On October 15, a group of Christians gathered in Zhenxiong County to baptize new converts. Among the believers were well-known Protestant house church leaders Pastor John Cao and Brother Chang Hao. The event went well; however, the Chinese police raided the baptism and took multiple participants to the police station.

Among the people taken away were Pastor Cao and Brother Chang, who are both heavily persecuted by the Chinese authorities. They and members of the house church movement, who are not willing to join and align themselves with the Chinese Communist Party-controlled official Christian bodies, are often targeted by the authorities.

Brother Chang was particularly subjected to persecution in the past year. The authorities became infuriated with his activity of distributing anti-COVID-19 masks with Bible verses on them and raided his rural church in Zhaotong City in April 2023. During that raid, the famous masks, Bibles, and other books of Christian literature were confiscated. The same year, in November, Brother Chang was detained. Even though a document stated that he is not to be detained longer than February 10, 2024, without a verdict. He was kept in jail beyond this date without a verdict, and even after that, he was sentenced to thirteen months in prison for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a phrase commonly used to sentence independent religious leaders.

Finally, he was released after serving his time in May 2024, but the authorities kept him under close surveillance. After the most recent event on October 15, the Christians who were taken to the police station were released, except Brother Chang, who is still in a twelve-day administrative detention period with no certainty how long he will stay there.

Source: BitterWinter