Chengdu Early Rain Church Minister Dai Zhichao Has Been Detained for Four Months; Lawyer Still Unable to Meet Him

(Rights Defense Network Information Center report) On May 17, 2026, this website learned that Chengdu Early Rain Church Minister Dai Zhichao has been detained for four months and his lawyer is still unable to meet him.

Dai Zhichao’s wife, Lu Lingzhi, reported today that Dai Zhichao has been detained for four months and his lawyer is still unable to meet him. Lu Lingzhi is 29 weeks pregnant and has officially entered the third trimester. She is carrying their third child and must also care for their two other children alone.

Dai Zhichao: Born in 1990, a native of Chengdu, Sichuan Province, a Christian, a minister at Chengdu Early Rain Covenant Church, a victim of the “Early Rain Covenant case,” and a Chinese prisoner of conscience.

He believed in Jesus Christ from adolescence. After graduating from university, he first sought employment in Chongqing, but soon afterward, in 2013, he enrolled in a study program at Liren University (abbreviated as Lida, a private university in mainland China), headquartered in Beijing, and attended a week-long course on Christianity and political philosophy in Chengdu, Sichuan, becoming a student of Pastor Wang Yi. After the study program ended, he returned to Chongqing to continue working, but was soon moved by a calling and resigned decisively, devoting himself full-time to ministry at Mount Olive Reformed Church in Bazhong, Bazhong City. In August 2017, in order to better equip himself, and with the support and encouragement of Mount Olive Church, he began studying diligently at Huaxi Covenant Theological Seminary in Chengdu. However, in March 2021, Mount Olive Reformed Church suffered a major blow amid the Chinese Communist authorities’ crackdown, and was banned by the Sichuan Provincial Department of Civil Affairs. Therefore, after graduating from seminary, he began serving full-time as a minister at Chengdu Early Rain Covenant Church.

On December 9, 2018, the Early Rain Covenant case occurred. More than 100 members of the church were subjected to mass arrests and summonses by Chengdu police, and he was also criminally detained for courageously writing a prayer letter for the church. It was not until more than three months later that he was released on bail pending trial for one year, but the police then forcibly sent him to Liangping District, Chongqing, his wife’s hometown.

In July 2020, he returned to Chengdu with his wife and children. In the face of the authorities’ severe persecution of the church, he still bravely stood up to participate in church ministry, working hard through his passionate writing, preaching, and experiences of suffering to inspire many people to learn about and accept the gospel that “Christ is Lord, and grace reigns.” However, precisely because of this, beginning in September 2022, the Chengdu authorities kept him under close surveillance and under house arrest for an extended period. He was stopped whenever he tried to leave the gate of his residential compound and was even slapped in the face.

On February 12, 2023, when he tried to leave home to attend a worship service, he was again watched and stopped by numerous residential-compound staff members downstairs, so he had to participate in online worship from home. However, when the police banged hard on his door and tried to speak with him, he clearly told them to “use the power in their hands cautiously and stop continuing to persecute the church,” and invited the police to watch the livestreamed Sunday worship service with him. On December 9 of the same year, the fifth anniversary of the December 9 Early Rain Covenant case, in order to prevent the pastors, co-workers, and congregants of Early Rain Covenant Church from participating in an online event, the local authorities again used various forms of harassment and obstruction, including telephone warnings, threats at his home, surveillance, summonses, and cutting off the electricity. They also criminally detained him on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” and he was not released on bail until one month later.

As the Chinese Communist authorities intensified their nationwide campaign of persecution against house churches, on January 6, 2026, Early Rain Covenant Church again suffered large-scale persecution across Chengdu and Deyang. He, along with church elder Li Yingqiang and eight other pastors, co-workers, and congregants, was arrested, lost contact, or had his freedom restricted. He had previously been notified that he was not permitted to leave the jurisdiction where he resided. On January 6, he was taken away from the church office, and his home was searched. He has been out of contact ever since. As of now, the specific charges against most of these pastors and co-workers remain unclear, and their families have not yet received legal documents, but it is known that lawyers have become involved.

He is currently being held at the Deyang City Detention Center in Sichuan Province.