The founder of one of China’s most prominent underground churches and dozens of his pastors and members have been arrested, the founder’s family and a church spokesman said, as part of a crackdown in several cities in recent days.
Jin Mingri, founder of Zion Church, a place of worship not sanctioned by the Chinese government, was arrested Friday evening at his home in the city of Beihai in the southern region of Guangxi, his daughter, Grace Jin, and a church spokesman, Sean Long, told reporters.
Grace Jin said she was concerned about her 56-year-old father’s health and his access to legal representation.
“He has already been hospitalized for diabetes. We are worried because he needs medication,” she told Reuters. “I have also been informed that lawyers are not allowed to meet pastors, which is of great concern to us. »
Jin was arrested on “suspicion of illegal use of information networks”, according to a detention notice consulted by Agence France-Presse. Since Thursday, police have arrested church leaders and worshipers in Shanghai, Beijing, Zhejiang, Guangxi, Shandong, Sichuan and Henan, according to a list compiled by worshipers and consulted by AFP.
“House” churches like Zion Church typically operate without official registration documents and the involvement of local religious affairs offices. Zion Church has about 5,000 regular congregants in nearly 50 cities who attend sermons on Zoom and at small in-person gatherings, Long told Reuters.
The arrests come a month after Beijing’s top religious regulator issued new rules banning unauthorized online preaching, as well as a broader crackdown on online content expressing views contrary to the goals of the Chinese Communist Party. Supporters fear pastors could soon be charged under these new rules.
In a statement released on Sunday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the arrests and called on Beijing to release the pastors.
“This crackdown once again demonstrates how the CCP exercises its hostility toward Christians who reject Party interference in their faith and choose to worship in unregistered house churches,” Rubio said.
House churches have long attracted Beijing’s attention. In 2009, RFA spoke with pastors, including Jin Mingri, about signs that the government was seeking to better understand the role of underground houses of worship. In the years that followed, Beijing cracked down on house churches and subjected pastors of some Protestant churches to intensive training sessions as part of a “Sinicization” campaign. According to the US State Department, China continues to arrest thousands of people each year for practicing religious practices not approved by the CCP.
Includes reporting from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.