Latest crackdown on Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri and his Zion Church ought to be a wake-up call for the global community
By Benedict Rogers in UCA News
On Oct. 10, the leader of one of China’s largest unregistered Protestant Church networks, Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri, was arrested at his home in Beihai, in Guangxi province, south-west China, and taken away in handcuffs. His home was searched throughout the night.
At around the same time, 27 other pastors and members of Pastor Jin’s Zion Church network were arrested or disappeared, all believed to be detained in a nationwide crackdown.
As Pastor Jin’s courageous daughter, Grace Jin Drexel, told the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China conference in the European Parliament in Brussels last week, “Many of them were taken in front of their young families, who they now leave behind. My father, and several other older leaders, struggle with various health issues, and we are deeply concerned about their treatment in prison.”
Approximately 23 remain in detention today, including Pastor Gao Yinjia, Pastor Wang Lin, and Pastor Yin Huibin. The crackdown — believed to be the largest single coordinated, nationwide crackdown against an urban unregistered church in 40 years — hit Christians across the country, from Beijing to Shenzhen, from Shanghai to Shenyang, from Hangzhou to Chengdu, and from Zhengzhou and Jiaxing to Qingdao.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime has long repressed religion in general and persecuted Christians in particular, focusing not only on small, unregistered Churches; it has consistently tried to interfere with the Catholic Church in China as well, appointing bishops without the Vatican’s consent and jailing Catholic clergy who remain loyal to the Vatican.
During the Cultural Revolution under Mao Zedong, it sought to eradicate religion, and since the economic opening of China under Deng Xiaoping, it has sought to control, coerce, and co-opt religion.
This campaign has intensified under Xi Jinping’s campaign of “Sinicization” of religion, which has led to the destruction of crosses, the closure of many unregistered churches, and a policy of forcing churches to display portraits of Xi and CCP propaganda banners alongside religious imagery.
It is not so much Sinicization in a cultural or linguistic sphere, because the Church in China – Catholic and Protestant – has long been led by Chinese. Rather, it is the “CCP-ization” and “politicization” of religion, and the attempted “deification” of Xi and his regime.
But why have Pastor Jin and his network been targeted?
Pastor Jin, who was born in Heilongjiang province in north-east China, founded the Zion Church in Beijing in 2007 after he returned to China following five years of doctoral studies at Fuller Theological Seminary in the United States. Zion Church grew to become Beijing’s largest unregistered church and is now among China’s largest urban unregistered church networks, with an estimated 5,000 members throughout the country.
That is part of the reason he has been targeted. The CCP hates religion. It especially hates religion that it does not or cannot control. And it hates any organization, movement, or idea that attracts a large following. It feels threatened by any belief system that might be at odds with or disloyal to the CCP’s ideology, and by any movement of large numbers.
In addition to the scale to which the Zion Church network has grown, throughout China, the CCP feels threatened by the fact that it operates outside the state-controlled religious institutions. The state-sanctioned church bodies – the Three Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) for Protestants, and the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association for Catholics — are under the CCP’s control, meaning that the regime can restrict, control, and censor sermons, conduct surveillance on and gather intelligence about worshippers, and appoint pastors.
It is an irony that a self-proclaimed atheist regime is the decision-maker in the sacred decisions of these church bodies, including who can attend and be baptised, and what hymns can be sung. It is even in the process of rewriting the Bible, according to Communist Party characteristics.
Pastor Jin’s Zion Church refused to sign up for that – and as a result, is unregistered, independent of the TSPM, and thus illegal. As Grace Jin Drexel said last week, “My father started Zion Church in order to worship freely in a church that put God as the sole head of our church.”
For these reasons, Pastor Jin has been in the CCP’s sights for several years. The legal basis for the current crackdown appears to be a September “Online Code of Conduct for Religious Professionals,” which requires that all religious content be disseminated through CCP-controlled channels, further tightening the party’s control over religion.
Zion Church came under pressure in 2018 because it refused to install facial recognition cameras. As Grace Jin Drexel explained, because of this, “the government took down our church, harassed almost every member of our approximately 1,500 church congregation, seized our assets and sanctuary, and briefly detained and closely surveilled our pastors and leaders.”
Pastor Jin has been under an exit ban and round-the-clock surveillance in China since 2018, meaning that despite regular petitions for permission to leave the country, he has been denied the right to travel to see his wife and children, who reside in the United States and are American citizens. Following his arrest last month, his family in the United States has received threats from the Chinese government.
Pastor Jin himself remains in remarkably steadfast spirits, despite concerns for his health as he suffers from severe type 2 diabetes. In a pastoral letter to church members sent from prison on Oct.19, Pastor Jin wrote:
“I’m gradually adjusting to life here. My blood sugar and physical discomfort are slowly improving. Don’t worry about me. I find great comfort in being able to endure this little suffering for the gospel. Thinking back over the years, many of our young ministers, deacons, and elders have been imprisoned.… When I heard their news, I was so heartbroken that I didn’t know what to do. Now that I’m experiencing these things myself, I feel more at peace.”
He urged church members to stand firm in faith and not lose heart despite the persecution they face.
But despite his inspiring faith behind bars, this crackdown ought to be a wake-up call for the international community. Under Xi Jinping, China is becoming ever more repressive. And so it is time to stand up and speak out.
United States politicians and public figures have started to do so.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, his predecessor Mike Pompeo, former Vice President Mike Pence, and a growing number of senators and members of Congress have spoken out for Pastor Jin.
So have the UK’s special envoy for freedom of religion or belief and his German counterpart.
But it is time for others to step up. The UN special rapporteur for freedom of religion or belief, the European Union, Canada, Australia, and all freedom-loving countries around the world should use their voices to demand the release of Pastor Jin and everyone jailed in China for their religion or belief.
And churches must do the same. Earlier this week, I contributed a video message for an online International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Churches of China. I urge churches around the world to pray for the persecuted church in China — not just on one designated day, but every day. And I call on Pope Leo XIV, especially to pray for Pastor Jin and Zion Church.
As I sat in the European Parliament last week listening to Grace Jin Drexel, I was profoundly moved. I have worked on human rights for all my adult life, and it is easy to become hardened. But her message touched my heart and soul and brought tears to my eyes. More importantly, it made me resolve to redouble my efforts to defend the right to freedom of religion or belief — for everyone, everywhere, no exceptions. If you believe in that basic right, then join me in campaigning to #FreePastorJin.
This article was originally published in UCA News.