Pastors and staff from underground church are arrested in China

A Christian pastor and father of U.S. citizens along with dozens of church staff and members have been arrested in China amid a crackdown, his daughter and the church say.

Ezra Jin, founder and pastor of Zion Church, a large “underground house church” with congregations across China, was arrested Friday while at his home Beihai in the country’s Guangxi region, his daughter Grace Jin Drexel told NPR.

“It’s been extremely shocking and … very scary for our family,” Jin Drexel said. “But we also have faith in the Lord and we know that he [Ezra Jin] is doing God’s work.”

More than 30 pastors and church staff were arrested or became unreachable by family starting on Thursday, said Sean Long, a pastor and spokesperson for Zion Church. Some of them are facing criminal charges, he said, including for “illegal dissemination of religious information via the internet.”

Witnesses said police had a “wanted list” and were violent during arrests, according to Long. One female pastor was forcefully separated from her newborn baby, he also said.

“We strongly appeal to the global church society to hold the Chinese government accountable,” Long told NPR. “They cannot do whatever they want without letting people know. Let our ministers and staff members be released as soon as possible. Stop arresting our members.”

NPR reached out to the Chinese embassy for comment on Sunday but has not received a response.

China has in recent years arrested and detained Christian leaders of underground churches, who are not registered with the government and under its control. The Chinese government has also detained and imprisoned Muslims. 

The Chinese Communist Party regards Christianity and Islam as “foreign” and subject to influence by outsiders.

Still, tens of millions of Chinese attend unregistered churches rather than state-sanctioned ones.

Zion Church was subject to an earlier raid and shutdown in 2018, during a previous crackdown on independent churches. Since then it has re-emerged with a hybrid of online and in-person meetings at various locations across China.

The church says it is not a threat to China

Before becoming a pastor, Jin was a Peking University student during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and earned a doctorate in ministry from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif.

Long and Jin Drexel both said Jin may have sensed the arrest was coming, telling them both in recent weeks that persecution could lead to a new wave of revival among Christianity. Jin also discussed his legacy with his family and told them to have video footage of him prepared so that his grandchildren would know about him in case something happened, his daughter also said.

“He was very clear eyed about what the government is and what he is doing. So I think he became a pastor knowing that one day it is possible that he will be imprisoned,” Jin Drexel said. “Prior to the [2018] shutdown of the church, he was in the U.S. and he could have stayed in the U.S. at that point and applied for asylum … but he felt that he had to go back with the church and be with the church while it was suffering.”

The recent arrests have also taken place amid tensions between the U.S. and China, particularly over trade. President Trump on Friday threatened a 100% tariff on Chinese imports.

Zion Church was founded in 2007 and representatives say it has grown rapidly in recent years, with services reaching around 5,000 to 10,000 people each week.

This growth, as well as the U.S.-China tensions, could be behind the recent crackdown, according to Long, who says the Chinese government wants to exert control over its citizens and views Zion Church as a threat.

But he said Zion Church is not a threat to or opposed to the Chinese government.

“We are not criminals but Christians,” Long said. “We are not anti-CCP [Chinese Communist Party], we are not anti-China. We love our people, love our society, love our culture. We are not a Western political force. That is 100% wrong. We are a Chinese house church adhering to historic Christian faith. We are believers of Jesus. We have nothing to do with the U.S.-China tension or competition.”

U.S. officials call for Jin’s release

U.S. officials and lawmakers have denounced the arrests. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for the pastors to be released.

“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,” Rubio said in a statement on Sunday. “We call on the CCP to immediately release the detained church leaders and to allow all people of faith, including members of house churches, to engage in religious activities without fear of retribution.”

Congregants of Zion Church are afraid and it is a very disturbing moment for its leaders, Long said. But the arrests will not deter church members from practicing their faith.

“We will still have online service and we will not stop what we are doing,” Long said. “We will share the good news of Jesus Christ no matter what.”