China raids Shanghai house church, detains Christian leader for a week 

Chinese law enforcement broke up a Sunday worship service in Shanghai and locked up the church’s leader for seven days, a Christian rights group says.

Over 30 government workers entered Jie’en Church at around 8 a.m. local time Aug. 30, ChinaAid reported. The church held its service on the seventh floor of a building in the city’s Hongkou District.

The group included police officers, security workers and religious affairs officials. Authorities recorded personal ID information from the Christians at the service, then told the congregants to leave and took church leader Hu Yile away.

Shanghai officials haven’t explained why they conducted the raid, nor have they given a reason for detaining Hu.

Hu is the widow of Xu Guoxing, a well-known Christian in China. Xu, who died last year, helped start churches and spread Christianity in China after studying the faith in the United States in the 1980s. Chinese authorities arrested him multiple times, and he spent over eight years of his adult life behind bars.

ChinaAid says the raid violated the country’s supposed religious freedom.

“Citizens of the People’s Republic of China shall enjoy freedom of religious belief,” Article 36 of the Chinese Constitution says.

The reality is much different.

The Communist government must approve churches. Churches without state approval meet secretly in homes, rented rooms and online. 

Tens of millions of Chinese Christians worship outside the state system, according to Reuters. Those are the services the government raids.

The Aug. 30 raid was part of ongoing anti-Christian activity in Shanghai.

Earlier last month, Shanghai police also detained Pastor David Tang and six other Christians during an operation that crossed provincial lines, ChinaAid reported. Chinese officials haven’t explained why they conducted the raid.

“The international community must not remain silent while peaceful Christians are criminalized simply for practicing their faith,” ChinaAid President Bob Fu said.

Heartlander News has previously reported on this anti-Christian activity from the Chinese government.

In January, police detained at least six members of Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, including its pastor. Families said they received no formal arrest notices or charges and couldn’t reach lawyers.

China also detained nearly 30 Zion Church pastors and workers across the country in October 2025. The case against them centered on the church’s use of the internet to preach and hold services.

Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri, Zion’s founder, left Chinese detention in July after President Donald Trump raised his case with Chinese President Xi Jinping. China still held eight other Zion members after Jin reached the United States, Reuters reported.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom says China uses surveillance, prison and torture against house-church Protestants, underground Catholics and members of other faiths.