Anhui authorities continue to use tactics to frame and divide the Hefei Ganquan Church

(Hefei, Anhui Province – June 5, 2024) The case against Pastor Zhou Songlin and Elder Ding Zhongfu of the Hefei Ganquan Church in Anhui, who were charged with “fraud” due to their faith, has recently been filed with the court. To date, they have been detained for more than half a year, and other believers of the church are still being questioned, and threatened by the police, demanding that they accuse their own pastors.

Starting from May 11th, many believers of the Ganquan Church received inquiries from the community management office, with the main questions as follows:

1. Do you have a religious belief?
2. Are you a member of the Ganquan church?
3. Where do you gather? Do you need help finding a nearby gathering place?

These inquiries usually take several forms, some are phone inquiries, some are in person inquiries at believers’ home, and some are inquiries where the staff give church members a piece of blank paper to sign the signature first, and then the government staff fill in the content on the paper.

In mid-May, many believers of the Ganquan Church also received insider information that national security agents required the community management office to cooperate and complete the investigation within a week, in order to achieve the purpose of dispersing the church believers. There were also many government staff who visited the believers’ homes to investigate the situation, warning them not to contact people from the Ganquan Church and asking them to attend the Three-Self Church.

Hefei Ganquan Church is a house church with a history of more than twenty years. On the morning of November 30, 2023, 16 brothers and sisters of the church were unexpectedly searched at home by the public security and detained on suspicion of “fraud”. Later, 14 of them were released and placed on bail pending trial. However, Pastor Zhou Songlin and Elder Ding Zhongfu have been detained since then.

Dividing, dismantling, and provoking from within have been the strategies of China’s judicial departments for religious cases in recent years. The wives of the two pastors of the Ganquan Church were accused within the church for hiring Zhang Kai and Li Guisheng, two Christian lawyers who had represented many human rights and religious cases, and were causing division within the church. They demanded that the two wives dismiss these two lawyers, which was flatly refused by the two wives. Subsequently, their co-workers publicly stated that they were leaving the church. The two wives, the lawyers, and Pastor Zhou Songlin himself have all responded to this. Pastor Zhou Songlin said, “Actually, this is political persecution. We did not actively participate in politics, but we were forced into it, only to realize the church is not in a political vacuum.”

It is reported that the two pastors are currently in a very calm state of mind in the detention center. Elder Ding Zhongfu said that he is no longer afraid now. The Bible says, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”