China: Immediately and Unconditionally Release Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri and Zion Church members
By Fortify Rights | November 13, 2025
Chinese founder and nearly 30 other pastors from Zion Church network detained in crackdown
(BANGKOK, November 13, 2025)–The Chinese authorities should immediately and unconditionally release Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri, and other pastors from the Zion Church network in China, said Fortify Rights today. Chinese authorities arrested Pastor Jin at his home in Beihai, Guangxi Province, in the evening of October 10, 2025 and at the same time 27 other Zion Church pastors and members were detained or went missing across the country. At least 23 remain in prison today, including Pastor Gao Yinjia, Pastor Wang Lin, and Pastor Yin Huibin.
“Chinese authorities should free Pastor Jin and all the detained Zion Church pastors and members immediately and unconditionally,” said Benedict Rogers, Senior Director at Fortify Rights. “Their arrests represent China’s largest single coordinated, nationwide crackdown against an urban unregistered church in 40 years, and indicate a further severe deterioration in respect for freedom of religion or belief in China.”
Pastor Jin, aged 56, was born in Heilongjiang Province in north-east China, and founded Zion Church in Beijing in 2007. He is a graduate of Beijing University, Nanjing Union Theological Seminary and Fuller Theological Seminary in the United States where he completed a doctorate between 2002 and 2007. Zion Church grew to become Beijing’s largest unregistered Christian church and is now among China’s largest urban unregistered church networks, with an estimated 5,000 members throughout the country. The crackdown on Zion Church pastors and members last month involved arrests and disappearances in Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Zhengzhou, Shenyang, Beihai, Jiaxing, and Qingdao.
The Zion Church, which is unregistered in China, has faced censorship and repression from state authorities for years. In 2018, the church was officially banned by the Chinese authorities and its main church was confiscated after church officials refused to install CCTV cameras inside the church. Since its banning, the Zion church has resorted to online services and smaller, in-person “house church” meetings to continue its worship services. The arbitrary basis for the renewed crackdown appears to be a September 2025 “Online Code of Conduct for Religious Professionals” adopted by the Chinese authorities, which restricts online religious content to that disseminated through state-approved channels.
Pastor Jin has severe type two diabetes, and has previously been hospitalized twice. He has been under an exit ban and round-the-clock surveillance in China since the church’s banning in 2018. Despite regular petitions for permission to leave the country, he has been denied the right to travel and as a consequence has been unable to see his wife and children, who reside in the United States, for seven years. His daughter and two sons are American citizens. Following his arrest, his family in the United States has received threats from the Chinese government.
In a pastoral letter to his church members sent from prison on October 19, 2025, Pastor Jin wrote:
He emphasised that Zion Church believes in “the separation of church and state,” but that “we do not oppose dialogue with the government, nor do we confront it.” He urged church members, in the midst of persecution, not to lose courage.
On November 7, 2025, Pastor Jin’s daughter, Grace Jin Drexel, addressed the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China conference in the European Parliament in Brussels. Describing the arrests, she said: “Many of them were taken in front of their young families, who they now leave behind. My father, and several other older leaders, struggle with various health issues and we are deeply concerned about their treatment in prison.”
Grace Jin Drexel told Fortify Rights:
Pastor Jin and other pastors are reportedly being held in Beihai City No. 2 Detention Center, in Guangxi Province, although the whereabouts of other missing pastors who are believed to have been detained remains unknown. Pastor Jin is believed to have been arrested for “illegal use of information networks” under article 287-1 of China’s Criminal Law, after the authorities issued the Online Code of Conduct for Religious Professionals in September, banning the circulation of unauthorized religious content online.
China is home to one of the world’s largest persecuted Christian communities, and state tolerance for freedom of religion or belief has rapidly deteriorated under President Xi Jinping’s leadership. The Chinese leadership has tried to bring even large Christian communities such as the Roman Catholic Church under the control of the Chinese Communist Party, including by unilaterally appointing bishops and other church leaders without the consent of the Vatican.
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