CCP rounds up pastors, children in house church crackdown: report

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Monday, June 15, 2026

Authorities with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) reportedly detained two church leaders and dozens of members, including children, after raiding the Sunday service of an influential Protestant house church.

Witnesses claimed approximately 50 to 60 police and government personnel interrupted the worship service at Early Rain Covenant Church (ERCC) in the southwestern city of Jiangyo at around 11 a.m. local time, according to the Texas-based Christian persecution watchdog group ChinaAid.

Among those detained and taken in for questioning to the local police station were church leaders Elder Yan Hong and Elder Wu Wuqing, ChinaAid reported, noting that young children were reportedly also taken.

The church said more than 30 members and leaders were "forcibly taken away in several police vehicles," according to the BBC. Despite being arrested, they "fellowshipped, sang hymns, and prayed until most of them were released," the church added.

The congregants who remained included elderly and children, whom authorities reportedly locked in the ballroom where they had been gathering and subjected them to identity checks while screaming for them to stop singing.

ERCC has long been targeted by Chinese authorities, with its founding pastor Wang Yi sentenced to nine years in prison in 2019 on charges of subversion of power and illegal business operations. Congregants were reportedly released after hours of refusing to sign an affidavit, the contents of which they were not told.

ERCC, which was founded in 2008, was first raided during a Sunday evening service in December 2018, upon claims by authorities that it violated religious regulations by not registering with the government. Wang was detained along with his wife, Jiang Rong, and more than 100 members of his congregation.

ChinaAid, whose founder Bob Fu escaped China in 1996 after being repeatedly arrested in Beijing for leading house churches, denounced the most recent actions by CCP authorities against ERCC, calling it "another stark reminder that the Chinese Communist Party continues to treat peaceful Christian worship as a threat to state control."

"The detention of church leaders, ordinary believers, and even children for participating in a Sunday worship service is a grave violation of religious freedom and fundamental human rights," Fu said. "We call on the international community, democratic governments, and all people of conscience to speak out and demand the immediate release of those detained."

The CCP, which rules China's 1.4 billion people, has been tightening its grip in recent years on churches and other Christian institutions that seek to escape its totalitarian monitoring for alignment with communist ideology.

Last October, the CCP arrested 30 leaders of Zion Church, another influential house church, including Pastor Ezra Jin, who remains in custody and whose case has prompted international attention.

The CCP seems especially focused on capturing the minds of the youth, banning minors under 18 from entering churches or participating in religious activities following the implementation of its revised Regulations on Religious Affairs in 2018. The nonprofit persecution watchdog Open Doors noted that ministry leaders "focused on the next generation of Christians" are special targets of state hostility.