China's campaign against independent churches uses financial laws to criminalize ordinary practices, a method that should warn businesses operating there. A Shanxi court sentenced Yang Rongli, leader of the Golden Lampstand house church, to 15 years for fraud in June 2025, based on collecting offerings. Pastor Wang Yi of Chengdu's Early Rain Covenant Church received nine years in 2019 partly for "illegal business operations" tied to printing Christian books.
The author's parents, Gao Quanfu and Pang Yu, founders of Xi'an's Light of Zion Church, face fraud charges with prosecutors seeking 12 to 13 years. Their real offense was refusing party control; the financial charge simply looks like law enforcement rather than religious persecution.
Ordinary companies face similar risks. In 2023, police raided the Beijing office of Mintz Group, a U.S. due-diligence firm, detaining five local employees for two years on "unlawful business operations" charges before fining the company $1.5 million. An American Wells Fargo managing director was barred from leaving China over an unexplained criminal case until diplomatic negotiations.
Unlike tradable risks like forced technology transfers, a legal system that reclassifies ordinary conduct as crime cannot be hedged or diversified. As China's economy falters and leadership shows willingness to use any means necessary, firms must ask how Beijing might weaponize their books.
Source: Wall Street Journal US Business · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing