Second-instance ruling in Hefei Ganquan Church case against Zhou Songlin and Ding Zhongfu upholds first-instance sentences of four and a half years and four years

(China Human Rights Defender Information Center report) On May 9, 2026, this outlet learned that the second-instance ruling in the case against Hefei Ganquan Church members Zhou Songlin and Ding Zhongfu upheld the first-instance sentences of four and a half years and four years.

On May 7, 2026, without a hearing being held, their lawyers received the written second-instance ruling from the Hefei Intermediate People’s Court: the appeals were rejected and the original verdicts upheld. On February 13, 2026, Elder Ding Zhongfu was sentenced to four years in prison for fraud, with his sentence ending on November 30, 2027; Pastor Zhou Songlin was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for fraud, with his sentence ending on May 31, 2028.

Biography of Zhou Songlin: Born in the 1960s, a native of Anhui Province, a Christian, formerly a preacher at a Three-Self church, founder and pastor of the Ganquan house church in Hefei, Anhui Province, and a Chinese prisoner of conscience.

More than 30 years ago, after graduating from a Chinese theological seminary (government-approved), he was assigned to serve as a preacher at a church under the jurisdiction of the Three-Self church. However, after marrying, he and his wife felt a strong calling and he resolutely left the Three-Self church (the “iron rice bowl” within the system) to establish the Ganquan house church in Hefei, Anhui Province. From then on, he and others served full-time and worked diligently to preach the gospel. By 2023, Ganquan Church had grown to 400 or 500 Christian believers;

However, because over the past 10-plus years the Chinese Communist authorities have continuously persecuted house churches, with house churches in various places frequently suppressed and dissolved, the church where he served was also forced to relocate many times. Therefore, in order to prevent worship activities from being disrupted and disturbed, a church workers’ conference resolved to use believers’ donations accumulated over many years to purchase two church properties for worship gatherings and other church activities. At the same time, to prevent the properties of the house church from going unrecognized by the Chinese Communist authorities, several fellow workers were collectively selected to hold the properties jointly (that is, the two properties were registered in the names of Elder Ding Zhongfu and two other church members). Legal procedures were followed, and video notarization was archived, to prove that the properties belonged to the church and that their ownership status was clear. However, this action later became the authorities’ grounds and evidence for sending people to arrest and prosecute the church’s pastors and fellow workers;

On November 30, 2023, 16 pastors and fellow workers from Ganquan Church, including him, were suddenly summoned at home by police from Shushan District, Hefei, and all their homes were searched. He, Elder Ding Zhongfu, preacher Mao Junma, preacher Pei Defei, and administrative fellow worker Yang Peiyun were subsequently criminally detained on suspicion of “fraud.” On December 28 of the same year, except for three preachers and fellow workers who were released on bail pending trial, he and Elder Ding Zhongfu remained in custody. They were later formally arrested, with the two men’s arrests alleged to be connected to the two Ganquan Church properties and the church’s financial transactions;

In early May 2024, his lawyers learned from the Shushan District Procuratorate in Hefei that the status of his case at that time was: “1. There will be no return for supplementary investigation; 2. A half-month extension; 3. There will be no procedure for admitting guilt and accepting punishment because neither man admits guilt; 4. The case will be brought to court for prosecution no later than May 20.” During this period, some fellow workers within his church (or people claiming to be fellow workers), under pressure from the authorities in various ways, developed disagreements and divisions over the retention of defense lawyers, because the wives of the two men had hired lawyers unwelcome to the authorities. This led some believers to say they would leave the church. In response, on May 5 he said from prison that the persecution he and Elder Ding Zhongfu were suffering was in fact political persecution: “They did not actively participate in politics; rather, they were forced into politics.”

His wife also issued a statement saying that her husband “is an upright and devout Christian who has served the church full-time for 32 years. His guiding principles in service are: loyalty to God, based on the Bible, exalting Christ, and loving God and people,” and that “to avoid temptation, he insists on not handling church money in the course of his service” and that “not a single penny has gone into his own pocket.” She also appealed, saying that her pastor husband and Elder Ding Zhongfu “did not illegally possess other people’s property through deceptive means. They are not fraudsters; they are innocent. Please return their freedom to them.” Two other church believers also submitted petitions and written testimony at different times to the Hefei Religious Affairs Bureau and the criminal investigation unit concerning the wrongful arrests of the two men, but the authorities ignored them and refused to accept them as credible;

On July 31, 2024, a pretrial conference was held at the Shushan District People’s Court in Hefei in the fraud case against him. Because his defense lawyers argued that the prosecutor had failed to perform the duties required of him, resulting in numerous problems in the indictment, the prosecutor was rendered speechless when questioned in court and could only suspend the conference ahead of schedule. A second pretrial conference was then held on October 14 of the same year, but to this day there has still been no trial result in his case. It is reported that although his health was poor in the detention center, he learned to live with three states of mind: the mindset of a martyr, the mindset of spiritual cultivation, and the mindset of preaching. He also sent word to encourage church believers to “firmly resolve to live for the gospel.”

