(Linfen, Shanxi Province, China – March 15, 2025) According to reports, the case of 12 pastoral staff and co-workers of Linfen Golden Lampstand Church charged with “fraud” will be tried on April 7 and April 17, 2025. At that time, Pastor Wang Xiaoguang, Pastor Yang Rongli, Li Shuangping, Dong Yongyong, Zhao Guoai, Huo Zhuangping and six other Christians will stand trial. Among these 12 Christians, six have been illegally detained in custody for over 3 years and 7 months since their arrest on August 7, 2021. The other six were successively released on bail pending trial.

According to lawyers, this case has been extremely difficult with rigid judicial procedures, having been scheduled for trial three times and cancelled three times. Now, after a tortuous process, the trial is finally about to begin. For this reason, Linfen Golden Lampstand Church has issued an open prayer request letter, asking everyone to pray for the trial of this case. 

Background of Linfen Golden Lampstand Church and the early arrests

Linfen Golden Lampstand Church is a large house church in Shanxi Province that has been repeatedly persecuted and suppressed for maintaining its house church position and refusing to join the Three-Self Church.

On November 25, 2009, the Yaodu District Court in Linfen City sentenced:

• Pastor Yang Rongli, the church’s founder, to seven years in prison and a fine of 30,000 yuan on charges of “illegal occupation of agricultural land” and “gathering crowds to disrupt traffic order.”
• Pastor Wang Xiaoguang, Yang Rongli’s husband, was sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of 10,000 yuan.
• Yang Xuan, Church co-worker, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison and a fine of 20,000 yuan,
• Cui Jiaxing, co-worker, to five and a half years in prison and a fine of 50,000 yuan, and
• Zhang Huamei, co-worker, to four years in prison.

On November 30 of the same year, five church leaders including

• Li Shuangping and his wife were sentenced to two years of re-education through labor.

Subsequently, more than thirty gathering venues of the church were all sealed. The Golden Lampstand Church building, built with 17 million yuan in donations from church members, was leveled to the ground by the government through forced demolition on January 9, 2018. Pastor Wang Xiaoguang was released from prison in 2012, and Pastor Yang Rongli was released in 2016. 

Church members arrested again

On August 7, 2021, Pastor Yang Rongli, Pastor Wang Xiaoguang and 10 other Christians were arrested again. Later, 6 people were released on bail pending trial, while Pastor Wang Xiaoguang, Pastor Yang Rongli, Li Shuangping, Dong Yongyong, Zhao Guoai, and Huo Zhuangping have been detained in custody for more than three years.

During these three years, the case has had pre-trial conference dates set three times. The first was decided by the prosecutor but was temporarily cancelled because a chief prosecutor was arrested on suspicion of corruption. The second was determined internally by the Shanxi Provincial Public Security Department, signed by the secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission, requiring Yang Rongli, Li Shuangping and others to be sentenced to life imprisonment. This was also cancelled because a deputy director of the Public Security Bureau responsible for the case was arrested. The third trial was originally scheduled for October 22, 2024, but was also suddenly cancelled. 

During this period, two Christians in prison experienced the death of family members without being able to attend their funerals. Sister Zhao Aiguо’s husband passed away on December 3, 2023. Lawyers applied for bail for Zhao Aiguo to attend her husband’s funeral, but the request was denied. On January 16, 2025, the 89-year-old mother of Li Shuangping, a core co-worker of the Golden Lampstand Church, passed away due to illness. Lawyers again applied to the judicial department for Li Shuangping’s release on bail so that he could attend his mother’s funeral on January 20; this application was again rejected by the detention center. 

(Reported by Special Correspondent Ningmeng of ChinaAid)