(Wenzhou, Zhejiang – July 24, 2025)

Assembly in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, Was Shut Down; Students at A Summer Gathering were Taken Away for Investigation 
ChinaAid Association has learned that the Lijiajing Assembly in Yanpu Town, Cangnan County, Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province, was shut down on July 20, 2025. The primary reason cited for the shutdown of this local church, which was started more than twenty years ago, was the prohibition against primary and secondary school students reading the Bible during gatherings. 

On the day of the shutdown, several believers, including primary and secondary school students attending a summer gathering at the Assembly, were taken away for investigation. 

Background of the Local Assembly and Its Current Status in Wenzhou 

The Lijiajing Assembly is one of many assemblies in the southern Wenzhou area. Assemblies in this region have hundreds of thousands of believers who “love the Lord and thirst for His Word.” 

The faith foundation of the Assembly traces back to John Nelson Darby in England in 1829. The Assembly in China originated in the 1920s in Fuzhou, initiated and established by Brother Watchman Nee. Over time, the Assembly has been referred to by various names, such as the “Little Flock,” the “Christian Assembly,” the “Church Assembly Hall,” and the “Local Church.” However, this faith community itself prefers only to prefix the word “Assembly” (or “Church”) with the name of its administrative location and does not accept any specific designation. 

In 1949, under the commissioning of Watchman Nee, Witness Lee (Li Changshou) led a group of local church co-workers to Taiwan to oversee gospel work abroad. In the 1980s, due to differences over whether to accept Witness Lee’s theological teachings, the assemblies split into two branches: the “Old Assembly” and the “Lord’s Recovery.” During the “Strike Hard” campaign of the 1980s, local assemblies were conflated with the “Shouters” and subjected to suppression. Although organizations such as the “China Anti-Cult Association” once mistakenly classified the “Local Assembly” as the “Shouters” and labeled publications from the Taiwan Assembly as “cult propaganda,” the Assembly has never acknowledged this and firmly maintains they are not the “Shouters.” 

ChinaAid Association will continue to monitor the developments of this case.