Yang Rongli, Shanxi Linfen Golden Lampstand House Church Leader and Preacher Sentenced to 15 Years, Celebrates Her 68th Birthday in Prison
(Rights Defense Network Information Center report) On October 3, 2026, this outlet learned that today Yang Rongli, leader and preacher of the Linfen Golden Lampstand House Church in Shanxi Province, who was sentenced to 15 years, is celebrating her 68th birthday in prison. Because it refused to join the “Three-Self Church,” the Linfen Golden Lampstand House Church church has long been targeted by the authorities; she was sentenced to seven years in 2009 and released after completing her sentence on October 10, 2016. She was arrested again in August 2021; in 2025, she was sentenced to 15 years.
Yang Rongli: Female, born October 3, 1958, a native of Huozhou City, Shanxi Province, Christian, former public employee in the Retired Cadres Office of Shanxi Normal University, former leader and preacher of the Linfen Golden Lampstand House Church in Shanxi Province, and Chinese prisoner of conscience in detention.
Since taking full-time responsibility for the church in 1998, she developed a small church that originally had only dozens of members into a large church with 50,000 Christians; in 2004, she was subjected to severe repression by the authorities for building the Golden Lampstand Grand Church in Linfen City (including various forms of obstruction such as cutting off water and electricity); in 2009, because the authorities coveted the commercial value of the church’s location and sought to forcibly demolish the Golden Lampstand Church, she firmly refused, and was then subjected to fierce retaliation by the Fushan County government in Linfen City. On September 13 of that year, more than 500 police officers were deployed to surround and storm the church venue and the Gospel Shoe Factory belonging to the church, beating and injuring more than 100 Christians; later, disagreements arose during negotiations between the two sides over compensation for the local police’s brutal raid, destruction and looting, and beating of the church and Christians, and on September 23 the church was again surrounded by armed police; on September 25 of the same year, she and six church leaders went to Taiyuan City to petition and seek redress, but were intercepted and taken away by police en route; on October 11 of the same year, Linfen City police in Shanxi Province criminally detained her on suspicion of “unlawful occupation of agricultural land” and “gathering a crowd to disrupt traffic order,” and held her at the Taiyuan Detention Center in Shanxi Province; on October 21, 2009, her arrest on suspicion of the same offenses was formally approved by Yaodu District, Linfen City, Shanxi Province; on November 25, 2009, the Yaodu District Court in Linfen City, Shanxi Province, sentenced her to seven years’ imprisonment for the same offenses and fined her 30,000 yuan, after which she was sent to Shanxi Xinkang Prison to serve her sentence; she was released after completing her sentence on October 10, 2016;
On August 7, 2021, she and more than a dozen church leaders, officials and coworkers were suddenly criminally detained again by Yaodu District police in Linfen City on suspicion of “fraud”; on September 27 of the same year, all but five, who were released on bail pending trial, remained in custody, and she, the church’s pastor (also her husband), and five others were formally arrested by the Yaodu District Procuratorate in Linfen City on suspicion of “fraud”; on December 27, 2021, the case against these seven people was transferred to the Linfen City Procuratorate for review and prosecution;. The Golden Lampstand Church case was heard at the Yaodu District Court in Linfen City on October 22, 2024. On June 20, 2025, a judge came to the detention center and announced the judgment sentencing Yang Rongli, a preacher at the Linfen Golden Lampstand House Church in Shanxi Province, to 15 years in prison. Her sentence runs until August 6, 2036. She had previously been held at the Yaodu District Detention Center in Linfen City, Shanxi Province. It was learned at the end of November 2025 that Yang Rongli had been transferred to Taiyuan No. 3 Prison to serve her sentence.
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