The Chengdu Administration for Religious Affairs and Police raided the gathering of more than 40 members of the Chengdu Qiuyu Blessings Church near Shuangliu, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province on May 2. The authorities questioned whether the gathering had been properly registered and told participants they were "suspected of being involved in illegal religious practices." The officials also confiscated Bibles, hymnals and religious education materials. An after-the-fact official order was sent to the church banning the gathering.

On September 16, Wang Yi, the leader of the Qiuyu Blessings Church, filed the lawsuit for breaking into private properties, stopping lawful gatherings, detaining members and confiscating assets in the name of investigating illegal preaching activity without following lawful procedures.

Wang Yi said that they filed the lawsuit hoping to open a rational door of communication with the authorities, and at the same time share the information with other family churches on how to use law to safeguard their rights.

Wang said, “As far as we know, we are the first case of filing a civil lawsuit against the government religious authorities. The Constitution stipulates religious freedom, which should not be dependent upon the government's approval. When the government disobeys the law, we can use legal procedures and the court to open a rational dialog with it. It is not against our Christian belief.”

Recently reported instances of churches being raided have occurred in a Korean Christian church in Guangzhou City, and another house church in Shanghai. Some churches have been raided a number of times. The president of the China House Church Association (CHCA) that has 300,000 members of house church groups in the country, Zhang Mingxuan has said that those raids that come to the attention of the media are only a tiny proportion of those carried out.