Chinese authorities have detained a Protestant pastor on charges of “illegal business operations,” several weeks after he and multiple church members were taken into custody amid ongoing crackdowns on unregistered Christian activity across the country.
Pastor Huang Yizi was officially informed of his arrest this week, more than a month after he and four others were detained by Pingyang Public Security officials on June 26, according to the UK-based organization Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
The group, which includes church members from Ningbo, Quzhou, and Taizhou— all in Zhejiang Province—was placed under administrative detention the day after their arrest.
While two of the five individuals were released on bail last Friday, the remaining three, including Huang, remain in custody. The specific charges against the others have not been disclosed. Additionally, a sixth church member was detained on July 17 and is still in detention.
Under China’s Criminal Procedure Law, public security officials are required to submit a request for formal arrest to the procuratorate within 30 days of detention. Huang’s representative told CSW that the speed of his case’s processing raised concerns regarding the thoroughness of the review and the absence of official documentation.
Huang had been detained previously in 2014 for protesting the demolition of church crosses in Wenzhou, serving a one-year prison term. Less than a month after his release, he was detained again on September 12, 2015, on charges of “endangering national security,” and was held in a designated residential surveillance location for nearly five months. Prior to the demolitions, his church had operated as a state-approved Three-Self Patriotic Movement church.
The Chinese Human Rights Lawyers Group criticized authorities for using broad and vague charges, such as “illegal business operations,” to detain religious figures. They stated that “the act of recording and distributing sermons” falls within protections of religious expression under the constitution.
In a related incident, nine Christians in Inner Mongolia were convicted in April for reselling legally published Bibles through an unregistered house church. According to Bitter Winter, their sentences ranged from one year to nearly five years, with fines as high as 1 million yuan ($137,000). All nine were convicted on the same charge that has been used against Pastor Huang.
Earlier this year, the Chinese Communist Party announced new regulations that ban foreign missionaries from establishing religious organizations or preaching without official authorization. These rules, which came into effect on May 1, prohibit foreign nationals from founding religious schools, producing or selling religious materials, or recruiting Chinese citizens as followers.
Mission News Network reported that foreign clergy are only permitted to preach if they receive a formal invitation from state-recognized religious organizations, and their messages must be approved in advance by authorities.
Meanwhile, a report from China’s Global Times lauded the strengthened efforts by public security authorities to eliminate independent religious groups in 2024, according to The Washington Stand. The Ministry of Public Security has openly acknowledged that it is investing more in surveillance technology and personnel dedicated to monitoring and limiting the activities of these organizations.
China employs an extensive system of technological surveillance to track the movements and associations of its citizens, evaluating their loyalty to the Communist Party. This surveillance is particularly aimed at individuals connected with unregistered house churches or those engaged in religious practices outside the state-sanctioned frameworks.
