Hunan Province — September 28, 2026 — Chinese authorities have expanded a crackdown on house-church Christians in central China from places of worship into schools, where students and educators have been questioned or disciplined, according to local Christians.

The reported pressure follows coordinated police raids on several house churches in Yueyang, Hunan Province, on July 11. Six Christian leaders and workers — Pastor Huang Lei, Elder Yang Jianjun, Preacher Hu Hongtao, Pastor Luo Kaimin, Sister Yang Chun and Brother Fu — remain detained, according to local Christians.

Three of them — Huang, Yang and Hu — were later transferred from administrative to criminal detention after authorities accused them of “illegal use of information networks.”

Several Christians released following the July raids said police repeatedly told them during interrogations that Christians who refuse to join government-sanctioned Three-Self churches belong to a “cult.”

Local Christians now report that the pressure has spread beyond house-church gatherings to schools and universities, with Christian educators facing workplace discipline and students from Christian families being questioned by police and pressured to sign documents about their churches.

Pressure spreads to schools

At Hunan Institute of Technology, the wife of a professor surnamed Liu, who also teaches at the university, was suspended from her duties and placed on standby status, according to local Christians.

Another teacher, surnamed Zhou, received the same punishment after previously requesting to withdraw from the Chinese Communist Party because of his Christian faith, the sources said.

At Yueyang No. 1 Secondary School, the school’s Party secretary questioned a teacher identified as T about his participation in a reading group organized by detained Elder Yang Jianjun. The official asked why he wanted to study the Bible and attend the group.

“The Bible isn’t a banned book. People all over the world read it. Of course I need to learn from pastors and elders when I don’t understand something,” Teacher T responded.

According to the source, officials warned him: “Fine! The state security police and national security authorities will come to question you.”

Later that day, police went to several primary and secondary schools in Yueyang, where children from Christian families were individually questioned, local Christians reported. Some interrogations lasted three to four hours, and students were pressured to sign documents accusing their house churches of religious “brainwashing.”

Some children eventually signed the documents, the sources said, while others refused.

Professor Liu’s elementary-school-aged son, who regularly reads the Bible, began crying when police pressured him to sign.

“I don’t know anything. I want to go home. I won’t sign. Don’t force me,” he said, according to local Christians familiar with the incident.

Children face mounting pressure

Another Christian woman, identified only by the surname Liu, had repeatedly traveled to Changsha to visit Pastor John Cao, who has stage 4 prostate cancer. She reportedly continued the visits despite four police warnings to stop contacting him.

On the same day authorities questioned Liu, her elementary-school-aged son was also interrogated at school, local Christians said. The child remained silent and refused to sign any documents.

According to the sources, the youngest child individually questioned by police that day was a first grader.

Local Christians said some children became fearful about returning to school following the questioning. Families also described homeschooling as a difficult alternative because home education remains subject to significant government restrictions and scrutiny.

ChinaAid founder and president Bob Fu said the reports indicate that pressure previously concentrated on independent Christian gatherings is increasingly reaching schools, educators and children. He argued that forcing children to provide information about their families reflects fear by authorities rather than strength.

“This crackdown on faith has ultimately become a collective trampling of basic human dignity and childhood,” Fu said.

“Yet, as shown by those children who chose to remain silent or burst into tears and refuse to sign in interrogation rooms, oppression may be able to close the doors and windows of meeting places, but it cannot erase an individual’s instinctive commitment to dignity and truth.”

Gao Zhensai is a special correspondent for ChinaAid News. Founded in 2002, ChinaAid is an international Christian human rights organization committed to promoting religious freedom and the rule of law in China through advocacy, legal support, and international awareness campaigns.