(Yunnan, China – December 23, 2025) Shuangbai County — A court in southwestern China’s Yunnan Province recently sentenced a house church leader to six months in prison on the charge of “organizing illegal gatherings.” The case has once again drawn attention to the legal boundaries of religious activities in China and the situation facing house churches. 

According to the court judgment, the People’s Court of Shuangbai County, Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, issued a first-instance verdict on December 17, 2025, finding Christian believer Bian Fuzhen guilty of “organizing illegal gatherings” and sentencing her to six months in prison. The court also ordered the recovery of 12,560 RMB in offerings collected by the church, of which she is a member, since its establishment. 

Bian Fuzhen and her husband, Yin Chengcai, led a house church of about 20 people in Shuangbai County, known as the “Lingshan Church.” On July 31, 2025, the couple was criminally detained by local police for convening members to gather. On September 5, Bian Fuzhen was formally arrested and detained at the Chuxiong Prefecture Detention Center, while her husband was released on bail pending trial.

Prosecutors alleged that Bian Fuzhen had long organized unapproved religious activities, including repeatedly convening believers both online and offline for activities such as preaching, prayer, and hymn singing, and allowing minors to participate. The prosecution further claimed that after the church was shut down by the local Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau in 2018 and again ordered to cease gatherings in 2019, she continued to organize religious activities in private residences and organized 35 gatherings online. 

The Shuangbai County Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau determined that the locations of these gatherings had not been approved as lawful religious venues and that Bian Fuzhen herself did not possess qualifications to preach. Based on this, the prosecution argued that her actions disrupted social order, were serious in nature, and constituted the crime of “organizing illegal gatherings” as stipulated in the Criminal Law. 

The case was heard on December 15, 2025. During the trial, Bian Fuzhen’s defense attorney, Sam, raised objections to the charges, arguing that the prosecution’s evidence was insufficient and failed to establish the alleged criminal facts.

The defense lawyer retrieved video footage from 2018 showing a joint working group, composed of leaders from the local Political and Legal Affairs Commission, Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau, United Front Work Department, and Public Security Bureau, speaking with the defendant. Sam pointed out that the joint working group had no law enforcement authority. According to the video, the interaction at the time was merely a conversation. The lawyer further noted that the prosecution’s claim that the church had been “shut down” lacked the support of formal legal documentation and questioned the legal basis for categorizing minors’ participation in religious activities as the dissemination of “harmful information.”

Attorney Sam stated that the case reflected religious bias.

The defense lawyer also argued that current Chinese law does not explicitly prohibit house church gatherings, nor does it contain provisions banning evangelism to minors. He maintained that voluntary offerings by believers are a common form of religious practice and should not be regarded as “illegal fundraising.”

Nevertheless, the court ultimately adopted the prosecution’s position and found Bian Fuzhen guilty. According to the judgment, her prison term runs from August 1, 2025, to January 31, 2026. The court also ordered the confiscation of items used for religious activities, including a mobile phone, books, discs, and crosses.

It has not yet been disclosed whether an appeal will be filed. In recent years, law enforcement actions against house churches and religious activities not registered with the authorities across China has continued to draw attention from international human rights organizations and religious freedom advocates. 

Reported by Special Correspondent Ningmeng for China Aid