杨治金 (Yang Zhijin) — Media Profile & Archive
See also: 杨治金 (Yang Zhijin) — Political Prisoner Profile.
This archive preserves the media and source record for 杨治金 (Yang Zhijin), a Christian and head of the Tong-Sui church of the Full Scope Church in Suizhou, Hubei Province, sentenced to three years and two months in May 2026 in the “Suizhou case” (随州教案) and listed as an in-custody political prisoner as of August 31, 2026.
Case chronology
- Late August – early September 2023 — More than twenty pastors and believers of the Tong-Sui and Sui-Nan churches are detained in a unified operation by Suizhou police. (ChinaAid, 2024-10-27)
- March 19, 2024 — Yang Zhijin is detained at his home in Henan by Zengdu District police, Suizhou, reportedly for hiring lawyers for detained believers; his home is searched. (ChinaAid, 2024-10-27; CPPC; CHRD database record)
- April 25, 2024 — Arrest formally approved by the Zengdu District Procuratorate. (ChinaAid, 2024-10-27; CPPC)
- October 5, 2024 — Indicted by the Zengdu District Procuratorate on suspicion of “using a cult to undermine law enforcement.” (ChinaAid, 2024-10-27; CPPC)
- August 2025 — Unified trial of about 29–30 defendants at the Zengdu District Court; proceedings then split into two-person cases. (CPPC)
- May 22, 2026 — Sentenced by the Zengdu District Court to three years and two months in prison plus an 8,000-yuan fine; term to May 18, 2027. (CPPC; CHRD database record)
- August 31, 2026 — Listed as an in-custody political prisoner (three-year-two-month sentence group) in the Rights Defense Network monthly report. (维权网 Issue 131)
Source records
1. China Political Prisoner Concern (CPPC), 编号 01440 — “楊治金（CPPC編號：01440）” (https://cppc1989.blogspot.com/2025/07/cppc01440.html). Full case profile: born 1949-02-13, aliases 杨志金/杨治全， Henan origin, Tong-Sui church head, arrest/indictment/trial/sentencing chronology, scans of the arrest notice, indictment, and partial criminal verdict as images. Read in full on October 10, 2026. CPPC is a mainland-volunteer human-rights monitoring group; legal characterizations in the profile are the group’s and are not independently verified.
2. ChinaAid (对华援助新闻网), October 27, 2024 — “湖北’随州教案’中杨治金等八位信徒被正式起诉” (https://www.chinaaid.net/2024/10/blog-post_35.html). Reports the March 19, 2024 cross-provincial detention, April 25 arrest approval, October 5 indictment, and detention at the Suizhou detention center; identifies Yang as the 75-year-old Tong-Sui regional head detained for hiring lawyers for believers. Read in full on October 10, 2026.
3. CHRD political-prisoner database (tenchu.org) — 杨治金 record, entered 2025-09-15. A name search of the database on October 10, 2026 returned exactly this one dedicated record. Confirms: 杨治金 / “Yang Zhijin”, male, born 1949-02-13, seized 2024-03-19, charge 利用邪教组织破坏法律实施罪 (“Using a cult to undermine law enforcement”), sentence 3年2个月 (“3 years 2 months”), term to 2027-05-18, held at 湖北省随州市看守所. A second database row (宋玉德, same case) independently records Yang’s 3-year-2-month sentence — corroboration.
4. Rights Defense Network (维权网) monthly report, August 31, 2026 (Issue 131) — lists 杨治金 / “Yang Zhijin” at position 10 of 13 in the 3-year-2-month sentence group, classified in custody.
Evidentiary limitations
The “cult” designation is the authorities’ characterization of the Full Scope Church, applied through Criminal Law Article 300; the church’s own description and the monitoring groups’ framing differ. The profile attributes, not adopts, the charge language. No family interviews or state-media coverage beyond the recorded procedural facts have been located. This case is distinct from the similarly romanized roster names Yang Zhihua (杨志华) and Yang Zhixiang (杨芝祥), who are different individuals; no merger with any other record should be made.