On January 12, Pastor Kan Xiaoyong was sentenced to fourteen years in prison by the Ganjingzi District People’s Court.

Pastor Kan Xiaoyong and his wife, Wang Fengying established the Discipleship Home Network in 2018. They offer here both online and offline evangelism. As their next destination they moved to Dalian and established a church there. Their ministry quickly became popular and well known among the house church circuit.

In 2021, their house was raided and Pastor Kan, his wife and four co-workers were detained. Both Kan Xiaoyong and Wang Fengying were tortured for several days to obtain confession from them. Their lawyers presented evidence of their torture at the trial but the court dismissed it. 

Pastor Kan Xiaoyong was sentenced to prison for fourteen years, his wife for four years, their co-worker Chu Xinyu for ten years and four other co-workers for three years. These harsh sentences were achieved by the court by adding the charges of “illegal business practices” and “the use of xie jiao to undermine the implementation of law”. Accusing a church as xie jiao – often referred in English texts as cult – was a surprise because Pastor Kan’s church was a typical Protestant house church organization.

Their team of lawyers managed not to have them declared guilty of fraud. This would have added even more years to their already long sentences.

This case is a perfect example of how the Chinese Communist Party crack down on the Churches that refuse to join and align themselves with the government controlled Patriotic Churches.

Source: BitterWinter