Police in Beihai in China’s Guangxi Province formally arrested 18 leaders from Zion Church, an unregistered Protestant house church, on charges of ‘illegally using information networks’ on 18 November.
The group, which includes the church’s senior pastor, Ezra Jin Mingri, was among at least 30 people who were detained across at least seven cities as part of a crackdown on the church that began on 10 October. Their formal arrest means that they can essentially be held in pre-trial detention indefinitely; when they do eventually face trial they could receive prison sentences of up to three years. The group is currently being held in detention centres in Beihai.
CSW sources report that the formal arrest of 18 people from one church amounts to the largest crackdown of this nature on a single church since the Cultural Revolution.
Zion Church, which is estimated to serve at least 5,000 members, is one of the largest unregistered churches in China, and has faced hostility from the authorities for several years. In September 2018 officials in Beijing shut down the church’s main building after it refused to install 24 closed-circuit cameras.
CSW’s CEO Scot Bower said: ‘CSW condemns the formal arrest Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri and 17 other leaders from Zion Church, all of whom have been targeted solely for the peaceful exercise of their religious beliefs. We call on the Chinese Communist Party to release these individuals immediately and without condition, and to cease its harassment of churches and religious groups that choose not to register with the CCP in order to practise their religion or belief without undue interference and surveillance.’