The ongoing suppression of unregistered Protestant congregations in China, known as house churches because they meet outside the state sanctioned Three Self Patriotic Movement. Authorities have intensified raids, detentions and fines against such congregations under President Xi Jinping, most visibly in the December 2018 arrest of Pastor Wang Yi and more than a hundred members of Chengdu's Early Rain Covenant Church, and in a two month operation across eastern China reported by Open Doors in September 2025 in which more than 70 people were detained, over 80 house church groups stopped meeting, and detainees were charged with running illegal Bible study groups or fined over their own church donations.
Facts
The Event
When It Happened30 December 2019: the Chengdu Intermediate People's Court sentenced Wang Yi to nine years in prison for inciting subversion of state power and illegal business operation, following a closed trial; the sentence was reported at the time as the longest given to a Chinese house church pastor in a decade. 1 When It Happened9 December 2018: Chengdu police raided gatherings of Early Rain Covenant Church and detained more than 100 members, including founding pastor Wang Yi, opening the case that led to his prosecution. 1 Victim GroupMembers and pastors of unregistered Protestant house churches across China, congregations that meet and preach outside the state sanctioned Three Self Patriotic Movement, including Chengdu's Early Rain Covenant Church and the more than 80 house church groups Open Doors documented ceasing to meet after a 2025 operation in eastern China. 2 Perpetrator RegimeThe government of the People's Republic of China under President Xi Jinping, whose public security authorities have raided, detained and fined members of unregistered house churches, and whose courts have sentenced house church pastors, including Wang Yi of Chengdu's Early Rain Covenant Church, to lengthy prison terms on charges such as inciting subversion of state power and illegal business activity. 2 Status
Current StatusAs of July 2026, Wang Yi remains imprisoned and Early Rain Covenant Church continues to be surveilled: on 26 July 2026 police raided two of the congregation's small group gatherings in Chengdu, disrupting worship and Sunday school activities and recording the identities of those present, part of a campaign ChinaAid describes as intensifying against the unregistered church's decentralized meetings since its 2018 crackdown. 3 Official RecognitionNot formally recognized by any body 2 Recognition BasisNo international body has classified China's crackdown on unregistered house churches as genocide or crimes against humanity. It is documented by international religious freedom monitors including Open Doors, whose World Watch List ranks China among the world's most difficult places to practice Christianity outside state sanctioned channels, and by specialist journalism covering individual prosecutions such as Pastor Wang Yi's 2019 sentencing, but no international tribunal has taken up a case on it. 2 Open Questions
Death Toll AssessmentNo monitoring organization publishes an aggregate death toll for the crackdown on unregistered house churches in China. Open Doors' and ChinaAid's own reporting on the campaign describes its tools as surveillance, legal restriction, raids, fines, arrests, imprisonment and church demolition, and documents individual cases of detention and property loss in detail, without stating a running count of deaths tied to the persecution. 4 Open Doors' China country page and ChinaAid's ongoing incident reporting on the same campaign both document its methods in detail without reporting any aggregate killing figure, and neither organization known to track this subject maintains one, unlike the detention and demolition statistics both organizations do publish. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names China directly: "Protestant congregations in China, known as house churches because they meet outside the state sanctioned Three Self Patriotic Movement."
Sources
Open Questions (1 open question)
What Is the Death Toll of the Crackdown on House Churches in China?
Open Doors and ChinaAid document the crackdown on unregistered house churches in detail, raids, fines, arrests, imprisonments and building demolitions, but neither organization nor any other monitor of the campaign publishes a running or aggregate count of deaths tied to it, unlike the detention and demolition statistics both organizations do track case by case.
What would resolve this A systematic count, by a monitoring organization or researcher, of documented deaths in custody or otherwise directly tied to raids, detention or demolitions against China's unregistered house church movement, comparable to the detention and demolition statistics these organizations already track.
Human rights documentation, contemporary Chinese religious policy studies.Open Doors research staff, China, Open Doors World Watch List Country Page
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