Zhou Songlin (周松林)
Zhou Songlin (周松林) is a pastor of Ganquan Church in Hefei, Anhui Province — an unregistered Protestant house church with roughly twenty years of history and more than 400 members. He is serving a four-and-a-half-year prison term after being convicted of fraud in a prosecution that religious-freedom advocates describe as punishment for leading an independent congregation. The Rights Defense Network’s (维权网) monthly political-prisoners report (Issue 131, August 31, 2026) lists him in its 4.5-year-sentence band, confirming he remains in custody serving his term as of that date.
The case
Like many house churches that refuse to join the state-controlled Three-Self Patriotic Movement, Ganquan Church never obtained legal status. Properties purchased openly through member donations were registered under the names of the pastor and elders — an administrative workaround that later became the basis for criminal accusations.
On the morning of November 30, 2023, police raided the homes of Pastor Zhou, Elder Ding Zhongfu, and several co-workers. Zhou and Ding were taken into custody immediately; three others — Mao Junma, Pei Defei, and Yang Peiyun — were detained, questioned, and later released on bail. Fourteen of the sixteen people initially taken in were eventually released or granted bail, but Zhou and Ding remained in detention.
On May 14, 2024, the Shushan District People’s Procuratorate of Hefei filed a public prosecution against the two men. The indictment accused them of using the pretext of religion to defraud believers of more than 3.39 million yuan — principally through the church’s practice of tithe offerings — and charged them with fraud under Article 266 of the Criminal Law. Defense lawyers argued that the offerings were voluntary religious contributions, that no believer had been deceived, and that equating a lack of state religious-personnel registration with criminal deception was legally baseless.
In February 2026, after more than two years of detention, the Shushan District Court sentenced Zhou Songlin to four years and six months in prison with a 30,000-yuan fine, and Elder Ding Zhongfu to four years with a 28,000-yuan fine. The court also ordered the confiscation of more than 366,000 yuan deemed “illegal income.” Both men had been held at the Hefei (Male) Detention Center in Changfeng County since late 2023.
Status and evidentiary limits
As of August 31, 2026, the Rights Defense Network’s Issue 131 report lists Zhou Songlin in its 4.5-year-sentence band with an in-custody classification. No release date has been stated in any public source; none is given here. The case facts come from Bitter Winter’s February 13, 2026 verdict report, ChinaAid’s July 1, 2024 legal analysis, and ChinaAid’s prisoner-address page (current as of August 2026); the address page lists the two men’s sentences transposed (four years for Zhou, four and a half for Ding) relative to the February 2026 verdict reporting — the verdict as reported at the time is used here, and the conflict is disclosed. No PRC official record (verdict text, court notice, or state-media report) has surfaced, so the fraud charge, the 3.39-million-yuan allegation, and the lawyers’ rebuttal are reported positions, not independently verified facts. The exact release date and current facility are not established and are not inferred. The U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China’s 2024 annual-report gallery lists Zhou Songlin under the Religion tag with status “Detained” — this is the same pastor during pre-verdict detention, not a separate case; no competing same-name prisoner record was found. His co-defendant, Elder Ding Zhongfu, has a separate profile: Ding Zhongfu.
Media Profile & Archive: Zhou Songlin (周松林) — Media Profile & Archive