US calls on China to release jailed Early Rain church founder Wang Yi

State department alarmed at pastor’s secret trial which ended with nine year sentence for inciting subversion

‘Another example of Beijing’s intensification of repression of Chinese Christians and members of other religious groups’

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The US has called for the immediate release of jailed Chinese Pastor Wang Yi, shown here at home with his wife Jiang Rong. Photo: AP

Published: 11:39am, 1 Jan 2020Updated: 8:55pm, 17 Feb 2020

The United States has called for the immediate release of a pastor from one of China’s best known unregistered churches who was jailed for nine years last month for inciting subversion.

The US Department of State expressed alarm at the trial and sentencing of Wang Yi, the pastor of Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, in the southwestern province of Sichuan.

“We are alarmed that Pastor Wang Yi … was tried in secret and sentenced to nine years in prison in connection to this peaceful advocacy for religious freedom. We call for his immediate and unconditional release,” department spokesman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.

Wang was detained in December 2018 along with other senior figures in the prominent unsanctioned church during overnight raids across various districts of Chengdu, the city where the church was founded.

On Monday, the Chengdu Intermediate People’s Court released its judgment, which said the pastor was also convicted of illegal business operations.