Huang Yizi, the well-known pastor of Fengwo Church, Pingyang County in Zhejiang’s Wenzhou city is due to stand trial this week on a charge of “illegal business operations”. He was previously imprisoned for his house-church activities for a year from 2014-15 and for five months from 2015-16.
Following a pretrial conference on 20 April, the pastor’s trial is scheduled for 24–25 April at the Pingyang County Court.
Chinese authorities have increasingly used charges of “illegal business operations” in recent years to target church leaders, especially those involved in publishing unauthorised religious materials. Many pastors who distribute Bibles, audio Bible players or hymn books have faced such charges; in Pastor Huang’s case the charge reportedly concerns the distribution of audio Bible players loaded with sermon content.
One of China’s most prominent pastors, Wang Yi, is serving a nine-year sentence on charges that include “illegal business activity” due to claims that his church printed and sold Christian books without a permit. In 2018 Pastor Huang was one of over 450 Chinese church leaders to sign Pastor Wang’s “Joint Statement by Pastors: A Declaration for the Sake of the Christian faith” protesting increased state interference in religious activities.
Pastor Huang is being held in the Pingyang County Detention Centre and while he has been permitted to meet with his lawyer, his communication rights are severely restricted, he is unable to send or receive letters from his family and the detention centre has reportedly limited his access to reading the Bible.
Background
Huang Yizi (51) is a fourth-generation Christian described by China Aid as “not only a pastor but also a symbol of resistance against the government’s cross-removal campaigns”. His home city of Wenzhou has a relatively high Christian population and has long been known as “China’s Jerusalem”, but in 2014 the Zhejiang provincial government launched a campaign to remove crosses from the top of church buildings – around 1,700 were taken down.
In July 2014 more than one hundred Christians protecting the cross at Salvation Church in Pingyang County from forced demolition were injured in a violent clash. Pastor Huang organised the Christians to sing hymns and pray to calm the atmosphere but he was arrested after participating in negotiations with the government following the incident and was sentenced to one year in prison on a charge of “gathering a crowd to disrupt social order,” despite maintaining that he had no involvement in the violence.
A local Christian who requested anonymity due to safety concerns commented, “He has always lived under a magnifying glass.”
Less than a month after Pastor Huang’s release from prison, he was detained again on 12 September 2015 and placed under Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location (RSDL) on suspicion of “illegally providing state secrets or intelligence to an organisation, institution, or personnel outside the country”. RSDL is a form of detention unique to China that allows authorities to hold suspects without formal charges in locations outside the prison system.
After Pastor Huang’s release from RSDL his online sermons were frequently interrupted and he remained under surveillance. On 26 June 2025 police entered his home to carry out a search and took him away; Bitter Winter reported that when his wife tried to film the arrest police assaulted her. Four other church members were detained on the same day, but they are no longer in custody.
On 29 July 2025 authorities formally approved Pastor Huang’s arrest on a charge of “illegal business operations” for selling recordings of sermons, and placed him in detention at the Pingyang County Detention Centre.
(China Aid, Bitter Winter, Christian Solidarity Worldwide)
Photo: China Aid