{"id":60808,"date":"2026-10-06T09:32:47","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T00:32:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/?p=60808"},"modified":"2026-10-06T09:55:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T00:55:45","slug":"vomk-report-419","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/2026\/10\/06\/vomk-report-419\/","title":{"rendered":"CHINA: AUTHORITIES RAID CHURCH IN HISTORIC RED ARMY\/UNDERGROUND CHURCH STRONGHOLD"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”60817″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center” css=””][vc_custom_heading text=”Chinese authorities carried out a two-day operation against a small house church in Jinzhai County, western Anhui Province in central China last month. While the church may not be well known, the area is: The Dabie Mountains holds special significance to both Chinese communists and Chinese Christians and has been the site of repeated clashes between the two since the famed Chinese evangelist Zhang Yongsheng, the \u201cApostle of the Dabie Mountains\u201d, first evangelized there in the 1980s.” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:1.2em|text_align:left|color:%23111111″ google_fonts=”font_family:Noto%20Sans%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700%2C700italic|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal” css=”” el_class=”headline”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]\u201c<\/span>Jinzhai<\/span> County is called \u2018the Cradle of Generals\u2019<\/span> by Chinese communists<\/span>, since 59 men from that area <\/span>have gone on to reach the rank of <\/span><\/span>\u2018<\/span><\/span>G<\/span>eneral<\/span><\/span>\u2019<\/span><\/span> in the People’s Liberation Army,\u201d says <\/span>Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative Dr<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/span> Hyun Sook Foley<\/span>. \u201cBut Christians remember the area because of the great evangelist Zhang Yongsheng. <\/span>Before becoming a <\/span>Christian,<\/span> h<\/span>e <\/span>had been <\/span>a resistance leader<\/span>. He was <\/span>imprisoned under the Communists, and his family <\/span>struggled for decades as <\/span>a result. He <\/span>didn\u2019t<\/span> know God but cried out to him during the famine of the late 1950s and early 1960s, promising to serve God if his family was spared from starvation. Then in 1981 he received a dream <\/span>where <\/span>a book f<\/span>ell from <\/span>heaven into his hands. He later met an old woman with a Bible<\/span>, and he realized this was the book<\/span> from his dream<\/span>. He <\/span>became a Christian and went on to <\/span>establish<\/span> more than 400 <\/span>independent <\/span>underground churches in the <\/span>Dabie Mountains <\/span>in the next decade.\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]Those churches, according to <\/span>Representative<\/span> Foley, have faced severe crackdowns since the beginning.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]\u201c<\/span><\/span>In August 1993, local authorities <\/span>raided a meeting site<\/span> in the area, and one <\/span>Christian<\/span> was killed while protecting other<\/span> believer<\/span>s<\/span>. A<\/span>nother <\/span>Christian <\/span>was stabbed and <\/span>blind<\/span>ed<\/span> in one <\/span>eye<\/span><\/span>,<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/span> said <\/span>Representative Foley. She<\/span> says a<\/span>uthorities <\/span>in the area have <\/span>also expelled some students from school or publicly punished them because of their faith.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”60810″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css=””][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]Re<\/span>presentative<\/span> Foley says that <\/span>the latest raids<\/span> happened on <\/span>September 16 and 17<\/span><\/span>.<\/span> <\/span>She<\/span> says <\/span>multiple<\/span> witnesses shared details of the raids on condition of anonymity.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]\u201c<\/span><\/span>Witnesses say that o<\/span>n the first day, 30 police officers and local officials led by the chief of the <\/span>Youfangdian<\/span> Police Station<\/span> searched the church premises, <\/span>confiscated believers<\/span><\/span>\u2019<\/span><\/span> phones<\/span>, deleted videos of the raid, and took two <\/span>female <\/span>pastors to the police station for questioning and further detainment<\/span><\/span>,<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/span> says <\/span>Representative<\/span> Foley. <\/span>Witnesses say that a<\/span>n official also threatened that the <\/span>church<\/span><\/span>\u2019<\/span><\/span>s <\/span>p<\/span>astors <\/span>would <\/span>be put under <\/span>daily surveillance.