Preacher Deng Yanxiang and four co-workers from Shengjia Church in Guangdong province have been convicted of “illegal business operations” and sentenced to between one and two years in prison. Preacher Deng is currently in Nanhai District Detention Centre but his four co-workers have been out on bail since August and October 2024 and will not have to return to prison because of time served in pre-trial detention.

The verdict and sentences were announced on 17 January by the People’s Court of Shunde District in Foshan City, Guangdong province. Preacher Deng was sentenced to two years in prison and fined 3,000 yuan RMB (approximately €390); time spent in pre-trial detention means that he is scheduled for released on 23 May 2025. Deacon Wang Weicai was sentenced to one year and five months in prison and fined 2,000 yuan RMB (€260), Deacon Zhu Longjiang was sentenced to one year and three months and fined 1,000 yuan RMB (€130), Zhu Qiaoling was sentenced to one year and three months and fined 1,000 yuan RMB, and Elder Zhu Longfei was sentenced to one year and two months and fined 1,000 yuan RMB.

The charge against the defendants was mainly based on a church publication called “Daily Bible Readings and Interpretations”, which was declared an illegal publication fraudulently sold for profit. All five stated in court that they would appeal the verdict.

Detained after raid

Shengjia Church is a house church in Shunde that refuses to register and join the government-sanctioned Three-Self Church. On 24 May 2023 it was raided by multiple departments including Shunde Public Security, the Religious Affairs Bureau, the Department of Education and the Department of Industry and Commerce. Books, tables, chairs and other items were confiscated and Shunde Public Security agents arrested Deng Yanxiang, Zhu Longjiang, Wang Weicai and Zhu Qiaoling on suspicion of “illegal business operations”. On 9 August 2023 Zhu Longfei was arrested on the same charge.

Zhu Longjiang and Zhu Longfei are brothers and Zhu Qiaoling is their sister, and their arrest left Zhu Longfei’s wife Liang Dandan, who has heart disease, to care for her elderly and seriously ill parents-in-law. The Zhu siblings’ mother was hospitalised in a critical condition in October 2023 and lawyers submitted multiple applications for bail for the brothers and sister, but they were denied.

Zhu Longjiang and Zhu Qiaoling were eventually granted bail pending trial on 23 August 2024 – the fifth day of the second trial – and left the court as soon as the trial ended to meet their family members and defence lawyers. Zhu Longfei and Wang Weicai were granted bail on 8 and 23 October respectively and were met with flowers outside the detention centre by family and church members.

China Aid reported that during the trial proceedings “the defence lawyers and the accused Christians gave beautiful testimonies in court”.

(China Aid)

Photos: China Aid