The following text is based on an in-depth interview with a Christian who has relocated to the United States and remains in close contact with an underground house church in Xi’an, China. For safety reasons, specific names and details have been withheld.
Interviewee: Monica
Interviewer: Gao Zhensai
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
When did you first realize that something had happened to the church?
One day in October 2025, my phone vibrated. It was a message from a pastor in Xi’an. She wrote only one sentence: “Monica, please 🍰 for us.”
Among Chinese Christians, “cake” (*Dangao) does not mean a dessert; it is a code word for “prayer” (*Daogao). We use it to evade WeChat’s censorship system. At that moment, I knew something was wrong.
*It is derived from the initials DG, which match the first two letters of the Chinese word for prayer, Daogao.
My pastor could not share more with me, nor could there be any discussions of any related details, because WeChat is unsafe. A week later, I finally reached a church elder through a relatively secure app. That evening, I was walking alone in a park. The autumn air was cooling around me. As I walked, I read the messages she sent, which included who had been taken away by the police, whose phones had been confiscated, which WeChat groups were under surveillance, which chat records had been printed out, and how the church had been dismantled step by step.
I burst into tears, almost unable to breathe. That night, I walked for hours in the darkness, doing nothing but praying continuously.
Why did you decide to write these things down? Aren’t you afraid?
I am afraid—terrified.
I know that making these things public could put others, and even myself, in danger. But remaining silent seems even more dangerous. For a week, I prayed and struggled continuously.
In the end, I very clearly sensed a response: to take responsibility. Do not be afraid. Let more people know everything that has happened.
I have first-hand information, and being in the United States gives me relative safety. Being able to bear witness for them is itself a responsibility. Of course, I deliberately removed specific details and spoke only about facts I have confirmed that will not directly expose anyone. “Why does almost no one know?”
Why does the outside world hardly hear about the suppression of these house churches?
Because in China, information is systematically “disappeared.” WeChat is a trap.
What role does WeChat play in this?
In China, WeChat is not just a “social app”; it is everything.
Contacting family, coordinating work matters, making payments, registering for appointments, everything is done on WeChat.
Christians also used to use WeChat to coordinate gatherings and share prayer requests. However, the problem is that a Chinese company owns WeChat, and the government can see everything—every message, every group chat, even every emoji.
So it is in almost every Chinese Christians’ DNA: not to use words like “church,” “prayer,” or “pastor,” but to use coded language. However, now, even that is no longer safe.
Two brothers from my church became key surveillance targets simply because their WeChat chat patterns were flagged.
Then why not use other communication tools?
Because almost all the platforms you are familiar with are blocked in China: Facebook, Instagram, X, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, YouTube, and Google—all are inaccessible.
VPNs can theoretically bypass the firewall, but the reality is:
- VPN apps are not allowed to be listed on Chinese app stores
- Searching for VPNs on domestic search engines is itself a risky act
- Using a VPN is illegal, and people have already been arrested for it
Even if you can use one, servers can be shut down at any time, and monthly VPN subscriptions are expensive.
So Chinese Christians’ connections with the outside world are cut off. Even the few who still have channels will choose to remain silent.
What does this silence mean for the church?
It means that fear has become a kind of “muscle memory.”
We have learned not to ask, not to speak, not to know. Because the less you know, the safer you are.
House churches are very small in scale and isolated from one another.
This was originally for safety, but the cost is that when persecution happens, the story dies in the room where it’s born.
Xi’an church, the church you belong to, what kind of church is it?
We are a branch church. We met every Sunday at 10 a.m. in the living room of the pastor’s two-bedroom, one-bath apartment, with 15 to 20 people.
The living room was soundproofed. There was no website and no social media. You could only join through a personal introduction.
After the gatherings, we would eat together. Some people cooked; others went out to sell books or hand out bookmarks printed with Bible verses.
We always felt that this was cautious enough. But we were wrong.
When did the first crackdown occur?
October 16, 2025. Cyber police identified two brothers through WeChat surveillance. I’ll call them Brother A and Brother B.
Brother A was first invited to “chat about his faith,” then repeatedly interrogated and asked to sign a “victim report,” admitting that he had been “deceived” by the church pastor. He refused.
What happened next?
On October 20, they found Brother B, who worked at a university.
This time, 13 people came: public security officers, state security, the Religious Affairs Bureau, and university leadership. His phone was confiscated on the spot, and every group chat, conversation, and name was printed out.
