As the Chinese Communist Party hunts down house church associates and arrests them for assembling to worship the true and living God, several leaders from one such church in Xi’an, China, were taken into custody.
Pastor Lian Xuliang, Pastor Lian Changnian, and Sister Fu Juan of Xi’an Church of Abundance were detained and arrested on Nov. 2, according to a release from China Aid.
The believers stand accused of “fraud,” a charge often leveraged as a means to suppress house churches.
The same three Christians have already been detained on “fraud” charges, having spent two years and eight months in custody starting in August 2022, and being released earlier this year.
“The three of them were later placed under residential surveillance at a designated location and released on bail on April 12, 2025,” China Aid described.
“Pastor Lian Changnian was allowed to receive hospital treatment due to severe deterioration of his health, but on November 2, they were once again formally arrested and taken into custody.”
The minister is 71 years old.
Church of Abundance said in a statement that “this case was tried on July 9, 2025, and no verdict has yet been issued.”
“What is shocking is that while awaiting the verdict, the authorities took the three individuals away again and detained them,” the church said.
China Aid noted that the “fraud” charges are based on the reality that house churches often take voluntary tithes and offerings, which is standard practice for Christians around the world.
Chinese authorities are claiming that a woman named Qin Wen was a victim of the “fraud,” but even she “has stated that she was never harmed and publicly stated that she was coerced into cooperating in making a false accusation,” according to China Aid.
Open Doors, a Christian nonprofit drawing attention to the persecuted church around the world, said in an analysis that arresting house church leaders is a common tactic in China.
The communist nation allows for state-sanctioned Christian worship, but has more recently cracked down on believers who refuse to worship in such churches.
“More leaders of house churches are being convicted of fraud or other economic crimes, and face long and arduous prison sentences,” the analysis said.
“The relative openness the Chinese church experienced for many years is slowly closing. Each year, the expression of Christian faith becomes subject to increasingly complex legal restrictions.”
China Aid called on the Trump administration to urge Chinese authorities to “abide by international conventions and safeguard the fundamental dignity and religious rights of Chinese citizens.”
They asked that other nations ensure the “fraud” claims do not “become a normalized tool for the authorities to suppress unofficial religious communities.”
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