The court ultimately delivered its verdict in the case on February 13, 2026, as follows: Pastor Zhou Songlin was sentenced to four years and six months in prison and fined 30,000 yuan, with his sentence ending on May 31, 2028;

He is currently detained at Hefei Detention Center (Hefei (Men’s) Detention Center, Supervision Detachment, Meichonghu Road, Shuangfeng, Changfeng County, Hefei City, postal code: 230000).

Biography of Ding Zhongfu: Born in the 1960s, a native of Anhui Province, a Christian, an elder of the Ganquan house church in Hefei, Anhui Province, the person responsible for the church’s financial management, a family-education worker, and a Chinese prisoner of conscience.

Because of his devout faith in Jesus Christ, he volunteered to serve in the church. He was later ordained as an elder and served as a pastoral fellow worker at Ganquan Church in Hefei, Anhui Province. Because of his upright and kind character, his active and diligent nature, his pursuit of fairness and justice, and his dedication to family education, he received widespread praise in the church and the surrounding community. In particular, through teaching by word and example in the church, he helped many believers establish and strengthen good family relationships. However, although the Ganquan Church in Hefei had developed over more than 20 years into a well-known local house church with 400 or 500 believers, it had frequently been disrupted and harassed by the local Religious Affairs Bureau and police for more than a decade;

On November 30, 2023, 16 pastors and fellow workers from Ganquan Church, including him, were suddenly summoned at home by police from Shushan District, Hefei, and everyone’s home was searched. He, Pastor Zhou Songlin, preacher Mao Junma, preacher Pei Defei, and administrative fellow worker Yang Peiyun from the church were subsequently criminally detained on suspicion of “fraud”;

On December 28 of the same year, except for three preachers and fellow workers who were released on bail pending trial, he and Pastor Zhou Songlin remained in custody. They were later formally arrested on the same charge. The two men’s arrests were alleged to be connected to the two Ganquan Church properties and the church’s financial transactions. They were accused of “using illegal possession as their purpose and, under the pretext of religion, defrauding others of more than 3.39 million yuan in total, an especially large amount,” and were therefore deemed to have committed fraud;

On April 30, 2024, the Shushan District police in Hefei transferred his case to the Shushan District Court for prosecution. In early May of the same year, his defense lawyers learned from Shushan District police officers that the case had been announced as follows: “1. There will be no return for supplementary investigation; 2. A half-month extension; 3. There will be no procedure for admitting guilt and accepting punishment because neither man admits guilt; 4. The case will be brought to court for prosecution no later than May 20.” During this period, some fellow workers within his church, under pressure from the authorities in various ways, developed disagreements and divisions over the retention of defense lawyers, because the wives of the two men had hired defense lawyers unwelcome to the authorities. This led some believers to say they would leave the church. In response, Pastor Zhou Songlin, who was tried in the same case, said from prison on May 5 that the persecution he and Elder Ding Zhongfu were suffering “was in fact political persecution”; they had not “actively participated in politics, but had been forced into politics.” At the same time, the wives of the two arrested pastors also issued statements and appeals saying that their husbands “did not illegally possess other people’s property through deceptive means. They are not fraudsters; they are innocent. Please return their freedom to them.” A number of other church believers also submitted petitions and written testimony at different times to the Hefei Religious Affairs Bureau and the criminal investigation unit concerning the wrongful arrests of the two men, proving that they had been wronged and that no deception or fraud had occurred, but the authorities uniformly ignored them and refused to believe them;

On July 31, 2024, a pretrial conference was held at the Shushan District People’s Court in Hefei in the case against the two men. Because their defense lawyers argued that the prosecutor had failed to perform the duties required of him, resulting in numerous problems in the indictment, the prosecutor was rendered speechless when challenged in court and could only suspend the conference ahead of schedule. A second pretrial conference was held on October 14, 2024, but to this day the case against the two men remains pending without a verdict;

It is reported that his health was extremely poor in the detention center. In addition to some chronic illnesses common among older people, his blood pressure reached as high as 170/110, and even medication could not control it. He frequently experienced chest tightness, dizziness, and insomnia. His wife appealed on behalf of her husband: “Immediately release the innocent man.”

The court ultimately delivered its verdict in the case on February 13, 2026, as follows: Elder Ding Zhongfu was sentenced to four years in prison and fined 28,000 yuan, with his sentence ending on November 30, 2027;

He is currently detained at Hefei Detention Center (Hefei (Men’s) Detention Center, Supervision Detachment, Meichonghu Road, Shuangfeng, Changfeng County, Hefei City, Anhui Province, postal code: 230000).