China detains dozens of pastors in church crackdown

Police in China arrested dozens of pastors of one of its largest underground churches over the weekend, a church spokesman and relatives said, in the biggest crackdown on Christians since 2018.

The arrests, which come amid renewed Sino-US tensions after Beijing dramatically expanded controls on rare earth exports last week, drew condemnation from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who on Sunday called for the shepherds’ immediate release.

Pastor Jin Mingri, the founder of Zion Church, an unofficial “house church” not sanctioned by the government, was arrested at his home in the southern city of Beihai on Friday night, his daughter, Grace Jin, and a church spokesman, Sean Long, said.

“What just happened is part of a new wave of religious persecution this year,” Long said, adding that police are questioning more than 150 worshipers and have stepped up harassment of private Sunday services in recent months.

Speaking to Reuters from his home in the United States, Long added that around the same time, authorities arrested nearly 30 pastors and church members across the country, but later released five.

About 20 pastors and church leaders remain in custody, he added.

Police in Beihai could not be reached by phone for comment. China’s Ministry of Public Security did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment.

Jin, 56, is being held at the Beihai City No. 2 Detention Center on suspicion of “illegal use of intelligence networks,” an official detention notice Long provided to Reuters said. The charge carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.

Advocates fear that Jin and other pastors could eventually be charged with illegally using the Internet to spread religious information.

“He has been hospitalized for diabetes in the past. We are worried because he needs medication,” Grace Jin said. “I have also been notified that the lawyers are not allowed to meet the pastors, so this is very worrying for us.”

The crackdown comes a month after new rules from China’s top religion regulator banned unauthorized online preaching or religious teaching by clerics, as well as “foreign collusion”.

Last month, President Xi Jinping also vowed to “implement strict law enforcement” and promote the destruction of religion in China.

China has more than 44 million Christians enrolled in state-sanctioned churches, the majority Protestant, official figures show.

But tens of millions more are estimated to be part of illegal “house churches” that operate outside the control of the ruling Communist Party.

Zion Church, with about 5,000 regulars in nearly 50 cities, quickly added members during the COVID-19 pandemic through Zoom sermons and small in-person gatherings, Long said.

The church was founded by Gene, also known as Ezra, in 2007 after he resigned as a pastor for the official Protestant church.

A graduate of the elite Peking University, Jin converted to Christianity after witnessing the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989, Long added.

In 2018, police closed their church building in Beijing, the capital, during a crackdown on large house churches. Earlier this year, police temporarily arrested 11 Zion Church pastors, Long said.

The government placed travel restrictions on Jin in 2018 so he could not visit his wife and three children who had resettled in the United States, Grace Jin said.

“I think he always knew there was a chance he would go to jail,” he added.

In a sign of restrictions on his movements, he was intercepted and taken back to Beihai by dozens of police officers during a visit to Shanghai last month, said Grace Jin and Bob Fu, founder of the Christian NGO ChinaAid.

“The main underlying reason is that the Zion Church has explosively developed into a well-organized network in recent years, which of course should frighten the Communist Party leadership,” Fu said.