The United States has urged Beijing to release 30 influential Christian leaders who were detained a day earlier. The leaders are part of one of the country’s largest underground church networks. The arrests took place over the weekend during overnight raids across multiple cities, according to the US-based non-profit ChinaAid.
US condemns China’s detention of Zion Church leaders
Among those detained is Pastor Jin Mingri, also known as Ezra Jin. Jin is the founder of Beijing’s Zion Church and was reportedly taken into custody after a late-night search of his home by around ten police officers.
Slamming the move as a blatant attack on religious freedom, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement on Sunday, “This crackdown further demonstrates how the Chinese Communist Party exercises hostility towards Christians who reject Party interference in their faith and choose to worship at unregistered house churches.” Rubio also asked Beijing to immediately release all detained pastors and church members.
In a post on X, Rubio said, “The United States condemns the Chinese Communist Party’s recent detention of dozens of leaders of the unregistered Zion Church in China, including prominent pastor Mingri “Ezra” Jin. We call for their immediate release.”
ChinaAid, meanwhile, has described the situation as “the most extensive and coordinated wave of persecution” against Christians in over four decades. The organisation said more than 20 pastors and church leaders are either in custody or missing.
Who is Pastor Jin Mingri?
Zion Church was founded by Jin in 2007 with just 20 members and has since grown into a massive network of some 10,000 followers across 40 cities. “Such systematic persecution is not only an affront to the Church of God but also a public challenge to the international community,” Zion Church said in a statement.
Jin, who studied at Fuller Theological Seminary in California, has been barred from leaving China for years and was living in the southern city of Beihai at the time of his arrest. He suffers from diabetes and had recently tried to renew his US visa in Beijing, but was reportedly stopped by authorities and forced onto a flight out of the capital. The Chinese government has so far not commented on the arrests or confirmed any charges against those detained. Pastor Jin’s wife and three children live in the US with his daughter, Grace Jin Drexel, working as a staffer in the US Senate.
“His flock needed him,” Grace said, adding that her father chose to remain in China despite repeated warnings, continuing to lead Zion Church even as authorities tried to shut it down. “We’re still hopeful for a miracle as Christians,” she said. “We believe that this is bigger than geopolitics, it’s a spiritual battle, and we believe we are on the winning side.”
Jin’s wife, Liu Chunli, said in a video message that the family is “heartbroken and worried,” adding, “They are afraid of my husband’s influence. He simply did what any faithful pastor would do. He is innocent.”
While China’s Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, in practice, the Chinese Communist Party only permits state-approved congregations to operate openly. Tens of millions of Christians, however, continue to worship in independent “house churches.” According to a BBC report, under President Xi Jinping, China has tightened control over religion, targeting both Christians and Muslims. At a national religious conference in 2016, Xi had asked religious groups to “love their country and serve the overall interests of the Chinese nation.”
The detention of Jin, the pastor who converted to Christianity following the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, has increased tensions between Washington and Beijing just weeks before a possible meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea.