Case Details and Biography of Ding Xing'an, Pingxiang, Jiangxi House Church Preacher Placed in Criminal Detention

On November 6, 2026, this outlet learned that on October 18, 2026, police entered a house church gathering in Pingxiang, Jiangxi, and took away preacher Ding Xing'an and several believers. All the believers except Ding were gradually released. On October 19, Ding Xing'an was placed in criminal detention on suspicion of “organizing others to illegally cross the national (border) frontier.” He is currently being held at the Pingxiang City Detention Center.

The following is a notice on the case details and biography of Ding Xing'an:

Ding Xing'an: Born in 1986, a native of Jiangxi Province, a Christian, formerly a public-sector employee at a state-owned urban investment company affiliated with the Hainan Provincial Post Bureau, a preacher at a house church in Pingxiang, Jiangxi Province, and a Chinese prisoner of conscience currently in custody.

Earlier, while at university, he studied economics and management at Wuhan University. After graduating, he held a management position at a state-owned urban investment company affiliated with the Hainan Provincial Post Bureau. Later, to further his education, he pursued an in-service graduate degree in economics and management at Wuhan University. While working and living in Hainan, he came to believe in Jesus Christ and fell in love with and married Zhang Yanxia, a sister in the same faith. They began actively participating in church ministry together, and he also promptly took part in theological training to equip himself;

In 2022, he and his wife Zhang Yanxia felt called and both resigned, then returned to their inland hometown, where they began establishing a house church in Pingxiang, Jiangxi Province. Foreign websites say their church is called “Deng'an Church (登安教会/邓安教会),” and that they do evangelical work. Because he has consistently treated people kindly, zealously spread the Gospel, and taught church members to love and support one another, his church has continued to worship and gather on the strength of its firm Christian faith despite the Chinese Communist government’s escalating crackdown on Christian house churches in recent years. It has two regular gathering sites in the Pingxiang Development Zone, with about 80 believers attending regularly;

On October 18, 2026, while leading Sunday worship at a local gathering site in Pingxiang, he was suddenly confronted by more than 40 police officers, religious affairs bureau officials, and community staff, who jointly raided the gathering. Without presenting any legal documents, they forced the church’s worship service to stop. He and more than 20 other church members were taken by police to Hongshan Police Station in Anyuan District, Pingxiang, and the Xiangdong Public Security Sub-bureau; many of the others were later released, but he was not. The following day (October 19), his wife received notice that her husband had been placed in criminal detention on suspicion of “organizing others to illegally cross the national (border) frontier.”

It is reported that he was arrested because in September he organized believers to travel to Indonesia for a seven-day preaching course, crossing the border through the regular process and getting their passports stamped. In response, his wife issued an appeal urging all sectors to pay attention to her husband’s physical and mental condition in the detention center, while also hoping that the case handlers would “handle the case fairly, prudently, and in accordance with the law.” She also questioned the authorities: “Just attending a training course has become ‘organizing others to illegally cross the national border’! This is another pastor charged with the same offense, following Pastor Sun Chenghao in Zhangye, Gansu!” He is currently being held at the Pingxiang City Detention Center in Jiangxi Province.