The leader of one in every of China’s largest underground church networks has been detained in what observers describe as a sweeping clampdown on unregistered churches across the country.
According to his daughter, Grace Jin, who spoke to Fox News Digital, Pastor Ezra Jin, head of Zion Church in Beijing, was taken into custody by Chinese authorities last Friday.
In recent days across major cities including Shanghai, Huangdao, Jiaxing, and Beijing, almost 30 pastors and church staff from Zion Church are also reported to have been arrested or have disappeared.
Unconfirmed reports suggest the arrests may extend to church leaders in no less than five other provinces, in response to The Associated Press.
Grace Jin said that families of the detained pastors were caught off guard.
“One after one other, they were also taken, detained. Like, they were saying that there have been people outside their doors, after which separately they were taken into custody,” she told Fox News Digital.
Authorities reportedly accused the detainees of illegal “online dissemination of spiritual materials,” though families have yet to receive formal documentation.
She recounted to Fox News Digital that Zion Church, which once drew over 1,500 worshippers weekly, was shut down by the federal government in 2018 after refusing to register with state authorities—a move that placed it among the many country’s outlawed “house churches.”
Despite the closure, the congregation continued to fulfill through online worship and small prayer groups.
Grace Jin said that in the course of the pandemic, Zion Church became one in every of the few congregations in China offering regular online worship, drawing Christians nationwide to its virtual services.
As other churches adapted to digital platforms, her father shared his techniques and tools, strengthening ties each with fellow pastors and with the broader faith community.
Pastor Ezra Jin has been monitored by authorities and barred from leaving China since 2018, blocking any likelihood of reconnecting along with his US-citizen children. It has been over six years since he last saw them.
Grace Jin added that financial documents were seized in the course of the latest raid. She fears that authorities may bring “fraud” charges against him, as they did against other Christian leaders earlier this yr.
Religious rights group China Aid, based within the United States, described the arrests as a part of “unprecedented pressure” on independent churches.
Its founder and president, Dr Bob Fu, condemned the crackdown to Fox News Digital: “Xi Jinping has waged a war against God’s Church, equivalent to the Zion Church, that he won’t ever win. The level of persecution against religious freedom has reached the worst [level] in 40 years.
“Faith just isn’t a criminal offense. Worship just isn’t a criminal offense. Prayer just isn’t a criminal offense,” he continued. “The courage of China’s urban pastors and believers will probably be remembered in history as a living testimony that the sunshine of Christ can’t be extinguished by tyranny.”
Jin’s family has urged the US State Department to press for Pastor Jin’s “immediate and unconditional” release so he could be reunited along with his family members within the America.
Dr Fu implored the Trump administration to publicly denounce the Chinese government’s crackdown on churches.
US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has issued a press release condemning the detentions.
“The United States condemns the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s recent detention of dozens of leaders of the unregistered house Zion Church in China, including outstanding pastor Mingri ‘Ezra’ Jin,” the statement reads.
“This crackdown further demonstrates how the CCP exercises hostility towards Christians who reject Party interference of their faith and decide to worship at unregistered house churches.
“We call on the CCP to instantly release the detained church leaders and to permit all people of religion, including members of house churches, to interact in religious activities without fear of retribution.”
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