CHENGDU, SICHUAN PROVINCE, CHINA — Sept. 30, 2026 — Authorities in southwestern China have formally arrested veteran dissident and Early Rain Covenant Church member Chen Yunfei again on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” after he spent more than a month in custody following an August detention in Gansu Province.

Chen was released in March 2025 after serving a four-year sentence after his second imprisonment since 2015. He participated in China’s 1989 democracy movement and has spent decades engaged in activities defending human rights. 

Relatives and sources familiar with the case said authorities in Chengdu’s Wenjiang District formally arrested Chen Yunfei on Sept. 23. His nephew said the family learned of the development from local political-security officers but had not received written notice of Chen’s criminal detention or formal arrest.

At the time of publication, the Wenjiang Branch of the Chengdu Public Security Bureau had not disclosed specific allegations underlying the charge. “Picking quarrels and provoking trouble” is a broadly worded offense frequently used in cases involving Chinese activists and government critics.

The latest developments “once again reveal the Chinese authorities’ systematic use of legal tools in dealing with dissidents and underground religious groups,” said Pastor Bob Fu, founder of ChinaAid.

Detained in Gansu, transferred to Chengdu

Chen’s latest detention began during a trip to Gansu Province in August, when local police placed him under administrative detention. When the detention expired Aug. 17, the Subei County Administrative Detention Center did not release him.

Instead, Chen was transferred directly to Chengdu police officers who had arrived to take custody. Little public information about his status emerged after the transfer until relatives learned of his formal arrest in September.

In the months before his detention, Chen reported being closely watched and subjected to repeated police pressure. On Jan. 8, an unidentified man attacked him outside his residence in Chengdu’s Pidu District, according to Chen.

Chen said the assailant warned him not to post about the incident on X. The attack left him with facial injuries that required several stitches at a hospital.

Chen later speculated that the attack might have been connected to a brief encounter one or two months earlier, when he offered a drawing book to a young girl while walking with his elderly mother. No connection between the encounter and assault has been publicly established.

After the attack, Chen said he left Pidu District with his mother and moved to Wenjiang District.

Seeking documentation needed for a medical assessment, Chen later went with six friends to a local police station. After obtaining hospital records, he said officers escorted him into an interrogation area and made him sit on a metal restraint device known as a “tiger bench.”

“That was a barbaric forced summons,” Chen later said. He said police did not notify friends waiting outside, prompting him to shout from the lobby to get their attention. The roughly three-hour questioning ended with police issuing a formal compulsory summons notice.

Long-term surveillance

Chen has also publicly accused officials of misconduct in previous cases. He said that after an earlier police operation, money intended for his daughter’s overseas studies — including $30,000, several thousand additional dollars and tens of thousands of yuan — disappeared from his residence.

Chen filed administrative lawsuits and complaints concerning the missing property and repeated forced relocations, but he said those efforts were either rejected or delayed.

Chen has been imprisoned twice since 2015, serving approximately eight years in total. Since his March 2025 release, he has reported continuing surveillance, police summonses and pressure to relocate.

Pressure on Early Rain Covenant Church

Chen’s latest arrest comes amid renewed police pressure this year on Early Rain Covenant Church, one of China’s best-known Protestant house churches. The Chengdu congregation has faced repeated raids, detentions and surveillance since a major crackdown in December 2018, when authorities took about 100 church leaders and members into custody.

Authorities launched another coordinated operation on Jan. 6, detaining or questioning several church leaders and members and searching homes in Chengdu and Deyang.

Elder Li Yingqiang and preacher Dai Zhichao were formally arrested in February on suspicion of inciting subversion of state power and remain held at the Deyang Detention Center. Their cases were returned to police for supplementary investigation in August.

Deputy Deacon Jia Xuewei was later formally arrested on suspicion of organizing illegal gatherings. Church member Ye Fenghua was placed under residential surveillance at a designated location earlier this year, although his current legal status has not been independently confirmed.

Pressure on other members has continued. According to church sources, a group of people forced Early Rain member Liu Yingxu and his wife, who was more than eight months pregnant, from their home Sept. 22 after telling them the property had been sold.

Despite the pressure facing the congregation, Chen continued participating in Early Rain prayer gatherings and community-service activities before his latest detention.

Chen’s family still had not received written documentation confirming his arrest at the time of publication, and his precise detention facility had not been publicly confirmed.

Fu said authorities are attempting to dismantle grassroots organizations and community networks outside state control by simultaneously “de-legitimizing” citizens’ rights-defense activities and underground religious activities.

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.