OVER the past week Chinese authorities arrested nearly 30 pastors, preachers and members of the unofficial Zion Protestant Church in seven cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Zhejiang. Among those arrested was the pastor and founder of the Zion church (錫安教会), Ezra Jin Mingri, 56, in Beihai city, Guangxi province. Jin and seven other pastors are being held in Beihai City No 2 Detention Centre, according to a statement by their family members, Human Rights Watch reports.
This ‘arbitrary detention of dozens of people affiliated with the Zion church reflects an escalating crackdown on religious freedom,’ says Yalkun Uluyol, a China researcher at Human Rights Watch. ‘President Xi Jinping’s government appears intent on reshaping religious practice to serve the Chinese Communist Party’s interests, and congregations that fail to do so face harsh persecution.’
The Zion Church, which was founded in 2007, has previously faced official harassment. In 2018, authorities shut down the church in Beijing and placed a travel ban on Jin and prevented him from visiting his family in the United States. Despite severe restrictions, the church continued to grow and is now one of the largest unofficial Protestant congregations in China, with thousands attending its services across the country.
This latest crackdown has come after the authorities issued an Online Code of Conduct for Religious Professionals last month, banning the circulation of unauthorised religious content online, effectively denying public access to religious teachers and teachings outside Communist Party control. This was what Jin was arrested for, illegal use of information networks, a crime under China’s criminal law (article 287-1) which carries up to three years in prison.
‘The Chinese government has a long history of severely restricting the right to freedom of religion,’ Human Rights Watch explains. ‘The 2005 Regulations on Religious Affairs require all religious groups to be registered and controlled by the authorities. Protestant churches face repeated pressure to become affiliated with the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, the official umbrella organisation for Protestants.’ You can read their report here..
The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) also reports this new wave of religious persecution, that Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri is barred from leaving China and how, in 2018 authorities outlawed the 1,500-member church and banned him from preaching.
There are two main types of churches in China: registered congregations, also known as Three-Self Churches, which are government-approved because they have agreed to obey communist rules, and unregistered congregations, or the underground church, not ‘necessarily hidden or secret’ but operating outside government control. It is these latter that face intense persecution.
Reporting on this latest CCP crackdown on the spread of religion over the internet, the Wall Street Journal says the new Code of Conduct for clergy stipulates that preaching on the internet ‘may be done only through websites, applications, forums, etc. legally established by religious groups, religious schools, temples, monasteries, and churches that have obtained an Internet Religious Information Services Licence’.
Jin is being held on suspicion of ‘illegal use of information networks’, a charge that carries a maximum prison sentence of seven years. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement on Sunday calling for the release of Jin and other Zion Church leaders. Silence, though, from our own Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, so far as I can see. I wonder why?
You can read the full CBN article here.
