Case Details and Biography of Huang Lei, Founder and Pastor of Panshi Bible House Church in Yueyang City, Who Was Arrested

(Rights Defense Network Information Center report) On August 21, 2026, this website learned of the case details and biography of Huang Lei, founder and pastor of Panshi Bible House Church in Yueyang City, who was arrested. They are reported as follows:

Huang Lei: A native of Yueyang City, Hunan Province, Huang Lei is a resident of the staff residential compound of the No. 3 Hospital on Nanhu Avenue, Yueyanglou District, Yueyang City; a Christian; founder and pastor of Panshi Bible House Church in Yueyanglou District; and a Chinese prisoner of conscience currently in detention.

Having firmly believed in Jesus Christ and received a calling, he founded Panshi Bible House Church in Yueyanglou District in his hometown on April 17, 2022, and has ministered to local believers ever since; later, as a result of the efforts of him and his fellow pastoral workers, the church developed rapidly and its membership continued to grow, after which it began to attract the authorities’ attention and face sustained repression; in 2022, because he refused to join the “Three-Self” church controlled by the Chinese Communist authorities, he was administratively detained for 15 days by Yueyanglou District police in Yueyang City on the charge of “impersonating religious personnel and qigong practitioners”; on April 24, 2024, he was again administratively detained for 15 days by police on the grounds of “illegally organizing religious activities.”

On July 11, 2026, Yueyang police mobilized multiple police units to carry out a coordinated joint roundup and intensified crackdown on his Panshi church and multiple independent meeting points in the area. A number of his fellow church believers and pastoral workers were arrested, and his and several others’ homes or residences were searched, with large quantities of The Bible and Christian books and other items confiscated; although several believers were eventually released after lengthy interrogations, he and Hu Hongtao, an evangelist with the church, and Yang Jianjun, an elder, remained in detention; on July 27, the date on which their administrative detention periods expired, the three were not released, but were instead placed under criminal detention by Yueyanglou District police on suspicion of “the crime of illegally using information networks.”

It is learned that during the period when these believers and pastoral workers were arrested, all of them were compelled to provide biometric data (that is, DNA blood samples, fingerprints, voiceprints, and video records), and personal surveillance files were created for them; law-enforcement personnel also repeatedly asserted during interrogations of those arrested that refusing to join the official “Three-Self Patriotic Church” constituted a “cult,” while their family members also clearly came under pressure, with the authorities requiring them to sign letters of commitment prohibiting their family members from continuing to participate in house-church activities; it is further learned that since his arrest, he has completed an initial meeting with a lawyer, but his wife, Wang Ling, has been suffering from a long-term illness and originally required ongoing care, while she must now struggle to get by with her seriously ill, bedridden mother.

He is currently detained at Yueyang City No. 1 Detention Center (No. 1 Fuyi Road, Yueyanglou District, Yueyang City, Hunan Province, postal code: 414000).