Health concerns mount for Pastor Wang Yi amid China’s renewed crackdown on Early Rain Church
Concerns over the health of imprisoned Chinese Pastor Wang Yi are growing after reports that he has late-stage liver cancer, as authorities again detain members of his house church, Early Rain Covenant Church.
Wang may have received too little medical care during his years behind bars, according to the U.K.-based group Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
CSW president Mervyn Thomas asked that Wang be freed at once so doctors can treat him, and that his family and congregation be told everything about the diagnosis and his condition.
ChinaAid, an advocacy group based in the U.S., reported that Wang’s wife has been allowed to see him only one time at Jintang Prison in Sichuan province since he began serving his term.
Police arrested Wang in December 2018 during a two-week sweep in which local authorities picked up more than 160 Christians tied to the unregistered church in Chengdu, a city in Sichuan. A court later gave him nine years for “inciting subversion of state power” and “illegal business operations.” His release is due in 2027.
Early Rain was banned following the 2018 arrests. The church still has an estimated 500 or more members, and China’s Religious Affairs Bureau continues to move against it.
On Sept. 10, police took 11 Christians from a reading group at a teahouse. Most were over 60.
Two of the reading group’s participants, Wu Wuqing, an elder, and Shen Xiaoqing, a member, spent 10 days in administrative detention on an accusation of illegal proselytizing. They left Hongpailou Police Station on Sept. 23.
Wu was fined 500 yuan (about $75) and Shen 300 yuan (about $45). The other nine people arrested from the group were let go with no fines.
On June 14, officers ended an Early Rain gathering at a hotel in Jiangyou, which lies northeast of Chengdu. More than 30 members were detained.
Chengdu authorities on Sept. 30 also arrested Chen Yunfei, known as a dissident and rights defender, on a charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.”
Chen joined the pro-democracy movement of 1989. He has faced three arrests since 2015. He spent 2021 to 2025 in prison, a four-year term on that same charge.
After he was freed in March 2025, Chen wrote on his X account about growing pressure and intimidation. An unidentified man attacked him outside his home on Jan. 8, 2026, and he needed stitches for severe injuries to his face.
Thomas said the campaign against Early Rain hurts the reputation China holds as a United Nations Human Rights Council member. He condemned the “arbitrary detention and arrest” of leaders and members of churches over peaceful religious activities and gatherings.
Other unregistered Protestant groups, or house churches, have also been targeted. House churches stay out of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, the Protestant body approved by the government.
Recently, police in the city of Taiyuan detained Pastor An Yankui at home on suspicion of “organizing illegal religious activities.” An is the leader of Taiyuan Xuncheng Reformed Church. In 2020 he was fined and held 15 days over an identical allegation.
In the southern city of Guangzhou, officials on Sept. 16 took biblical materials from people who attend Guangfu Church and accused them of “promoting a cult.” Officers also made the church leave the place it rented for meetings.
Ezra Jin, pastor of Zion Church in Beijing, said at the 2026 Global Religious Freedom Gathering that more than 150 pastors and church leaders are still in Chinese custody. Jin was permitted to go to the U.S. in July, 266 days after he was detained.
Zion, among the largest house church networks in China, has faced raids since October 2025, and 18 members were later formally arrested. Eight of Zion’s pastors and staff were being held in the southern Guangxi region, in the city of Beihai, on charges of “fraud” and “illegal business operations.”
Pastors and staff of Jiaquan Church in Beijing have also been detained. Their number and the charges against them are unclear. Jiaquan has 1,000 members and has operated in Beijing for over 20 years.
