Last year, just before Christmas, a Christian church in Yayang Town, Taishun County, Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, was besieged by the authorities, leading to the arrest of over a hundred people. According to overseas human rights and religious freedom organizations, local law enforcement officials in Wenzhou recently attempted to demolish a non-government sanctioned church. It is said that this action was related to the church’s refusal to fly the Chinese national flag.
On December 14th last year, at noon, thousands of police officers surrounded the Yayang church, and on the 15th in the early morning, they stormed the church and arrested over a hundred people. Recently, the authorities brought in cranes and other large machinery to surround the Yayang church.
Based on information from the China Aid Association, headquartered in the United States, the founder Fu Xiqiu revealed that based on photos they obtained from the 5th and 6th of the month, the church building is being destroyed. The association speculates that “relevant departments may be preparing to demolish or substantially dispose of the Yayang church.”
The association also stated that in recent days, over a thousand riot police suddenly gathered at the Yayang church, conducting comprehensive surveillance at the scene. Anyone found taking photos was immediately checked for their phone. Several individuals have been taken away by the police for sharing information about the church on WeChat Moments.
According to Fu Xiqiu, the head of the Yayang church, Lin Enzhao, Lin Enci, and their two other brothers were all arrested, along with more than twenty others, including them. However, the authorities have yet to specify the exact charges.
The arrest operation is said to have stemmed from an incident in June last year when the Yayang town mayor Li Bin led a team to the church, forcibly erected a flagpole, and raised the communist Five-Star Flag, which was opposed by the Lin Enzhao and Lin Enci brothers. Prior to the arrest operation, in late November last year, the Taishun County Working Committee of the Communist Party forwarded an article on WeChat in which Xi Jinping once again discussed the policy of “Sinicization of religion”: “The problems that have emerged in the process of promoting the Sinicization of religion in our country… are fundamentally rooted in issues of ideological awareness.”
After the arrest operation, many religious activities in Yayang Town have been suspended, and communication among believers has been hindered.
While the situation at the Yayang church in Wenzhou has yet to settle, news has emerged from the Autumn Rain Covenant Church, an underground Christian church in Chengdu, Sichuan, that at least nine members were taken away by the police on January 6th, with four still not released.
This Protestant family church has been persecuted since 2015 for refusing to join the government-controlled “Three-Self Patriotic Movement” church. In 2019, Pastor Wang Yi of the Autumn Rain Covenant Church was sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of “inciting subversion of state power” and “illegal business operations.”