Church leader Lian Xuliang has been released from prison and returned home to his family (pictured with him) on 5 September. He is pastor of the Church of Abundance in Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi province in central China.
The unregistered house church has faced a four-year legal case following the arrest of Pastor Lian Xuliang, his elderly father Pastor Lian Changnian and Preacher Fu Juan in August 2022 and the banning of the church, which was deemed an “illegal social organisation”.
The three leaders were charged with “fraud” and held for two years and eight months before being released on bail in April 2025. They were tried in July 2025 but no verdict was announced and in November they were re-arrested. Chinese authorities increasingly make false accusations of fraud against leaders of unregistered churches, based on the collection of tithes and offerings, as a way to have them imprisoned and suppress church activities.
The status of the case and the other defendants is currently unknown – following Pastor Lian Xuliang’s release China Aid commented, “It remains unclear whether the case against the three defendants is still pending and what legal status the other two defendants now have… Xi’an authorities and judicial officials have not issued a public response regarding Lian Xuliang’s release or explained the status of the case.”
Background
Xi’an Church of Abundance was founded around thirty years ago by Pastor Lian Changnian (pictured) and in autumn 2021 his son Xuliang was ordained as a pastor. It is a prominent house church that refuses to register with the official Three-Self Patriotic Movement and is affiliated with the China Gospel Fellowship, a network of unregistered house churches that have seen many of their pastors, co-workers and members arrested. Pastor Lian Changnian is a senior pastor in the Fellowship.
On 17 August 2022 Lian Changnian, Lian Xuliang and Fu Juan were detained in a raid on the church and were placed under residential surveillance at a designated location (RSDL) on suspicion of fraud. All three reportedly experienced mistreatment and torture during RSDL – secret detention at a government-designated site, in this case a converted hotel where they were held separately in narrow rooms for six months. They described torture including starvation, beatings, forced ingestion of unidentified drugs and prolonged denial of access to the toilet, measures that China Aid describes as “all classic methods of coercive interrogation”.
Two days after their detention the Xi’an Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau announced a ban on the Church of Abundance. Authorities said that it was not registered and had conducted activities as a social organisation without authorisation, making it an “illegal social organisation”.
On 15 February 2023 the three Christians were placed in criminal detention and transferred to Baqiao Detention Centre in Xi’an, where they were held under better conditions. The following month they were formally arrested on suspicion of fraud and in January 2024 their case entered the courts, with a sentencing recommendation of five years’ imprisonment each.
The three Christians were released on bail on 12 April 2025 and Lian Changnian needed immediate hospital treatment due to severe mental and physical health issues.
On 9 July 2025 a court in Xi’an heard the case but did not issue a verdict, and on 2 November, while still awaiting their verdict, all three were re-arrested.
(China Aid, Weiquanwang, Bitter Winter)
Courtesy photo via China Aid