Urgent Attention: Early Rain Covenant Church Raided Again, More Than Ten Elderly Church Members Taken Away by Police

(Rights Defense Network Information Center report) On September 12, 2026, this outlet learned that as of 7:50 a.m. Beijing time on September 12, 2026, the Hongpailou Police Station in Chengdu’s Wuhou District had still not released the several (possibly more than ten) elderly church members who were taken away at around 3 p.m. yesterday (September 11) while reading at a hotel teahouse.

According to members of the Early Rain Covenant Church who were still waiting outside the Hongpailou Police Station at around 2 a.m. on September 12, they personally witnessed an “120” ambulance arrive at the entrance of the police station at nearly midnight. They speculated that one of the elderly church members might have fallen ill and that the police station had called “120” for emergency medical treatment. Relatives of some church members called police officers at the station to ask when the people would be released. The officers replied that it would be within 24 hours, and, citing an investigation into a cult, refused to provide any information.

It is reported that since December 9, 2018, when the Chinese Communist authorities launched a large-scale crackdown and arrests targeting Chengdu’s Early Rain Covenant Church, the suppression, threats, intimidation, harassment, and arrests targeting the church’s pastors, co-workers, and members by police in Chengdu and Deyang, Sichuan Province, have almost never ceased during the nearly seven years that followed. On January 6, 2026, Deyang police arrested Elder Li Yingqiang, Pastor Dai Zhichao, Associate Deacon Jia Xuewei, Brother Ye Fenghua, and two other Christians from outside the area who were assisting the Early Rain Covenant Church as volunteers (Ye Fenghua and the Christians from outside the area were released one after another, while Li Yingqiang, Dai Zhichao, and Jia Xuewei were criminally detained by police on suspicion of inciting subversion of state power and organizing illegal gatherings); at around 10 a.m. on June 14, Jiangyou police led a force of 100 to 200 officers to control and intimidate more than 100 church members and their children who were having a meal at a hotel as part of an Early Rain Covenant Church gathering. They took 32 church members from the scene and detained them at the Jiangyou City Case Handling Center. It was not until around 10:50 p.m. that they used a police bus to take the 32 church members back to a hotel. After enduring more than 12 hours of detention and more than three hours of long-distance driving late at night, the church members did not return to Chengdu until around 2 or 3 a.m. on June 15.

At around 3 p.m. on September 11, more than ten elderly church members, most of them over 60 years old (two or three of them were in their seventies, and two were in their fifties), were reading at a teahouse when they were taken away by Chengdu’s Hongpailou police officers who suddenly rushed in. As of press time (7:50 a.m. Beijing time on September 12, 2026), the Hongpailou Police Station had still not released the more than ten elderly church members. In early autumn, temperatures in Chengdu are only 15 or 16 degrees Celsius. Most of the elderly church members detained overnight at the police station are frail and have underlying illnesses. One of them, 73-year-old woman He Futao, previously had lung cancer and underwent lung cancer removal surgery. More recently, she suddenly fainted because of physical discomfort and was taken to a hospital emergency department for treatment. From around 3 p.m. on September 11 until now, she and the others have been detained by police for more than 16 hours.

At around 7:20 a.m. on September 12, a member of the Early Rain Church pleaded with police officers to take two items of clothing in to the detained elderly people, while also hoping that the police would release as soon as possible the elderly church members, who were cold, sleepy, hungry, frail, and suffering from various illnesses.