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]\u201c<\/span><\/span>Then on the second day of the raid, witnesses say that officials led by <\/span>a <\/span>representative from the <\/span>religious affairs <\/span>department <\/span>in Gubei Town<\/span> came into the church and found<\/span> several young believers practicing musical instruments<\/span><\/span>,<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/span> says <\/span>Representative<\/span> Foley. <\/span><\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/span>The representative said he had received orders from a <\/span><\/span>\u2018<\/span><\/span>Central Inspection Team<\/span><\/span>\u2019<\/span><\/span> that the church was henceforth prohibited from <\/span>performing or singing songs containing <\/span>the words <\/span>\u2018Jesus,\u2019 \u2018God<\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span>\u2019 or \u2018Lord<\/span><\/span>,<\/span>\u2019<\/span><\/span> and that hymns had to be <\/span>replaced<\/span> with songs praising the Communist Party.<\/span><\/span>\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]Representative<\/span> Foley says that the motive for the raid is not <\/span>known. Neither <\/span>the <\/span>Jinzhai<\/span> County government <\/span>nor <\/span>the <\/span>Youfangdian<\/span> Police Station ha<\/span>ve commented <\/span>publicly <\/span>about <\/span>the incident.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”60813″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css=””][vc_custom_heading text=”Photo from the raid on the Jinzhai House Church in Anhui Province” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:13px|text_align:center|color:%230a0101|line_height:1.45em” css=””][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][\/vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]\u201c<\/span><\/span>Witnesses say t<\/span>he <\/span>authorities<\/span><\/span>\u2019<\/span> <\/span>question<\/span>s <\/span>focused on two relatives of the<\/span> pastors<\/span><\/span>\u2014<\/span><\/span>one who is a pastor in the United States, and the other who is a pastor elsewhere in C<\/span>h<\/span>ina,<\/span><\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/span> says <\/span>Representative<\/span> Foley. <\/span><\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/span>They asked for contact <\/span>information<\/span> for the pastor in the US, but witnesses say that the authorities gave no specific reason for the request.<\/span><\/span>\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]According to <\/span>Representative<\/span> Foley, the <\/span><\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/span>Apostle of the Dabie Mountains<\/span><\/span>\u201d<\/span> <\/span>Zhang Yongsheng<\/span> died in a traffic accident<\/span> in 2014<\/span>, but the independent churches he founded ha<\/span>ve <\/span>continued to thrive, despite raids like this recent one <\/span>by <\/span>authorities. <\/span><\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/span>The Dabie Mountains <\/span>is<\/span> not only the cradle of military generals,<\/span><\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/span> says <\/span>Representative<\/span> Foley. <\/span><\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/span>For four generations, those mountains have also been the cradle of many faithful Christians. <\/span>Let<\/span><\/span>\u2019<\/span><\/span>s<\/span> pray that in this difficult hour they remember the lessons Pastor Zhang taught them from <\/span><\/span>\u2018<\/span><\/span>the book that fell from the sky.<\/span><\/span>\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]Individuals interested in learning about or supporting Voice of the Martyrs Korea\u2019s work in partnership with persecuted Christians in China can visit<\/span><\/span> www.vomkorea.com\/en\/china.<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_column][\/vc_column]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”60817″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center” css=””][vc_custom_heading text=”Chinese authorities carried out a two-day operation against a small house church in Jinzhai County, western Anhui Province in central China last month. While the …","protected":false},"author":1959,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[235,869,140],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-special-column","category-china-special","category-vomk-report"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.5","language":"en","enabled_languages":["ko","en","zh","ru"],"languages":{"ko":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"zh":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"ru":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1959"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60808"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60825,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60808\/revisions\/60825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}