Chang Shun (常顺) is a Protestant pastor of the Maizhong Reformed Church (麦种归正教会), an independent congregation in Fuyang, Anhui Province. On August 13, 2026, the Fuyang City Yingzhou District People’s Court convicted him of “organizing illegal gatherings” (组织非法聚集罪) and sentenced him to one year and six months in prison. His case was reported to be under appeal.
Arrest and detention
On June 29, 2025, police raided a Sunday worship gathering at Pastor Chang’s home in Fuyang. Officers who had identified themselves as community workers pushed into the house and took him away. Elder Ma Tao, who was present, was detained at the same time. Pastor Zhang Sen, another leader of the same church, was arrested on July 9, 2025 in Xuzhou, Jiangsu, and escorted back to Fuyang. All three were criminally detained on suspicion of “organizing illegal gatherings,” according to the families’ accounts reported by ChinaAid.
Trial and verdict
The case against the three church leaders was tried on June 9–10, 2026. Prosecutors cited routine religious activity as evidence: worship gatherings in private homes, weddings at which religious ceremonies were conducted, religious instruction for the children of believers, and a welcome gathering for a believer released from administrative detention. The church had declined to join the state-administered Three-Self Patriotic Movement, and authorities had shut it down in 2023; its members had continued meeting in small groups in private homes.
On August 13, 2026, the judgments were served on the defense lawyers: Pastor Chang received one year and six months; Pastor Zhang Sen received one year and seven months; Elder Ma Tao received one year and four months. The families’ statement, issued the following day, said the men were convicted “not for breaking the law on earth, but for their faith,” and announced that appeals would be filed.
A record of pressure before 2025
The detention in 2025 was not Pastor Chang’s first encounter with the authorities. According to his wife Li Yunyan’s open letter of August 2025, he had faced religious persecution since 2021, including multiple administrative detentions and fines in 2021, 2022, and 2024, after which the family’s appeals were all unsuccessful. Church-provided figures cited in later reporting put the congregation’s administrative detentions at 23 person-times between 2023 and 2025, with Pastor Chang himself administratively detained three times.
Family
Pastor Chang is married to Li Yunyan. Friends of the family have described two young children asking after their father during his detention. In her August 2025 letter, Li wrote that since her husband’s detention she had been harassed — the lock on her door changed, her water cut off, cameras installed outside her home, a tracker placed on her car, and followers trailing her when she went out.
Biographical note
According to a family account reported by the Gospel Herald, Chang Shun was a strong student who won first prize in an Anhui provincial mathematics olympiad in high school. In his third year of high school he suffered sudden severe nosebleeds while playing basketball and was diagnosed with acute leukemia; after long chemotherapy he recovered. His mother is a Christian. Unable to follow his original plan for university, he entered a seminary class where he first met Li Yunyan. Skeptical at first, he accepted the Christian faith and was baptized on April 8, 2010, and later trained for ministry. The two married and served in the church together.
Note on unresolved details: Sources differ on the trial venue and dates — a pre-trial letter from the wives named the Fuyang Intermediate People’s Court with proceedings June 9–12, while the judgment-citing verdict report gives the Yingzhou District People’s Court and June 9–10; the judgment-citing source is treated as more authoritative on venue. The Gospel Herald reports Chang Shun’s sentence term as running to November 18, 2026, but day-for-day arithmetic from the reported detention date does not align exactly with that figure; it is the source’s stated date, not an independently verified release date. The families announced appeals; no appeal outcome has been reported. The elder co-defendant is rendered “Ma Tao” by ChinaAid and “Ma Shutao (马树涛)” by the Dui Hua Foundation — both refer to the same person on this case.
Sources: ChinaAid (reports of 2025-08-08, 2025-09-05, 2026-06-05, 2026-06-12); Dui Hua Foundation, Prisoner Updates 2025 #9; Gospel Herald (2026-08-15 verdict report and family interview); Rights Defense Network / 维权网, Issue 131 monthly report, August 31, 2026. See the Media Profile & Source Archive for full source detail, provenance, and evidentiary limits.
View the Chang Shun Media Profile & Source Archive for full source detail, reporting chronology, and provenance.