Person profile: Yao Xilin
Media and document record: the 2024–2025 All Ranges Church case in Nyingchi
Case background. On Christmas Day, 25 December 2024, the People’s Procuratorate of Bayi District, Nyingchi City, filed criminal charges against ten Christians of the All Ranges Church — Yao Xilin, Zhang Wei, Ren Xiaoyun, Wang Haiying, Li Chunjie, Qin Chenglan, Li Xiaolin, Xiao Mingzhi, Wang Ying, and Li Yan. All ten were charged under Article 300(1) of the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China (“organizing and utilizing cult organizations to undermine the enforcement of law”). The case followed the 2023–2024 arrests of All Ranges Church members in Suizhou, Hubei Province.
Key records
- Indictment, People’s Procuratorate of Bayi District, Nyingchi City, Bayi Criminal Prosecution (2024) No. 21 — reproduced and translated by ChinaAid (published 24 January 2025). The document records Yao Xilin’s biographical details (born 15 February 1970; Heilongjiang hukou; Bayi District residence), his bail (21 March 2024) and formal arrest (13 May 2024), and the prosecution’s allegations: that Yao, Zhang Wei, and Ren Xiaoyun revived the church in Nyingchi from 2019, organized “pioneering evangelism,” and developed the congregation, and that Yao served as the church’s general director. Note: an indictment records the prosecution’s allegations, not a court’s findings. The Chinese-character form of Yao’s name is not legible in the reproduced scan.
- ChinaAid, “Mass arrests and prosecution of house church leaders in Tibet, preaching on Zoom deemed illegal,” 24 January 2025 — first detailed public report of the case; names all ten defendants, reports that Yao, Zhang, and Ren were detained at the Nyingchi City Detention Center while seven were out on bail, and carries the translated indictment with defendant biographies.
- ChinaAid, “Comprehensive report: Chinese Communist Party authorities launch large-scale persecution of the ‘All Ranges Church’ in China,” 13 March 2025 — places the Nyingchi case in the nationwide crackdown; reiterates that Yao Xilin, Zhang Wei, and Ren Xiaoyun remained detained at the Nyingchi Detention Center; provides background on the All Ranges Church (founded 1984 by Xu Yongze; banned as a “cult” in 1995) and a statement by ChinaAid’s Bob Fu calling the arrests religious persecution.
Syndicated / secondary coverage
- Human Rights Without Frontiers, “Religious issues and persecution – Bimonthly Digest January 16–31” (summarizes the ChinaAid report).
- The Times Examiner, “Mass Arrests of House Church Leaders in Tibet on Christmas Day,” 29 January 2025 (ChinaAid-sourced).
- Worthy News, “China Detains Tibet House Church Members,” syndicated to outlets including Eagle’s Nest Ministries and Come to Jerusalem.
Source provenance and limitations
- No PRC state-media or official narrative of the case was located; no consular dimension applies (domestic case).
- The only primary document is the indictment as reproduced by ChinaAid; the full case file, trial record, and verdict have not been publicly reported.
- Details of Yao’s activities come from the prosecution’s allegations and should be presented as such.
- No Chinese-language reporting of the case was located.
Person profile: Yao Xilin