Prosecutors in Xi'an Named 235 Victims. That Accounts for 2.3 Million Yuan. The Indictment Charges Pastor Gao Quanfu With 25.5 Million and Asks for Twelve Years.
The indictment ties 2.3 million yuan to 235 named victims and names nobody for the other 23.2 million. Prosecutors want twelve years for a pastor of 69. His wife is still in detention.
The indictment is dated December 31, 2025. It took until this week for anyone outside China to read it.
Pastor Gao Quanfu is 69. He has led Light of Zion Church in Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi Province, for decades. The congregation is nearly forty years old and has never registered with the state. Police came to his home in May 2025. The first accusation was "using superstition to undermine law enforcement." The charge that survived is fraud, under Article 266 of China's Criminal Law.
The prosecutors' arithmetic is the story. The indictment says Gao and other church leaders obtained 25.5 million yuan, about 3.6 million dollars, in offerings by deceiving believers. It ties 2.3 million yuan of that to 235 named victims. For the remaining 23.2 million yuan it names nobody. It counts the whole sum as proceeds of fraud anyway, and it recommends twelve to thirteen years in prison and a fine.
His wife is nearly seventy too. Her name is Pang Yu, and she is still in detention. So is Pastor Tang Bingyi. None of the three has been tried.
