Golden Lampstand Church, a Christian church in China, disclosed to ChinaAid in December that 12 members of the church had been arrested 16 months ago and have been held without a trial.
The church members arrested in August 2021 included Pastor Wang Xiaoguang and Minister Yang Rongli, a married elderly couple in poor health who have both spent years in jail previously.
The members of the church were approached by China’s Department of Public Security, which asked 10 of the Christians to accuse Wang Xiaoguang and Yang Rongli of fraud in exchange for release on bail. Five agreed to the conditions of bail, but all were required to fire their attorneys.
The police's “fraud” charges were based on the offerings and tithes given to the church, according to ChinaAid.
Jonathan Dingler, communications director at ChinaAid, based in Midland, Texas, said faith is rigidly regulated by the Chinese government.
“The Three-Self Patriotic Movement is one of the five ‘recognized’ religions in communist China,” Dingler said. “The regime claims to have religious freedom, but only if it fits into the five state-sanctioned religious organizations (Buddhist Association of China, Chinese Taoist Association, Islamic Association of China, Three-Self Patriotic Movement, and Catholic Patriotic Association).
"Xi Jinping and the Communist Party are opposed to religion, but they allow these five organizations to exist just so they don’t come under scrutiny," he added. "However, these groups face constant monitoring and must follow strict guidelines.”
He said the rules are designed to control the churches and their members.
“State-sanctioned churches and religious groups must adhere to ‘religion with Chinese characteristics,’ also known as Sinicization. This has been a recent effort from Xi Jinping to get religion to fit the Chinese communist mold,” Dingler said.
“These guidelines and characteristics mostly fall along the lines of not questioning the Communist Party, singing the Communist National Anthem before worship, and hanging pictures of Communist heroes (especially Chairman Mao and Xi himself) within the church building," he added. "Sinicization also caused a dramatic increase in cross-demolitions during Xi’s tenure as general secretary. Many churches are compelled or coerced to become Three-Self Churches so that the CCP’s Religious Affairs Bureau can monitor their finances and manage who’s in leadership.”
In 2010, the Chinese government began threatening to demolish the Golden Lampstand Church building, ChinaAid reported. Church members had spent years and millions of yuan constructing the six-story church. Pastor Wang Xiaoguang said demolishing the building was intended to damage the morale of the more than 50,000 members who gathered at the church.
In 2018, Chinese authorities demolished the building using dynamite and machinery, amidst a broader wave of Xi Jinping’s efforts to destroy crosses, altars, and other Christian symbols in order to remove challenges to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) authority, the New York Times reported. Approximately half of China's 60 million Christians worship in unregistered churches due to the CCP's tight restrictions on religion.
The Golden Lampstand Church is not the only Christian church in China facing “fraud” charges for accepting tithes, according to ChinaAid. Pastor Hao Zhiwei, who had served as pastor of the house church Egangqiao Church for 18 years, was sentenced to eight years in prison for fraud, and a court recently denied her appeal.
Hao graduated from South Central Seminary in 2001, then was offered a minister position, due to her excellent preaching skills, in Ezhou’s Three-Self Church. However, her pastoral certificate application was later rejected because she expressed disagreement with how the Religious Affairs Bureau regulated churches.
Hao then began leading the house church, but authorities requested to demolish the building in 2018. Hao and church members denied the request, and authorities then sent a notice to Hao asking her to comply with the demolition. Hao’s husband passed away from cancer around this time, so she did not respond to the notice quickly enough and was arrested for “fraud.”
Hao’s lawyer appealed her eight-year sentence, but Chinese courts denied the appeal, despite Hao’s family returning the church’s money.
The translated court document states, “Regarding Hao Zhiwei and her lawyer’s appeal, the crime’s facts are clear and the evidence is solid and sufficient. Hao is aware that she doesn’t have a pastoral certificate. She fabricated her pastoral identity in order to gain victims’ trust and collect ‘offering.’ She had the intention to purposefully defraud victims. Thus, her appeal and defense are not solid and are not accepted by the court.”
Hao’s lawyer, Mr. Si Weijiang, criticized the court’s logic, stating, “As long as it is not a Three-Self church, the church cannot be called church, the minister cannot be called pastor, and the church cannot accept a tithe or offering. Otherwise, it is committing fraud. This is definitely wrong, because house churches are established and shepherded according the Bible.”
“Forming a house church is illegal," Dingler said. "Many of the house churches are viewed as ‘illegal organizations.’ This is actually how the government tries to sidestep religious charges. Charges could be different for something like a private Bible study, but those are illegal as well. Even if the CCP doesn't have a confident ‘charge’ to level, police and the Religious Affairs Bureau will relentlessly harass them.”
He said the Chinese government is increasingly tightening its control over the churches.
“Chinese pastors must be vetted and approved by the Religious Affairs Bureau in order to legally participate as a pastor,” Dingler said. “From what I can tell, pastors must meet regularly with authorities in order to encourage the Sinicization I talked about earlier. With regulations from last year, though, it seems like the Religious Affairs Bureau is making a more concerted effort to hand-pick pastors instead of recruiting them.”
Pastor Hao has two sons, one of whom is in middle school, according to ChinaAid. Hao wrote in a letter to her older son, Paul, in February that she felt God’s peace with her in prison.
