On 27 March, Pastor Wan Changchun of Cornerstone Reformed Church in Bengbu, Anhui province, was sentenced to five years in prison. Cornerstone church co-workers Elder Xue Shaoqiang, Wan Chunqin (Pastor Wan’s elder sister) and Cao Binting were sentenced to between two and two and a half years, but their prison sentences were suspended, while Pastor Wan remains in prison.

Pastor Wan was arrested on 11 April 2023 by Bengbu police when he was travelling on church business in Lijiang, Yunnan province, on a charge of “illegal business operations”. The three co-workers were also criminally detained on the same charge. In May 2023 the original charge against Pastor Wan and the three co-workers was changed to fraud, which is more serious and carries heavier penalties.

The house church workers’ legal cases were supposed to be heard in court in May 2024, September 2024 and November 2024, but the trial was repeatedly delayed and hearings failed to take place on any of those occasions. According to their lawyers the Christians who remained in detention this whole time were in a weakened state of physical and mental health due to the lengthy separation from their families.

On 8 January 2025 the trial of the three co-workers Elder Xue Shaoqiang, Wan Chunqin and Cao Binting was finally concluded and they were freed on bail after having been detained for 20 months. Pastor Wan Changchun however remains in prison following his verdict.

Cornerstone Reformed Church, also known as Living Stone Church, is a house church that refuses to register with the authorities. The church has expressed shock at the fraud charge. The church has publicly stated many times that those charged did not commit fraud and states that all donations were voluntary, that the church’s expenditures were transparent and publicly disclosed regularly, and that all expenditure was agreed upon by the congregation. Furthermore, no one has claimed that they were defrauded.

(Bitter Winter, ChinaAid)

Photo: ChinaAid