Zhao Guo’ai (赵国爱)
Classification: Christian (Golden Lampstand Church, Linfen); prisoner of conscience; serving a five-year-and-four-month prison sentence handed down in June 2025. In custody as of August 2026.
Background
Zhao Guo’ai (赵国爱) is a co-worker of the Golden Lampstand Church, an unregistered house church in Linfen City, Shanxi Province, in northern China. The church, part of a Sola Fide network reported to number over 50,000 members, had its worship building demolished by local authorities in January 2018 after years of pressure to join the government-sanctioned Three-Self Church, which it refused. Zhao had been targeted before: in November 2009 she was among five Linfen church leaders given two-year re-education-through-labor terms after the church’s 2009 prayer-rally crackdown, according to ChinaAid reporting preserved by Christian outlets.
2021: arrest
On August 7, 2021, Zhao was among the Golden Lampstand Church leaders and co-workers detained by police in Linfen’s Yaodu District, according to reporting by Bitter Winter and International Christian Concern. She was formally arrested on September 27, 2021, along with fellow church members including Wang Xiaoguang, Yang Rongli, Li Shuangping, Dong Yongyong, and Huo Zhuangping, and accused of “fraud.” The case was transferred to the Linfen City procuratorate for prosecution later that year. Trial dates were set and canceled three times before the defendants’ case went to trial in April 2025.
The 2025 fraud trial and sentence
The ten defendants’ trial ran from April 9 to April 14, 2025, and all pleaded not guilty, according to ChinaAid and Bitter Winter. The prosecution treated the church’s voluntary tithes and offerings as illegal gains under the fraud charge; the defense argued that the donations were voluntary acts of faith, that no doctrine was fabricated or identities misused, and that lack of state registration does not amount to criminal fraud. In June 2025, the Yaodu District People’s Court sentenced Zhao Guoai to five years and four months in prison with a 50,000-yuan fine, according to the sentence tables published by Bitter Winter and Church in Chains. The court also authorized the seizure of over 17.3 million yuan in church and personal assets. On August 15, 2025, the Linfen Intermediate People’s Court upheld the verdicts on appeal.
Status and evidentiary limits
Zhao Guo’ai is classified as a current prisoner. 维权网’s August 31, 2026 monthly report (Issue 131) lists her among the prisoners of conscience in custody, in the “sentenced to 5 years and 4 months” group, and ChinaAid’s prisoner-letter directory (addresses current as of August 2026) carries her detention address. Her exact place of detention beyond the Yaodu District detention address of record, and her current condition, are unconfirmed beyond the sources cited above. No court verdict or official record of the case has been independently located; the account here is drawn from reporting by religious-freedom monitoring organizations. This profile does not merge Zhao Guo’ai with Li Guo’ai (李国爱), Li Qin (李琴), Huo Zhuangping (霍壮平), or any other defendant — they are different people.
Media Profile & Archive: Zhao Guo’ai 赵国爱 — Media Profile & Archive