Beijing, October 17: Chinese authorities detained dozens of pastors from one of the country’s largest underground Christian churches over the weekend, a church spokesperson and relatives said, in the biggest crackdown on Christians since 2018.
Pastor Jin Mingri, 56, the founder of Zion Church, an unofficial “house church” not sanctioned by the government, was taken into custody at his home in Beihai, southern China, on Friday evening, according to his daughter Grace Jin and church spokesperson Sean Long. Jin is being held at Beihai City No. 2 Detention Centre on suspicion of “illegal use of information networks,” a charge that carries a maximum sentence of seven years.
Long said authorities detained nearly 30 pastors and church members nationwide, of whom around 20 remain in detention. More than 150 worshippers were reportedly questioned, and police have intensified surveillance and harassment at Sunday services in recent months.
The crackdown comes amid renewed China-U.S. tensions, following Beijing’s recent expansion of rare earth export controls, and drew condemnation from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who called for the immediate release of the pastors.
Grace Jin expressed concern for her father’s health, saying he has diabetes and requires medication, and added that lawyers have been barred from meeting the pastors, heightening fears over their well-being.
The arrests follow new rules from China’s top religion regulator banning unauthorized online preaching, religious training by clergy, and any form of “foreign collusion.” Earlier this year, President Xi Jinping pledged to enforce strict laws on religious activities and further Sinicize religion in China.
Founded in 2007, Zion Church has grown to about 5,000 regular worshippers across nearly 50 cities, expanding rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic through Zoom sermons and small in-person gatherings. Jin, a graduate of Peking University, converted to Christianity after witnessing the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown and left the state-sanctioned Protestant church to start Zion Church.
In 2018, Chinese authorities shut down the church’s Beijing building during an earlier crackdown on house churches, and Jin was placed under travel restrictions that prevented him from visiting his wife and children in the United States. Bob Fu, founder of the U.S.-based Christian NGO ChinaAid, said Zion Church’s rapid growth and organizational network likely alarmed the Chinese Communist Party leadership.
China officially counts 44 million Christians in state-sanctioned churches, mostly Protestant, but tens of millions more belong to illegal house churches operating outside government oversight. Police and China’s Ministry of Public Security did not respond to requests for comment.
