In October, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials arrested more than two dozen pastors across at least seven provinces who are part of the underground Zion Church network, extending what China Aid called “the most extensive and coordinated wave of persecution against urban independent house churches in China in over four decades.” Details on both the charges and the total number of arrests remain thin, but one U.S.-based Zion Church pastor, Sean Long, said the pastors may be charged with “illegal dissemination of religious content via the internet.”
“More than thirty pastors, ministers, and Christian leaders have been arbitrarily detained, disappeared, or placed under house arrest,” according to China Aid. “Their homes and worship venues have been ransacked, property confiscated, and their families harassed.”
In a statement not calculated to conciliate the Communist Party, Zion Church declared that “Such systematic persecution is not only an affront to the Church of God but also a public challenge to the international community.”
“The government’s actions represent a direct assault on the fundamental human right of religious freedom and a stark reminder that the Chinese Communist Party remains determined to eradicate any form of independent civil faith community that does not submit to state control,” added China Aid. “Unlike four decades ago, today’s persecution is aided by digital surveillance, nationwide coordination, and ‘fraud’ charges manipulated to criminalize peaceful worship.”
Christianity has faced official persecution in China ever since the communist takeover of China enshrined atheism as the state religion and Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution exerted totalitarian control over the daily life of his subjects.
Despite this fact, China likely has one of the largest Christian populations of any country in the world. Statistics on the underground church are, by definition, hard to find, but estimates on China’s Christian population range up to 100 million, more than the membership of the CCP, and growing.
The CCP has responded to the perceived threat of Christianity by pressuring its subjects to join state-sanctioned churches, which offer a theology in which biblical truth has become subservient to the state.
This attempt to co-opt Christianity has not prevented many “independent” (or “underground”) churches from forming. However, without state approval these churches are technically illegal, and they often face surveillance and harassment as a result.
Zion Church, pastored by Mingri “Ezra” Jin, was one such independent church. The Beijing congregation was large, with 1,500 people attending weekly worship services in 2018. Such a large gathering made it difficult to find a place where they could all meet, so the church built a facility on its own property. Unfortunately, it ran afoul of the government when it resisted pressure to install security cameras at its property, and the CCP officially banned the church in September 2018.
After he was briefly detained in 2018, Pastor Jin brought his wife and three children to the United States, but he himself returned to China. “He felt that as a pastor he had to be with the flock. He had always been prepared for something like this,” said his daughter Grace, who is now a naturalized U.S. citizen through marriage.
Upon his return, CCP authorities placed travel restrictions on Jin, preventing him from leaving the country. This means that he has not embraced his wife or children for six years.
Jin’s struggles were only beginning. The unusual size of Zion Church made it impossible to meet anywhere without attracting the attention of authorities, who would shut them down again. In this exigency, Zion turned to a “hybrid” or “multi-site” model, which effectively means that Zion become an affiliation of local church assemblies who met and prayed among themselves, but which were connected to each other through shared worship service live streams.
Zion’s online presence positioned it to grow dramatically during China’s strict COVID lockdowns of 2020, when in-person gatherings of any sort were strictly forbidden. “Zion blew up after COVID, so that irked the government,” Grace Jin recalled. Despite being officially shut down, Zion Church has roughly tripled in size over the past seven years, from 1,500 to 5,000 or more, meeting in more than 100 local gatherings in around 40 cities across China. At times, its worship live streams are viewed by as many as 10,000 people.
However, this year the CCP has tightened its prohibitions on online religious content, with a corresponding focus on Jin and other online ministries. In May, the CCP detained the pastor of Light of Zion Church in Xi’an. In June, the CCP sentenced 10 members of the Golden Lampstand Church in Shanxi, who were arrested four years earlier.
According to his daughter Grace, Jin was now looking to step back from his leadership role and reunite with his family. The toll of six years of constant stress, separated from them, under fear of arrest, likely took its toll on Jin. Additionally, all the signs suggested that it might be a prudent time to leave. “It seemed like something big was going to happen again,” said Grace. “We just didn’t know when or to what extent.”
But before Jin could shake the dust from his feet (Matthew 10:14), the CCP intervened. According to various reports, state police intercepted Jin twice as he attempted to flee the country. When Jin tried to visit the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and renew his visa, “authorities intercepted him, drove him to the airport and forced him to leave the capital.” When he tried last month to board a U.S.-bound commercial flight in Shanghai, dozens of police officers intercepted him.
Now, Jin has been arrested again, and his condition is unclear. According to his daughter, lawyers are not allowed to meet with any of the pastors. Just as Paul, in God’s providence, was arrested in Jerusalem and spent years in prison, so Pastor Jin was not permitted to rejoin his family in the United States.
But God works in many different ways with different people. He may have prepared Jin for a new work of ministry in Chinese prisons, or he may have prepared the type of dramatic deliverance in which his people always hope.
One encouraging sign is the speed with which the U.S. State Department noticed and criticized the arrests. On Sunday. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on China to release the pastors, noting that “This crackdown further demonstrates how the CCP exercises hostility towards Christians who reject Party interference in their faith and choose to worship at unregistered house churches.”
China’s response was stereotypical. “The Chinese government governs religious affairs in accordance with the law and protects the religious freedom of citizens and normal religious activities,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian. “We firmly oppose the U.S. interfering in China’s internal affairs with so-called religious issues.” Arresting pastors is merely a “so-called” religious issue.
Persecuted and imprisoned pastors in China deserve the prayers and intercession of their brothers and sisters in Christ in every land. China Aid urged “global churches and believers to stand in prayer and solidarity with our suffering brothers and sisters in China, remembering those in chains as though we were bound with them (Hebrews 13:3).”
Bob Fu, China Aid president and FRC senior fellow for International Religious Freedom, concluded with this biblically sound, optimistic assessment of the situation: “Xi Jinping has waged a war against God’s Church … that he will never win.”
In God’s kindness, it seems that Jin has already counted the cost, and that he remains determined to press on in the faith, despite opposition.
In a recent Zoom call, Jin was asked what would happen if he were put in prison and the church’s leaders were detained. “Hallelujah!” Jin replied. “For a new wave of revival will follow then!”
