Wang Yi (王怡)

Wang Yi is the founding pastor of the Early Rain Covenant Church, a house church in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. He was sentenced to nine years in prison in December 2019.

Life and work

Wang was born on June 1, 1973, in Santai County, Mianyang, Sichuan. He graduated from Sichuan University in 1996 and taught law at Chengdu University. A writer, editor, and social activist, he converted to Christianity in 2005 and was among the pioneering Christian human-rights attorneys in China. In 2006 he met with President George W. Bush at the White House, together with fellow advocates, to discuss religious freedom in China.

In 2008 he resigned from Chengdu University and founded the Early Rain church in Chengdu (originally Early Rain Reformed Church, later the Early Rain Covenant Church). He was ordained senior pastor in October 2011. Before it was closed down in late 2018, the church had a congregation of roughly 700.

Wang also wrote on the relationship between church and state, including “My Declaration of Faithful Disobedience” (2018) and the “Ninety-Five Theses” on the house church (2015). In 2019 he received the Liu Xiaobo Courage to Write Award.

Arrest and sentencing

On December 9, 2018, Wang and more than 100 other members of the church were arrested in a large-scale crackdown by Chengdu authorities; reporting on the crackdown was simultaneously banned. His wife, Jiang Rong, was also detained. Wang was transferred to the Chengdu Detention Center on December 18, 2018.

On December 30, 2019, the Chengdu Intermediate People’s Court sentenced him to nine years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power” and “illegal business operations.” The sentence also stripped him of his political rights for three years and confiscated RMB 50,000 (about US$7,000) of his personal assets. Observers described the closed trial and its outcome as among the harshest sentences against a Chinese house-church leader in a decade.

Current status

Wang is reported to be incarcerated at Jintang Prison in Chengdu. He appears in the August 31, 2026 monthly roster of mainland political prisoners and prisoners of conscience as currently in custody; that roster entry is the dated basis for the custody claim. The day after his sentencing, the U.S. State Department called for his immediate and unconditional release; on January 1, 2020, the embassy of the Netherlands in Beijing posted the court’s sentencing document on social media, emphasizing freedom of religion.

Read the media profile and archive for Wang Yi.

Sources

• Voice of America (via ChinaAid), “Chinese pastor sentenced to nine years on subversion charges,” December 30, 2019 — https://chinaaid.org/news/stories-by-issue/human-rights/voice-of-america-chinese-pastor/
• “Wang Yi (pastor)” biography — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Yi_(pastor)
• The New York Times, “China Sentences Wang Yi, Christian Pastor, to 9 Years in Prison,” December 30, 2019 (via MCLC Resource Center excerpt: https://u.osu.edu/mclc/2019/12/31/pastor-sentenced-to-9-years/)
• Issue 131 monthly roster of mainland political prisoners and prisoners of conscience (snapshot August 31, 2026) — roster index 1258, 9y band (current-custody listing)