Report on the Sudden Encirclement and Raid by Multiple Local Government Departments on the In-Person Gathering of the Early Rain Covenant Church in Jiangyou City

(Rights Defense Network Information Center report) On June 15, 2026, this website learned from information in a prayer letter issued by Chengdu Early Rain Covenant Church at 12:09 on June 15, 2026, that the Early Rain Covenant Church’s in-person gathering in Jiangyou City had suddenly been surrounded and raided by multiple local government departments. The situation is reported as follows:

Early Rain Covenant Church: At 11 a.m. on Sunday, June 14, 2026, the Early Rain Covenant Church’s in-person gathering in Jiangyou City was suddenly surrounded and raided by multiple local government departments. At least 60 or 70 government officials, including political-security personnel, police, special police, officials from the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau, and township-level grassroots personnel, broke into the site and forcibly took control of the gathering.

At around 1 p.m., some brothers and sisters at the site began to be taken away in batches to a detention center for questioning.

According to accounts shared by the brothers and sisters, one brother was taken alone to a police station and was not returned to the hall until after 3 p.m.; another 31 people were forcibly taken in batches aboard several police vehicles and brought to the Jiangyou City Central Registration Center/detention center, including Sister He, aged 72, and a seeker. The 31 brothers and sisters occupied all the interrogation rooms in the Jiangyou Detention Center and were uniformly dressed in yellow vests. Throughout the detention, everyone held fellowship, sang hymns, and prayed until most people were released.

The remaining dozens of elderly members, as well as the parents of women, children, and some minors, were collectively held in the hall from noon onward. Subsequently, law-enforcement personnel registered the identities of the brothers and sisters at the site. Officials at the site set a condition, requiring church members to sign a statement (a letter of guarantee) before they could leave, while refusing to disclose the specific contents of the statement until they agreed to sign it. This proposal was rejected by the brothers and sisters at the site, who chose to wait in the hall. At around 6 p.m., after undergoing a second detailed registration of their identity information, the members were allowed to leave in succession.

At around 7 p.m., most of the brothers and sisters and the children safely boarded buses and returned to Chengdu. Some members took their children to the Jiangyou City detention center, where they waited anxiously outside the high walls and gates. Between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m., the brothers and sisters who had been taken into the detention center for questioning were gradually released, with the exception of Elder Yan Hong and Elder Wu Wuqing. After walking out through the high walls, everyone gathered closely together and entrusted themselves to one another in prayers of thanksgiving; afterward, they accompanied one another and set out to return around midnight.