Sawt Falasteen - China detains prominent 'underground' pastor in crackdown

Police arrested Jin Mingri, who founded the unregistered Zion Church, at his home in the southern region of Guangxi on Friday along with several pastors in other cities including Beijing were taken into custody overnight.

Jin was detained on "suspicion of the illegal use of information networks", a detention notice verified by AFP showed.

At least seven pastors including Jin, who also goes by Ezra, may face criminal charges for "illegal dissemination of religious information via the internet", according to a church statement.

Police searched their homes and confiscated their computers and cell phones.

"It is just a blatant attack on religious freedom," Jin's daughter Grace said.

Since Thursday, police have apprehended church leaders and members in Shanghai, Beijing, Zhejiang, Guangxi, Shandong, Sichuan and Henan, according to a list compiled by church members seen by AFP.

Four people have since been released following interrogation.

Police barred lawyers from meeting detained church members in the Guangxi city of Beihai on Monday morning, according to Grace.

It was not immediately clear if those detained have been able to speak with lawyers since then.

"We are not criminals, we are just Christians," said Sean Long, a Zion pastor based in the United States who has been in touch with family members of those detained in China.

"We pray for the best, but we have to prepare for the worst."

- Further crackdown -

Jin started the unregistered church in 2007 in Beijing, where it grew to around 1,500 members.

Authorities shuttered Zion in 2018 after pressuring hundreds of members to stop participating in the church.

But Zion's membership expanded rapidly online, holding services on Zoom alongside small-scale offline gatherings in 40 Chinese cities.

That angered Chinese authorities, Long said. He suspects the roundup of church leaders was endorsed at the top.

"The government knows this pretty well. And it's kind of an embarrassment for them after 2018," he said.

"Sooner or later, they have to take action to further their crackdown against Zion. And I guess 2025, this year, is the time."

The crackdown on Zion is the latest in a string of arrests targeting house churches in China.

In May, pastor Gao Quanfu of the Light of Zion Church was detained on criminal charges of "using superstitious activities to undermine the implementation of justice", according to the Zion church's statement.

And in June, multiple members of Golden Lampstand Church were jailed for fraud, with its pastor Yang Rongli sentenced to 15 years, the statement said.

China's constitution guarantees citizens religious freedom but activity is heavily policed.

Christians in the country are split between unofficial "house" or "underground" churches like Zion, and state-sanctioned churches where Communist Party texts are displayed or feature in the service.

In 2022, China banned all online religious services without official licenses.

And last month, it unveiled new rules restricting religious activity on social media.

The rules explicitly ban preaching "via livestreams, short videos, online meetings, WeChat groups or WeChat Moments," referring to features of China's most-used social media platform.

The United States on Sunday condemned the detentions and called for the church members' "immediate release".

"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," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.

Asked about the detentions, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said "I'm not familiar with the situation you mentioned", adding "we firmly oppose the United States interfering in China's internal affairs under the pretext of so-called religious issues".

Grace Jin and her mother, based in the United States, have been unable to reach her father since Friday.

She said her family is worried and scared but not surprised.

"In my mind we've played out this scenario since I was a kid," she said.

"Being a Christian in China, I think you just know that something like this could happen."

N.AbuHussein--SF-PST