Chinese police detained dozens of pastors of one of the country’s largest network of churches not legally sanctioned by the government, triggering fear of renewed crackdown on religious organizations.
The arrests sparked condemnation from U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, as relations between two of the world’s biggest economies continue to worsen amid a raging trade war.
Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri of the Zion Church was detained at his home in Beihai in China’s southeast Guangxi province last week along with dozens of other church leaders in Beijing and five other provinces.
Activists fear Chinese authorities have detained 30 Christians linked to the Zion Church network – an unofficial "house church" not sanctioned by the government. About 20 pastors and church leaders remain in detention, according to members of the church.
“This is a very disturbing and distressing moment,” said Sean Long, a Chinese Zion Church pastor studying in the U.S. “This is a brutal violation of freedom of religion, which is written into the Chinese constitution. We want our pastors to be released immediately," he told the Associated Press.
Although the officially atheist Chinese Communist Party (CCP) governs China, Christianity has maintained a strong presence in the country, with an official estimate of 38 million Protestants and six million Catholics.
However, president Xi Jinping has been criticised for notoriously cracking down on religious freedom among Christians, Muslims and ethnic minorities through the Communist Party's policy of "sinicization", a term officials use to describe the adjusting of religion to fit Chinese culture as interpreted by the Party. President Xi has pushed to “Sinicize” religion by demanding loyalty to the CCP and eliminating any challenge to its power over people’s lives.
The arrests come in the wake of a newly announced Code of Conduct for Religious Clergy on the Internet. The code, released in September, stipulates that preaching on the internet "may be done only through websites, applications, forums ... legally established by religious groups, religious schools, temples, monasteries, and churches" that have a legal license.
The rules apply to clergy of all five officially recognised religions including Catholicism and Protestantism, which are allowed to practice within China.
Beijing has cracked down on independent Christian congregations over the past decade, destroying crosses, burning Bibles, shuttering churches and ordering followers to sign papers renouncing their faith.
Human rights activists believe tens of millions of Chinese attend unregistered churches or house churches, which defy Chinese government restrictions requiring believers to worship only in registered congregations. Many underground churches were targeted during a nationwide crackdown in 2018, and Zion Church’s main sanctuary was shut down.
The church was founded by pastor Jin, also known as Ezra, in 2007, after he quit as a pastor for the official Protestant church. Following the nationwide crackdown in 2018, the Chinese government placed travel restrictions on pastor Jin, so that he could not visit his wife and three children, who had resettled in the U.S.
During the coronavirus pandemic Zion Church membership grew after it held online prayer sessions, attracting believers who were unable to attend worship at government-sanctioned churches that often shut their doors due to pandemic restrictions.
At present, the Zion Church is estimated to have 5,000 regular worshippers across nearly 50 cities.
"On October 10, Pastor Jin was handcuffed and taken away by a group of police officers," the pastor's wife, Liu Chunli, said in a statement. "My heart is heavy with shock, sorrow, anger, and fear. Yet I must reaffirm this truth: Pastor Jin has done nothing wrong," she added.
Pastor Jin, 56, is being held in Beihai City No 2 Detention Centre on suspicion of "illegal use of information networks", according to an official detention notice. The charge carries a maximum jail term of seven years.
Supporters fear pastor Jin and other pastors could eventually be indicted on charges of illegally using the internet to disseminate religious information. "He's been hospitalised in the past for diabetes. We're worried since he requires medication," his daughter, Grace Jin, told Reuters.
"I've also been notified that lawyers are not allowed to meet the pastors, so that is very concerning to us."
She believes her father could have been arrested due to Zion Church’s growing influence and challenge to Communist Party rule. "I think he had always known that there was a possibility he would be imprisoned," she added.
Advocacy group ChinaAid founder Bob Fu told BBC that the nationwide campaign echoed the "darkest days of 1980s, when urban churches first re-emerged from the Cultural Revolution". He called the roundup of pastors unprecedented, and the "most extensive and coordinated wave of persecution" against Christians in over four decades.
Yalkun Uluyol, a China researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the "Chinese government’s arbitrary detention of dozens of people affiliated with Zion church reflects an escalating crackdown on religious freedom".
"President Xi Jinping’s government appears intent on reshaping religious practice to serve the Chinese Communist Party’s interests, and congregations that fail to do so face harsh persecution."
The US secretary of state condemned the arrests and called for the pastors' immediate release. Mr Rubio said the crackdown further demonstrated how the CCP exercises hostility toward Christians who reject Party interference in their faith and choose to worship at unregistered house churches."
China should immediately release Ezra Mingri Jin alongside other leaders of the Zion Church. People in China should be free to practice religion without fear of the government's interference. https://t.co/ffsRNtip3v
— Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman (@SenateForeign) October 14, 2025
Washington's intervention could potentially worsen the cold war between the two nations, sparring over Beijing's imposition on export of rare earth and US president Donald Trump's threat on imposing 100 per cent tariffs.
"People in China should be free to practice religion without fear of the government's interference," said the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on X.
China has tightened its grip on religious freedom this year with the arrests of several influential underground Protestant churches.
In May, the pastor of Light of Zion Church in Xi’an in eastern China, was detained. In June, ten members of the Golden Lampstand Church in the western province of Shanxi were sentenced to prison after being arrested four years ago.
The church’s co-founder and pastor, Wang Xiaoguang, received a nine-year sentence, while his wife, Yang Rongli, was sentenced to 15 years.
Earlier in 2019, Beijing’s Shouwang Church was forcibly shut down, while Pastor Wang Yi of Chengdu’s Early Rain Covenant Church was sentenced to nine years in prison the same year on charges of inciting to subvert state power.
