CHINAS WAR ON CHRIST: Church Leaders Formally Arrested in Largest Christian Crackdown in 40 Years
Chinese authorities formally arrested 18 leaders of Beijing's Zion Church on Tuesday, November 19th, charging them with "illegally using information networks" in what Christian rights organizations are calling the largest crackdown on a single church since the Cultural Revolution.
The 18 individuals, including senior pastor Ezra Jin Mingri, have been held under criminal detention since October 9th, 2025, when the Chinese Communist Party launched a nationwide coordinated operation targeting one of the most influential urban house churches in China. The formal arrests followed weeks of solitary confinement, secret interrogations, and sustained pressure on their families.
Bob Fu, president of ChinaAid, which serves the persecuted church in China, told CBN News the imprisonment represents a "shocking milestone in the CCP's full scale war against Christianity in China." The charges carry a maximum three year prison sentence.
The October crackdown arrested nearly 30 pastors, preachers, and church members across seven cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Zhejiang. Five detainees were released in October and four more were released on bail in early November. The remaining 18 are currently being held in detention centers in Beihai.
Pastor Jin founded Zion Church in 2007 after converting to Christianity following the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. The church grew rapidly to serve an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 members across 40 to 50 cities. In 2018, authorities shut down the church's main building in Beijing after Jin refused to install 24 closed circuit cameras for government surveillance.
Despite severe restrictions, the church continued to grow through online services during the COVID pandemic. The crackdown appears linked to the "Online Code of Conduct for Religious Professionals" implemented in September 2025, which restricts religious content online unless disseminated through state approved channels.
According to family members and attorneys, after the formal arrests, all 18 church leaders are now being treated as criminals simply for faithfully shepherding a large, unregistered Christian church that refuses to accept state surveillance and control.
"Their only so called crime is preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, caring for God's flock, and refusing to turn Christ's church into a propaganda tool of the Communist Party," ChinaAid stated. "By turning pastors into political prisoners, the CCP is not only persecuting these individuals and their families. It is also sending a warning to independent churches across China: submit to Party control or be crushed."
Sean Long, an interim pastor at Zion Church, said the situation for Christians in China remains tense but the church will continue. "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."
The mass arrests come after years of systematic pressure on Zion Church, including surveillance, harassment, property seizures, forced closures of worship sites, and repeated detentions. The violence against Christians erupted immediately after passage of the new online regulations in September, with civil society groups documenting attacks across multiple districts including mob violence at religious gatherings and police harassment.
Pastor Jin's American children cannot leave China and are barred from school and housing. The church runs a counseling center helping the wives and children of imprisoned pastors deal with depression and trauma.
Over 500 church leaders from 45 nations signed an online petition on Tuesday calling for the release of the imprisoned Zion Church members. The US Senate passed a bipartisan resolution on Wednesday condemning the arrests and calling for the church leaders' release.
Since the CCP came to power in 2014 under Xi Jinping, incidents of violence and harassment against Christians have increased dramatically. China uses "Sinicization" to force churches to teach Communist dogma alongside religious beliefs. Millions of Chinese Christians have chosen to defy the system by worshiping at underground "house churches."
THE CRUSADER'S OPINION
This is what totalitarianism looks like when it fears the Gospel.
Eighteen pastors arrested for refusing to bow to Communist control.
Their crime? Preaching Jesus without permission slips from atheist bureaucrats.
China demands Christians worship under surveillance cameras, teach Party propaganda alongside Scripture, and surrender their children to state indoctrination.
Zion Church said no. Now their leaders face three years in prison for "illegally using information networks" to spread the Gospel online.
The CCP fears Christianity more than any foreign military because they know the truth: Christ's kingdom outlasts every earthly empire.
Communist China will collapse. The church will remain.
These 18 pastors are political prisoners whose only crime is faithfulness to Christ.
Western Christians comfortable in their freedom must remember: our brothers and sisters are rotting in Chinese prisons tonight for doing what we do without consequence.
TAKE ACTION
Support persecuted Chinese Christians: • ChinaAid: https://www.chinaaid.org/donate | 432.689.6985 • Voice of the Martyrs: https://www.persecution.com/give | 800.747.0085 • Open Doors: https://www.opendoorsusa.org/donate | 888.524.2535
Advocate for Zion Church leaders: • Contact US State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor: [email protected] • Sign the global petition for Zion Church leaders' release at ChinaAid website • Contact your congressional representatives to demand action on China's religious persecution
Pray and inform: • Pray daily for Pastor Jin Mingri and the 18 imprisoned Zion Church leaders by name • Pray for their wives and children facing trauma, depression, and being barred from school • Share stories of Chinese Christian persecution with #FreeZionChurch and #ChinaChristianPersecution • Follow updates from ChinaAid and Open Doors on the Zion Church case
