The United States has condemned China’s detention of dozens of leaders from the Zion Church, including prominent pastor Mingri “Ezra” Jin.
US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, demanded their immediate release, stating that the Chinese Communist Party’s actions demonstrate hostility towards Christians who refuse to conform to state-controlled worship.
Nearly 30 pastors and staff members of Zion Church were recently picked up in Beijing and five other provinces amid the fear of renewed persecution against Christians in the East Asian nation.
According to the nonprofit ChinaAid, about a dozen security agents broke into Pator Mingri’s apartment in Beihai in southeast Guangxi province on Friday evening.
The officers searched the cleric’s home all night before taking him away in handcuffs.
Another pastor was detained at the Shenzhen airport in Guangdong during the coordinated operation.
Zion Church is one of the largest unregistered house churches that defy the Chinese government directive requiring believers to worship only in registered congregations.
Born in Heilongjiang, Jin, an ethnic Korean from northeast China, became a Christian while attending the Three-Self Patriotic Movement church after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.
The graduate of Beijing University and two seminaries started the Zion Church in 2007.
In 2018, the authorities sealed the sanctuary and put Jin under house arrest for refusing to install security cameras.