After the largest crackdown on Christians in 40 years, 18 church leaders of Zion Church—one of China’s largest underground church networks—have been formally arrested in China. While the number of arrests is far fewer than the 30 detained last month, the aggressive action is raising global concern.
The action is a “brutal violation of freedom of religion, which is written into the Chinese constitution,” according to Sean Long, one of Zion Church’s pastors.
Underground Church Leaders Formally Arrested as China Cracks Down on Christians
Jin Mingri (also known as Ezra Jin) graduated from Peking University and witnessed the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown. That experience led Jin to convert to Christianity. He later earned his doctorate from Fuller Theological Seminary in California.
Pastor Jin founded Zion Church in 2007 after he left his previous, government-sanctioned Protestant church. While Zion Church started in Beijing, China, the network of “house churches” now accounts for 10,000 regular worshippers across approximately 40 cities. In 2018, Chinese authorities shut down the Zion Church building, and Jin moved his family to safety in the U.S. before returning to China.
China adopted new rules in September 2025. “China’s top religion regulator banned unauthorized online preaching or religious training by clergy, as well as ‘foreign collusion,'” reported Reuters.
Just a month later, in October, 30 Zion Church pastors and staff were detained as part of the “most extensive attack on a Chinese church in 4 decades,” said Bill Drexel, son-in-law of Pastor Ezra Jin.
Zion Church, a “house church,” operated underground and was not sanctioned by the Chinese government. Reuters reported that China has “more than 44 million Christians registered with state-sanctioned churches, the majority Protestant.”
“Tens of millions more are estimated to be part of illegal ‘house churches’ that operate outside the control of the ruling Communist Party, said Reuters, while referencing think tanks and NGOs.
The pastors and church leaders were arrested for “illegally using information networks,” founder of Christian NGO ChinaAid Bob Fu told Reuters. Those arrested will head into a trial and face up to three years in prison. They are currently held in detention centers in Beihai, a coastal city south of Beijing.
A total of nine people have been released, at varying times, and some on bail, since October. Jin’s daughter, Grace, was among those released.
Grace told Reuters that she was concerned about the detainees’ access to legal counsel. She is also worried about her father’s health. Jin, 56, takes medication for diabetes.
Jin’s wife, Liu, is a Chinese national who lives in the United States. “Whenever he met believers who loved the Lord, he encouraged them to become preachers, saying it was the most honorable calling one could pursue,” wrote Liu of her husband. “He poured out his personal resources to support and nurture those willing to serve.”
