Source: www.ChinaAid.org
Date: June 27, 2022
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Minister An Yankui and his family
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(Taiyuan, Shanxi province—June 27, 2022) Last Thursday, Yao Congya, wife of Minister An Yankui of Zion Reformed Church, disclosed that authorities finally allowed her husband’s attorney to visit him in Xiaoyi Detention Center. In the past seven months, the attorney requested to visit his client multiple times, but authorities rejected his requests on the excuse of the pandemic. The attorney said that Minister An Yankui looked good mentally. Minister An, on the other hand, was worried about sisters of the church and his family because he received no news during his imprisonment. An Yankui’s case has been handed over to the court, and the charge is “crossing the national border illegally.”
Police took Minister An Yankui and Zhang Chenghao—a coworker of Zion Reformed—on November 21, 2021, after Sunday service. Their arrest was associated with five other coworkers of their church who were arrested in July. These five coworkers attended the “Gospel and Culture Conference 2020” organized by Pastor Stephen Tong Tjong Eng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and were criminally detained due to being suspects of “illegally crossing the national border.” All five were tried and convicted on December 28, 2021. Each Christian received up from six to eight months in prison and fines. At this point, all five coworkers have been released.
Minister An Yankui, Zhang Chenghao and the other five coworkers legally went through the normal customs and held passports issued by the P.R.C. Ministry of Public Security. Regardless, authorities gave them the fabricated charge of “illegally crossing the national border.” Pastor Stephen Tong Tjong Eng is one of the most influential contemporary Chinese pastors, and the gospel conference held by him generally draws Chinese Christians across the world. He publicly criticized the Chinese Communist Party’s totalitarianism several times, so his sermons have been blocked in Mainland China.
An Yankui has been profoundly impacted by Pastor Wang Yi and was one of people who first signed the “Joint Statement: A Declaration for the Sake of the Christian Faith” in 2018. Taiyuan police routinely raided Zion Reformed over the past few years, and authorities summoned and detained Minister An on many occasions. The Religious Affairs Bureau asked Zion Reformed join the Three-Self Patriotic Church several times, but congregants rejected the request in a gentle but assertive way. Arresting An Yankui and his coworkers on the charge of “illegally crossing the national border” is tied to all of these factors, including the Administrative Measures for Religious Staff which took effect May 1, 2021. The highlight of the Administrative Measures for Religious Staff is that overseas religious organizations’ appointment and help should be prohibited, and it includes resistance to overseas religious force. The article in the regulations is the reason why it is illegal to attend a gospel conference abroad.
Minister An Yankui’s wife asked Christians to intercede for her family. She said their family has been apart for a long while, but “we’ve experienced God’s work while not being imprisoned. An Yankui is never isolated from the Lord’s Word while being jailed. Isn’t it the most grateful thing? God is with us, protects us and comforts us no matter where we are. Thank you all for your company and prayers in the past days. May the Lord continue to lead us and each of our steps show his justice and glory!”
~Yu Bing, ChinaAid Contributing Reporter
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