Beijing (AsiaNews) – Reports from China regarding the health of Pastor Wang Yi, leader of the Early Rain Covenant Church, are “deeply concerning”. A prominent leader among the so-called Protestant house churches,[*] Wang Yi has been serving a nine-year prison sentence since late 2019.
Anonymous sources cited by ChinaAid indicate that the Christian leader is suffering from advanced-stage liver cancer, but due to strict censorship by Chinese authorities, no independent confirmation has been possible.
The clergyman is currently held at Jintang Prison in the country's southwest, subject to severe restrictions, and family access is strictly limited; nonetheless, the scant information available suggests that the "seriousness" of the situation calls for "immediate transparency" from Chinese authorities.
Champion of rights and freedoms
Wang Yi was a pro-democracy activist at the time of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. He converted to Christianity and became pastor of the Early Rain Covenant Church, with hundreds of congregants in Chengdu.
Although it is an unofficial Protestant church, its members have always openly practised their faith, disseminated sermons and study materials online, as well as evangelised on the city streets.
Before the arrest of Wang Yi and several members of the community, they also ran a seminary for training future pastors and a primary school for 40 children.
Among the available accounts is a letter addressed to the community, written in anticipation of his arrest, a year before the verdict was handed down during a closed-door hearing on 30 December 2019, which sentenced him to nine years in prison for "subversion of state power" and other offences.
In it, he states that he is “full of anger and disgust because of the persecution of the church by the communist regime, and of the wickedness in depriving people of freedom of religion and conscience”.
At the same time, he asserts that he has no intention of altering China’s social order, but insists on the freedom to proclaim the Gospel.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom currently classifies Wang Yi as a “prisoner of conscience” and has denounced the medical neglect in his case.
After his arrest in 2018 and sentence a year later, his wife, Jiang Rong was not allowed to visit him until October 2021, their first meeting in three years; since then, he has been under “severe restrictions” and “limited family access," according to the evangelical NGO.
International mobilisation
The founder and president of ChinaAid, Rev Bob Fu, has called for "immediate access" to Wang and for more information regarding his condition to be provided.
“We are gravely concerned by the credible reports we have received that Pastor Wang Yi may be suffering from advanced liver cancer,” Fu said. “If these reports are accurate, every day without proper medical treatment and family access could have life-or-death consequences.”
Fu has urged the Chinese government, the Sichuan provincial prison administration, and Jintang Prison to allow Wang’s parents, wife, and son to visit him in person and to provide full information regarding his health condition and the medical treatment he is receiving.
Wang is nearing the final stage of his nine-year prison sentence, which is due to end in 2027.
In this regard, ChinaAid calls on foreign governments, diplomatic missions in China, organisations dedicated to religious freedom, and Churches worldwide to seek clarification on Wang’s health status and to demand unrestricted contact with his family as well as adequate medical care.
The advocacy group stated that it will continue to verify the information just received and will provide further updates as soon as reliable details become available.
For Fu, Chinese authorities should take action on humanitarian grounds.
“The world is watching. Pastor Wang Yi must not be allowed to die behind prison walls in secrecy,” he said. “His family deserves to see him, to know his true medical condition, and to be involved in decisions concerning his treatment.”
Fresh crackdown on house churches
This new chapter in the long-standing struggle for the freedom and rights, often suppressed, of China’s Christian communities came just days before the meeting in Washington between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart, Donald Trump.
The summit focused on trade and geopolitics, the outcomes of which remain to be seen for those like Wang Yi, imprisoned and persecuted by the communist government for their faith.
In addition to the Early Rain Covenant Church, where several leaders and members, such as Li Yingqiang and Dai Zhichao, have been targeted or come under constant surveillance, other groups are reporting abuses and violations, starting with the Zion Church in Beijing.
Founded by Pastor Ezra Jin, who was recently released from prison just weeks after an earlier meeting between Trump and Xi, the community continues to call for the release of eight other leaders and congregants currently in prison.
Wang Zhong, a member of the Zion Church currently in custody, lost his father on 18 August.
Prior to the death, on 8 August, authorities rejected Wang’s request for release on bail, citing two reasons: the need to assess whether he posed a danger to society and whether he would appear for the trial scheduled for 14–18 August.
The trial was subsequently postponed after defence lawyers complained they lacked sufficient time to review the case files.
In denying him permission to visit his dying father, the authorities pointed to Wang’s heart condition, claiming he might suffer a heart attack during the journey and thus fail to appear in court; they also stated that the ongoing assessment had not yet been completed.
Another Christian in detention is Pastor Wang Sanyuan of the Changchunli Christian Church in Jinan. Nearly five months after his arrest, his family has yet to receive any official communication regarding his whereabouts or legal status.
The 73-year-old clergyman suffers from cardiovascular and cerebrovascular conditions that have previously required hospitalisation; his detention may be linked to an effort to defend church property dating back more than a decade.
On 25 July, Sun Chao, the 37-year-old pastor of the Philadelphia Church in Qujing (Yunnan), was arrested by the Xuanwei City Public Security Bureau on charges of “illegal proselytization.” On 7 August, his wife, Zhao Ying, was informed that Sun’s detention had been converted to criminal detention and the charge changed to “organizing illegal gatherings.”
On the morning of 5 August, police moved Pastor David Tang, founder of the Purpose Driven Church in Wenzhou, from Wenzhou to Shanghai, along with the church’s financial administrator and five staff members. All seven are currently held at the Chongming District Detention Centre, while authorities have so far refused to disclose the reasons for their detention.
For ChinaAid, “these cases indicate that Christians affiliated with unregistered churches continue to face detention, investigation and other pressure across multiple regions of China, even as international attention remains focused on U.S.-China relations.”
[*] Underground communities that refused to join the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, the state-sanctioned body for Protestants in China.