What were the core questions they were concerned with?
- Where do you meet?
- Who are the organizers?
- Is it free of charge?
- Have you attended any training overseas or in Hong Kong?
- What is your current job?
- When did you start believing? How did you come to believe?
- How did you join the church’s WeChat group?
- What is the name of the WeChat group?
- Do you know the people in the group?
- Have you evangelized to children or your students?
- Are you a member of an illegal organization (that is, our underground church)?
- Have you made donations? How much?
- Where is the church’s meeting location?
- Is there a full-time pastor in this illegal organization?
Brother B answered as carefully as he could, but everything was already irreversible.
From Brother B’s phone, they obtained the list of church leaders, the list of ministry workers, and the address for the gatherings.
The next day, the university pressured him to “resign voluntarily.”
What happened to the church afterward?
The pastor moved out that very night and terminated the lease. Offline gatherings were suspended indefinitely.
On October 26, we held our first online gathering. There have been no in-person meetings since.
What does online worship mean for believers?
An inexpressible sense of emptiness.
The church members expressed that they cannot receive Communion together, no bread, no wine, no cup passed from hand to hand; they cannot clearly see one another’s faces through pixelated screens; they cannot hug each other or gather in a circle to pray.
Many people relived the loneliness they felt during the pandemic, but this time, there is no end date.
How is the situation with the sister church you mentioned?
They have been tormented for three years.
For three years, the pastor has been arrested on (government-fabricated) charges of “fraud” and “illegal fundraising,” simply for accepting voluntary offerings from believers.
The trial was manipulated. At least twenty young men wearing identical black short-sleeved shirts (believed to be state security personnel, community police, and auxiliary police) entered the courtroom, all holding observer passes.
The real plaintiffs, church members who could provide exculpatory testimony, and the defendant’s family members, all holding valid identification, were refused entry to the courtroom. Security checkpoint staff told them there were no seats.
The lawyers were replaced, and evidence was fabricated.
Why do you say the evidence was fabricated?
They did not have sufficient evidence to convict the pastor. After demanding that Brother A admit he had been “deceived” by the church pastor and being refused, they coerced members who were not even from that church to give false testimony.
This is not justice; it is theater.
What is Pastor A’s situation now?
April 2025: Pastor A was moved from detention to “residential surveillance at a designated location”—a form of house arrest.
He has been diagnosed with mental disorders, anxiety, severe cervical spondylosis, and soft-tissue edema. These conditions either developed or worsened during his detention.
How does the falsely accused pastor defend himself?
Donations at Church B follow biblical teaching, emphasizing the principle of voluntary giving.
Donations are collected and managed by believers, and expenditures are decided and supervised by church leaders. The finances are open and transparent.
How do you view the current state of the matter?
This did not happen suddenly.
From the demolition of crosses, the shutdown of Bible apps, the expulsion of missionaries, the banning of minors under 18 from entering churches, to the surveillance of WeChat groups, the criminalization of offerings, and the formal prohibition of foreign missionary activities, this has been a process continuing for more than a decade.
Have there been any new developments?
The latest news is that a sister has also been summoned for interrogation. The current situation aims to eradicate house churches completely. Everyone who serves has become a target.
The authorities’ solution is to attend an officially recognized “Three-Self” church.
What kind of individual is receiving particular attention?
Teachers, students, children, public servants (government employees), pastors, missionaries, and Christians who serve in churches.
The message is very clear: faith in unofficially-recognized (underground) churches is regarded as a threat.
It seems rather bleak—what is the way out?
When Jesus spoke of the Beatitudes, he said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:10). Cyber police, fabricated evidence, detention centers, and firewalls cannot separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:38–39).
What are believers still holding on to in such an environment?
China’s house churches have previously gone through waves of persecution aimed at eradicating them, yet they have all survived. On the contrary, they grew stronger.
A sister who is pregnant continues to serve. The brothers refuse to sign false confessions.
They are also seeking new, safer offline locations to gather, and so on. They are not praying to escape.
They are praying for this:
To remain faithful. To not lie.
To not abandon one another.
This kind of faith cannot be taken away.
Do you have any invitations you would like to extend to readers?
If possible, please share this story and pray for believers in China. Pray for the online churches; pray that Brother A and Brother B will be spared further interrogation and harassment; pray for justice for the arrested pastors and evangelists; pray for their safety.