According to reports from Yesterday and ChinaAid, on December 13, 2025, Yayang Town in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, was abruptly sealed off by approximately one thousand special police officers. Over the course of two days, more than 100 Christians were arrested. Church leaders Lin Enzhao (58) and Lin Enci (54) have since been placed on a wanted list, with bounties offered for their capture.

On the evening of December 15, authorities went so far as to set off fireworks worth millions of yuan outside the town government building, while hiring paid internet trolls to falsely portray the event as a “celebration of a crackdown on organized crime,” in an apparent attempt to conceal the true nature of the arrests. Days later, on December 18, a so-called “mobilization rally” was held, during which believers who refused to display the national flag were explicitly categorized as “gangs and evil forces.”

The timeline of this case is as follows: On June 24, 2025, the conflict was sparked when the mayor of Yayang Town attempted to forcibly install the national flag of the People's Republic of China at the church and was met with resistance. On September 29, Xi Jinping delivered a speech setting the political tone for “systematically advancing the Sinicization of religion.” Shortly thereafter, in October, Beijing’s Zion Church faced mass arrests. Then, on December 13, Yayang in Wenzhou was subjected to suppression by a force of one thousand police officers.

From Zion Church in the north to Yayang Church in the south, the authorities’ logic of purging has become highly synchronized. They no longer rely on alleged administrative violations, but instead deploy criminal measures directly—branding churches that refuse political submission as “gangs and evil forces.” The fireworks over Yayang stand as a display of the arrogant pageantry of power. This marks the full arrival of winter for China’s house churches: a nationwide encirclement campaign, organized from the top down, aimed at thoroughly dismantling independent religious civil society.

Religious freedom is not a crime. Human Rights in China urges the Chinese authorities to immediately cease the stigmatization and criminal persecution of the Yayang Church and to unconditionally release all detained believers. We also call on international media and human rights organizations to closely monitor the safety of Lin Enzhao, Lin Enci, and others, and to ensure that this brutal suppression—masked by “fireworks”—is not buried in silence.