Pastor Zhou Songlin and Elder Ding Zhongfu are still detained, while their co-workers Mao Junma, Pei Defei, and Yang Peiyun were released on bail. All should face charges of fraud.
by Wang Zhipeng
At the end of December 2023, thanks to a rare Associated Press story exposing the persecution of a house church, several media throughout the world and those Chinese netizens who access them via VPN learned the story of how Elder Ding Zhongfu of Hefei’s Ganquan Church, in Anhui province, had his home raided in the early morning and was detained.
This happened on November 30, 2023. Similar raids targeted the homes of Pastor Zhou Songlin, and co-workers and preachers Mao Junma, Pei Defei, and Yang Peiyun, of the same church. All were taken away by the police. The case of Elder Ding received international attention because he has a daughter in the United States and was reportedly planning to join her there.
Hefei’s Ganquan Church has been in existence for some twenty years and has more than 400 members, enough to attract the malevolent attention of the authorities. Two properties were purchased for worship and communal activities with donations by the members, with Elder Ding acting as treasurer. As a house church not part of the government-controlled Three-Self organization, the Ganquan Church has no legal personality and the properties were purchased in the individual names of the church’s pastor and elders.
This was used by the authorities to hit the leaders of Ganquan Church with accusations of “frauds,” yet another legal tool used by the CCP to crack down on house churches, as requested by Xi Jinping at the National Conference on Work Related to Religious Affairs of December 3–4, 2021. Access of Ganquan Church’s believers to their properties is currently prevented by the police.
As reported by Ganquan Church, on December 28 , 2023, Mao Junma, Pei Defei, and Yang Peiyun were released on bail pending trial and returned home. Pastor Zhou and Elder Ding remain in jail. But all should face the charge of fraud and the risk to be sentenced to serious prison penalties.
