By Abdul Masih —
In what is being called the worst crackdown since the deadly Cultural Revolution, the CCP is arresting and detaining pastors and Christians in efforts to shore up its dictator Xi Jingping amid international instability.
Authorities arrested 18 leaders of Zion Church, one of the largest urban Christian networks, with 100 churches in 40 cities and a membership of 100,000. Charged for using online. The hardline raid was synchronized in multiple cities at once, resembling those used to dismantle of crime syndicates.
“Their only crime is preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, shepherding God’s flock and refusing to turn Christ’s church into a propaganda tool of the Communist Party,” says Bob Fu, president of China Aid. “By turning pastors into political prisoners, the CCP is not only persecuting these individuals and their families, it is sending a warning to every independent church in China: submit to Party control or face destruction.”
Among those arrested is Pastor Jin Mingri, 56. They were charged with “illegally using information networks,” a crime that carries a 3-year prison sentence.
Attacks on the church are part of a broader repression that includes purges of senior military leaders and bureaucratic heavyweights after President Trump’s tariffs sparked mass protests in China and exposed the CCP’s essential weakness.
The CCP brought hammer blows down on the church because it fears the organization of so many people could be a threat to its power. The CCP demands ultimate loyalty above and beyond loyalty to Christ.
“This is the most serious religious persecution against the Chinese urban house church moment we have seen since the cultural revolution nearly 50 years ago,” Fu says.
Even few CCP-sanctioned churches are required to sing the hymn to the communist party first, can’t have the book or Revelations in their Bible and are subject to intense surveillance. Despite submitting to so many breaches of religious liberty, the official churches have been subject to crackdowns also. The CCP has demanded the remove crosses from their buildings, which they refused, getting sentences of up to 14 years in prison for it.
The Washington Post predicted that the crackdown would only fuel the church’s growth. “CCP leaders are doubling down on the same playbook of repression that has contributed to Chinese Christianity’s growth, rather than its decline, since the time of Mao Zedong,” the Post said.
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