui.org previously reported on the various forms of torture used on jailed Falun Gong practitioners. This report is a personal account of a Falun Gong practitioner who was once held in prison.
My Own Experience: White Badge and Red Badge
Falun Gong practitioners were forced to wear a “white badge” upon admission. We had to get up at 5:40 a.m., when criminal inmates were allowed to sleep until 6:20 a.m.
19.01.2026 – The Persecution of elderly Falun Gong practitioners
Minghui – Twenty-seven years after the Chinese Communist Party ordered the persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999, the arrest, harassment and sentencing of Falun Gong practitioners remain unabated.
Among the practitioners who are targeted, many are seniors, 60 years old and older, and even practitioners in their 90s are actively persecuted.
In 2025 alone, at least 370 of the 751 practitioners who were confirmed to have been sentenced to prison were at least 60 years old, including 180 in their 60s, 156 in their 70s, 33 in their 80s, and one in her 90s. Of the 1,053 practitioners of known ages who were reported arrested or harassed in 2025, 947 were 60 years or older.
Others
21.01.2026 – China’s crackdown on Gaia Earth Core: consumer protection or authoritarian control?
Bitter Winter – The case of Gaia Earth Core, formerly known as Starry Homeland, has become one of the most prominent prosecutions of a spiritual movement in China in recent years.
The group was founded in February 2019 by Sun Linlin, born in 1983 in Dalian, who styled herself as “Tara Shangshi” and claimed to be the reincarnation of the Buddhist goddess Green Tara. In October 2021, the organization rebranded itself as Gaia Earth Core.
Its teachings combined elements of “mind‑body‑spirit” practice with esoteric claims: courses such as Alliance with God, Light of Creation, and Fairy Healing promised to open supernatural powers, cleanse karmic burdens, and connect members to “high-dimensional cosmic energy.”
