Chinese house church pastor Yang Hua to stand trial August after eight month imprisonment

Prominent house church pastor Yang Hua will finally be tried in court this month after spending eight months in prison in Guizhou, China. Yang, who was only allowed to meet with his lawyers a month after being detained, was accused of "illegally possessing state secrets." The charge was escalated to "divulging state secrets" on Jan. 22. 

Yang was informed by his lawyer, Zhao Yonglin, on Aug. 5 that the Nanming District Procuratorate intends to use a videotape as evidence against him. No trial date has been set but Yang's lawyers believe that he will be tried soon. In March, Zhao reported that Yang was pressured by authorities to confess to his crimes by threatening to portray him as a "greedy pastor" in the state-ran media.

Authorities have refused Yang's family to see him, but Yang was allowed to send letters. In one of his letters to his wife, Yang described the prison as a good place to rest where he is "cut off from the rest of the world and brought closer to God."

Yang's letter contained part of Psalm 23 and he encouraged his wife to copy the whole chapter. "Remove all of the negative thoughts and voices from your life. Amen. Let the words of God make you stronger. This is incomparably good; that you encourage each other with the words of God," Yang added.

The Huoshi (Living Stone) Church, the church pastored by Yang Hua, started with just 20 Christians meeting for Bible study. According to Release International, the church membership grew to 400, including students, bankers, government officials, activists and lawyers. Authorities took notice of the Huoshi Church when it moved to a larger venue in 2014. There are claims that as of early this year, the church has about 700 members.

On Oct. 21, 2015, Yang received a notice from the Chinese authorities stating that three rooms in his building was being used for illegal gatherings. Yang was given a month to return the rooms to their approved usage or they will face a daily penalty of 12,960 Yuan ($2,030). The officials raided the church in November 2015 before Yang's arrest on December 9, 2015.