A prominent Protestant pastor in Wenzhou in China’s Zhejiang Province was informed that he had been formally arrested on charges of ‘illegal business operations’ for selling recordings of sermons on 30 July.
On 26 June, Pastor Huang Yizi was taken into custody by Pingyang Public Security alongside four other church members in Zhejiang Province. All five were administratively detained the following day; two were released on bail on 25 July, while the other two remain in detention; the charges against them are unclear. Another church member was reportedly detained on 17 July.
Under China’s Criminal Procedure Law, public security authorities must submit a request for formal arrest to the procuratorate within 30 days of initial detention. Huang’s representative believed that his case was transferred for review on 25 July, the final day of the permitted detention period, with an outcome expected within days. However, the representative discovered that Huang’s name was already listed as ‘arrest approved’ on the Supreme People’s Procuratorate of China’s official portal on the same day, without prior notice or documentation from public security officials. Huang himself was notified of the arrest on 30 July; he was told that the case was reviewed on 28 July and that the arrest was approved the following day.
Huang’s representative expressed concern regarding the unusually swift processing of the arrest, raising questions about the depth and transparency of the review conducted by the procuratorate.
Huang is known to the authorities, having been detained in 2014 for protesting the forced demolition of church crosses and subsequently sentenced to one year in prison. Less than a month after his release, on 12 September 2015, he was again detained, this time on charges of ‘endangering national security’ and held under residential surveillance at a designated location for nearly five months.
Human rights groups have condemned the Chinese authorities for frequently using vague charges like ‘illegal business operations’ to target religious communities. They argue that freedom of religion or belief should include the right to record and share sermons.
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