(Chengdu, Sichuan Province – January 22, 2024) On the evening of January 9, 2024 at around 8:00 PM, Preacher Dai Zhichao from Chengdu Early Rain Covenant Church completed a 30-day criminal detention and returned home. Authorities have put him under “release on bail pending trial”, with a one-year term. This implies that over the next year, he will be subjected to some “legitimate” restrictions.
On the afternoon of December 9, 2023, Preacher Dai Zhichao was taken away by authorities in Chengdu. The following day, he was criminally detained on grounds of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” The defense lawyer scheduled a meeting with him at Chengdu City Detention Center on December 13, 2023. However, upon the lawyer’s arrival, the detention center informed the lawyer that the police were currently interrogating Dai Zhichao. After a long wait, they were finally able to meet. The lawyer revealed that Dai Zhichao was in good spirits, peaceful and joyful. He exercises daily by doing aerobics and walking ten thousand steps to maintain physical fitness. Even in the detention center, he openly shares his Christian faith with other inmates.
It is reported that Preacher Dai Zhichao received God’s calling at a young age. He was criminally detained for three months for serving his church, as well as a fifteen-day administrative detention and several months of house arrest. Dai Zhichao initially became a student of Pastor Wang Yi during his time at a training program of Liren University in 2013, where he participated in a week-long study of “Christianity and Political Philosophy” in Chengdu shortly after graduating from college. After completing Pastor Wang Yi’s training program, he returned to Chongqing to work. He resigned from his job shortly and started serving full-time at Olive Mountain Church. With the love of the pastors and brothers and sisters at Olive Mountain Church, he came to Chengdu in the fall of 2017 to study at the West China Covenant Theological Seminary. Olive Mountain Church provided him with significant support and encouragement, but they did not insist on his return to Olive Mountain Church for service. Thus, he began his commitment and service at Chengdu Early Rain Covenant Church.
In 2018, during the December 9 crackdown against Early Rain Covenant Church, he was arrested and imprisoned for over three months due to his involvement in writing prayer messages for the church. During the one-year bail period, he was forcibly deported to his wife’s hometown in Chongqing City Liangping District. After the bail period ended, he returned to Chengdu with his wife and two young children in July 2020. On the day of his 30th birthday in 2020, he wrote, “Life is always between two dilemmas: physical suffering or spiritual suffering, with the cross before us. Taking up the cross is taking up happiness. I have discovered a secret – I am immersed in so much grace. When I think of the love of the Lord, the love of brothers and sisters, the love of my wife and children, and the love of parents… as I reflect, I constantly see that the Lord loves me so much, to the point where I feel every hair on my head has been counted by God. The taste of God’s grace is irresistible. I said to the Lord with honesty that I am willing to taste his grace even more.”
In the years following the 2018 crackdown, Preacher Dai Zhichao bravely stood up and participated in church service, even during severe persecution. Through his writing, preaching, and enduring hardships at Chengdu Early Rain Covenant Church, he inspired many to understand the gospel of “Christ is Lord, and grace is king.” He lives out a life of “bearing the cross, and reviving the gospel.”