A group of Senators, led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling for stronger diplomatic action to secure the release of Beijing Zion Church founder Pastor “Ezra” Jin Mingri – and nearly thirty other church members detained by Chinese authorities.
The senators described the October 10 arrests of the pastor and the church’s followers as the largest “coordinated crackdown on an urban house church” in China in more than forty years.
“Strong and visible advocacy from the United States can help sustain international pressure, support efforts to secure their release, and show Chinese authorities that the world is watching. We urge you to seize this moment…The October 10 detentions represent the largest coordinated crackdown on an urban house church in four decades and underscore a troubling reality: the Chinese government is targeting people of faith simply for worshiping freely,” the letter from the senators reads.
They further urged Rubio to follow up on his October 12 statement condemning the arrests in China, adding that Washington should send a clear global message: that it will continue defending religious freedom.
Pastor Jin, 56, who founded one of Beijing’s largest unregistered Protestant congregations, was among at least 22 Zion Church members taken into custody on allegations of “illegal dissemination of information online.”
Chinese officials have not publicly confirmed the detentions or provided details on the detainees’ whereabouts or legal status.
However, the pastor’s daughter confirmed that he and 22 members of his congregation have been unfairly arrested, per AP News, even going as far to publicly ask President Donald Trump and other high-profile American officials for help in releasing her father.
“My father started Zion in order to worship freely in a church that put God as the sole head of our church, like many faithful Christians everywhere… (yet they) were harassed, threatened and interrogated,” said Jin Drexel, appearing before a congressional panel last week.
The letter had big bipartisan backing, and was co-signed by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Jim Justice (R-W.Va.).
The bipartisan push builds on a Senate resolution introduced earlier this month by Cruz and Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) that condemned the Chinese Communist Party’s actions and demanded the immediate release of the detained church members.
Human Rights Watch, as well as the U.S. Department of State, have documented a big escalation in Beijing’s campaign against unregistered religious groups – especially since new regulations on religion took effect in 2018, with “house churches” facing raids and government surveillance, forcing many of these grassroots churches to completely close.
However, The Zion Church case marks one of the biggest arrest operations by China against an urban Protestant congregation in decades. And now, it doesn’t appear that China has any intention of cooperating with America over the detained church-goers.
Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in the United States, said Friday that the Chinese government “…manages religious affairs in accordance and protects citizens’ freedom of religious belief and normal religious activities,” adding that, “We firmly oppose the U.S. interfering in China’s internal affairs under the pretext of so-called religious issues.”