China arrests dozens of Christians in crackdown

China's government has detained at least 30 Christians linked to the influential Zion Church network, leading to widespread concern among activists and family members who fear it marks the beginning of a larger campaign against the country's unregistered Christian communities.

The mass detentions, described by activists as the largest in decades, unfolded across at least 10 cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, last weekend.

Among those arrested was the network's founder, prominent Pastor Jin Mingri. His daughter, Grace Jin Drexel, who lives in the US, first learned of the escalating situation when her father texted her last Friday, asking her to pray for a missing fellow pastor.

"Shortly after that, I got a call from my mum. She said she couldn't contact my dad," Ms. Jin Drexel told the BBC. Within hours, the family realised Pastor Jin had also been swept up.

A detention notice obtained by the BBC indicates that Pastor Jin is being held in Beihai Number Two prison on suspicion of "illegal use of information networks."

While some church members have since been released, the majority are thought to still be detained.

The nationwide scale and coordination of the arrests are considered unprecedented by advocacy groups.

Corey Jackson, founder of the Luke Alliance, stated, "We anticipate that this is just the beginning of a larger crackdown," noting that other underground churches are now preparing for arrests.

Open Doors, another Christian advocacy group, suggested that Zion's high visibility and level of organisation may have made authorities "nervous about organised social entities they do not control."

Despite being ruled by the atheist Chinese Communist Party (CCP), China has a significant Christian population.

However, government figures, which count approximately 38 million Protestants and six million Catholics, typically only account for those registered with state-sanctioned bodies that promote loyalty to the CCP.

Rights activists estimate that tens of millions more attend unregistered "house churches," which do not follow state-approved ideology.

These arrests follow months of increasing pressure.

Recent actions by authorities include the detention of other pastors and the sentencing of church members on charges like fraud, which rights groups claim are false convictions.

In September, a new online code of conduct was announced, severely restricting online sermons to only licensed groups—a clear move to limit the digital reach of underground churches.

This latest roundup, however, is being called a "systematic roundup" to "unroot Zion" by Sean Long, a US-based Zion Church pastor and spokesperson. He quoted the Chinese idiom "killing the chicken to scare the monkeys," positioning Zion as the "chicken" meant to intimidate other house churches.

The latest wave of religious control aligns with the CCP's long-term goal of the "sinicisation" of religion, called for by leader Xi Jinping in 2016.

Previous efforts have involved demolishing church buildings, removing crosses, and banning Christian apps.

Stricter regulations in 2018 forced many underground churches to stop public worship and pivot to online services, a space authorities are now also seeking to control.

Pastor Jin, who was profoundly impacted by the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, founded Zion after deciding he could no longer accept the doctrine of the state-sanctioned church, which demands allegiance to the Chinese state.

Though his family was able to leave for the US in 2018 after previous church closures, he remained to continue his work.

In response to the arrests, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in London stated that Chinese citizens "enjoy freedom of religious belief in accordance with law," but stressed that all religious activities "must comply with the laws and regulations of China."

Despite the uncertainty surrounding Pastor Jin and the other detained members, Mr. Long remains confident. "Persecution cannot destroy the church," he said. "If you look back to history, where there is repression, there's a revival."

Source: BBC