A Wall Street Journal exclusive is drawing renewed attention to the imprisonment of Pastor Ezra Jin, the founder of Beijing’s Zion Church, whose arrest has become a flashpoint in China’s intensifying campaign against unregistered Christian congregations.
China has freed the last two church leaders detained for nearly four years following a controversial police raid on a Christian gathering, amid ongoing concerns over religious persecution.
Chinese authorities have detained Protestant church leaders and demolished church property as part of a “widening crackdown on underground churches” that refuse to align with Communist Party ideology, Christian sources say.
Chinese authorities have released Pastor Zhang Shaojie after he completed a 12-year prison sentence on what his supporters viewed as false charges related to his faith in Christ and his growing church.
In one of the most sweeping crackdowns on underground Christianity in recent years, Chinese authorities have formally arrested 18 leaders of the Beijing Zion Church, according to the Christian rights organization ChinaAid. The arrests finalize detentions that began in early October as part of a multi-province operation targeting unregistered Christian groups.
A former underground Chinese house church pastor who now leads a U.S.-based advocacy group has urged U.S. President Donald J. Trump to raise the issue of reportedly persecuted Christians during his talks Thursday with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, following a fresh crackdown on independent churches in the Communist-led nation.
The Trump administration has condemned China’s latest crackdown on unregistered Christian churches after the arrest of Pastor Mingri “Ezra” Jin, founder of the Beijing Zion Church, and at least 30 other church leaders across six provinces.
Authorities in eastern China have carried out one of the largest crackdowns on unregistered Christian churches in recent years, arresting more than 70 people in a sweeping operation targeting Bible study groups and house church gatherings, according to Open Doors.
Devout Chinese Christians seeking to spread the Gospel online face new challenges after the Communist government banned such expressions as part of a crackdown on the spread of religion through the internet.
A Chinese court in Inner Mongolia has upheld prison sentences against ten Christians convicted of illegally distributing Bibles, a case highlighting Beijing’s ongoing crackdown on unregistered house churches.
After enduring “years of persecution,” Pastor Zhao Huaiguo, founder of Bethel Church in Cili County, Hunan Province, has died, leaving behind a legacy of faith and resilience that continues to inspire Communist-run China’s underground Christian community, Christians say.
Nearly 30 Christians in China’s Hubei province are on trial after being accused of organizing and using an “evil cult to undermine law enforcement,” charges rights advocates say are part of ongoing persecution of believers in the Communist-run nation.
Chinese authorities have charged a prominent house church leader in the coastal city of Wenzhou with “illegal business operations” over distributing sermon recordings, rights activists said Friday.
In a chilling expansion of state surveillance, China is now requiring facial recognition cameras in all registered churches–part of a sweeping crackdown on Christianity amid rising unrest and economic pressure under Supreme Leader Xi Jinping.
Three leaders of a prominent house church in China’s Shanxi Province have been sentenced to prison on what advocates call baseless fraud charges, highlighting ongoing persecution of unregistered Christian groups under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Authorities across China have launched a renewed crackdown on Zion Church congregations, detaining church leaders, raiding homes, and shutting down gatherings in what rights group Bitter Winter described as a “coordinated police campaign aimed at dismantling the Zion Church nationwide.”
Concerns remained Tuesday about detained Christians in China after police raided a Bible study group for children, while elsewhere, unregistered church members selling Bibles received long prison terms and fines, Worthy News established.
Advocacy group Amnesty International, which campaigns for the abolition of the death penalty, has named China as the world’s “lead executioner.”
At a recent meeting in Wuhan, Christian media in China were instructed to increase their coverage of Xi Jinping’s thoughts and key Communist Party documents, according to a religious liberty and human rights magazine.
Nine Chinese Christians have been sentenced to up to four years in prison and fined amounts up to a million yuan (more than $136,000), according to a religious liberty and human rights magazine.