The leader of one of China’s largest underground church networks has been detained in what observers describe as a sweeping clampdown on unregistered churches across the country.
According to his daughter, Grace Jin, who spoke to Fox News Digital, Pastor Ezra Jin, head of Zion Church in Beijing, was taken into custody by Chinese authorities last Friday.
In recent days across major cities including Shanghai, Huangdao, Jiaxing, and Beijing, almost 30 pastors and church staff from Zion Church are also reported to have been arrested or have disappeared.
Unconfirmed reports suggest the arrests may extend to church leaders in at least five other provinces, according to The Associated Press.
Grace Jin said that families of the detained pastors were caught off guard.
“One after another, they were also taken, detained. Like, they were saying that there were people outside their doors, and then one at a time they were taken into custody,” she told Fox News Digital.
Authorities reportedly accused the detainees of illegal “online dissemination of religious materials,” though families have yet to receive formal documentation.
She recounted to Fox News Digital that Zion Church, which once drew over 1,500 worshippers weekly, was shut down by the government in 2018 after refusing to register with state authorities—a move that placed it among the country’s outlawed “house churches.”
Despite the closure, the congregation continued to meet through online worship and small prayer groups.
Grace Jin said that during the pandemic, Zion Church became one of the few congregations in China offering regular online worship, drawing Christians nationwide to its virtual services.
As other churches adapted to digital platforms, her father shared his techniques and tools, strengthening ties both with fellow pastors and with the wider faith community.
Pastor Ezra Jin has been monitored by authorities and barred from leaving China since 2018, blocking any chance of reconnecting with his US-citizen children. It has been over six years since he last saw them.
Grace Jin added that financial documents were seized during the latest raid. She fears that authorities may bring “fraud” charges against him, as they did against other Christian leaders earlier this year.
Religious rights group China Aid, based in the United States, described the arrests as part of “unprecedented pressure” on independent churches.
Its founder and president, Dr Bob Fu, condemned the crackdown to Fox News Digital: “Xi Jinping has waged a war against God’s Church, such as the Zion Church, that he will never win. The level of persecution against religious freedom has reached the worst [level] in 40 years.
“Faith is not a crime. Worship is not a crime. Prayer is not a crime,” he continued. “The courage of China’s urban pastors and believers will be remembered in history as a living testimony that the light of Christ cannot be extinguished by tyranny.”
Jin’s family has urged the US State Department to press for Pastor Jin's “immediate and unconditional” release so he can be reunited with his loved ones in the America.
Dr Fu implored the Trump administration to publicly denounce the Chinese government’s crackdown on churches.
US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has issued a statement condemning the detentions.
"The United States condemns the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s recent detention of dozens of leaders of the unregistered house Zion Church in China, including prominent pastor Mingri 'Ezra' Jin," the statement reads.
"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.
"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."
