Chinese house Churches: Zion Church subjected to a massive raid
Scores of members have been arrested in at least six cities in what ChinaAid calls "the most extensive and coordinated wave of persecution” in the last 40 years against underground Evangelical communities. Rev Jin Mingri was also arrested. A former Tiananmen Square protester, he founded the Zion Church, reportedly numbering thousands of members. The accused were charged with illegal use of information networks just days after Xi Jinping stressed the need to “accelerate the sinicisation of religions”.
Milan (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Chinese authorities have carried out simultaneous raids in various cities across the country, from Beijing and Beihai to Shanghai and Chengdu, in what Rev Bob Fu, founder of US-based ChinaAid Association, calls “the most extensive and coordinated wave of persecution” against house Churches in China in more than 40 years.
The large-scale crackdown against the Zion Church was unleashed last Thursday. The latter is one of China’s most vibrant house Churches, i.e. Protestant groups that refuse to join the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, the official agency for Protestantism in the People's Republic of China, the equivalent of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.
About 30 Zion Church clergymen and staff were detained in at least six cities, while approximately 150 lay members were questioned. Zion Church followers number at least 10,000 followers.
Founder Rev Jin "Ezra" Mingri’s home in Beihai, Guangxi Province, was extensively searched on Friday, while he was taken away in handcuffs. His family, who have moved to the United States, said they have lost contact with him, but said that he is being held at the Beihai Detention Centre No. 2 on charges of “illegal use of information networks”.
As AsiaNews recently reported, this kind of offence is interesting. A few weeks ago, China introduced new regulations that further restrict online religious activities, the only possible venue for Zion Church, which relies extensively on video calls for its meetings.
The crackdown comes after Xi Jinping spoke on 29 September at an ad hoc study session on religious policy of the Communist Party's Politburo in which he called for measures to "accelerate the sinicisation" of the five officially recognised religions in China (Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Protestantism, and Catholicism).
Rev Jin Mingri's profile explains what is wrong with the Zion Church in the eyes of Chinese authorities. Aged 56 and an ethnic Korean, Jin grew up in the northeast of the country and converted to Christianity after the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, which left him disillusioned him about the communist regime.
Breaking away from the "official" Protestant community, he founded the Zion Church in 2007 with 20 others, which became one of the largest unregistered house churches in China over the next decade.
For this reason, the authorities closed his Beijing church in 2018; located on the third floor of an office building, it was matched with a Christian cafeteria and bookstore.
In a letter released on Saturday with a call to prayer, the Zion Church listed other house Churches recently persecuted in China.
In May, Xi'an police detained Rev Gao Quanfu of Zion's Light Church for using "superstitious activities to undermine the implementation of justice."
In June, the authorities detained 10 members of the Golden Lampstand Church in Linfen on fraud charges. Rev Yang Rongli was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The world of house churches and their online meetings also includes the story of Zhang Zhan, a Christian blogger who was among the first to report the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan. A few weeks ago, she was sentenced to four more years in prison.
The wave of repression against the Zion Church is causing a stir in the Evangelical community in the United States.
The Trump administration, through Secretary of State Marco Rubio, condemned the arrests, urging China to allow people of all faiths, including members of house Churches, to worship without fear of retaliation.
“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,” Secretary Rubio said in a statement.
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