Religious Persecution · Full chronicle and history

One year has passed since the Beijing Zion Church "October 9" church case; eight pastors and church workers, accused of fraud and illegal business operation, are detained in Beihai, Guangxi, and the case has been transferred to the court awaiting trial.

The Zion Church announced that, as the trial approaches, justice administration departments in multiple regions have been pressuring defense lawyers and their firms, and 4 of the original 16 defense lawyers have formally withdrawn under the pressure.

On the morning of September 29, the Taiyuan Municipal Public Security Bureau took Xuncheng Reformed Church preacher An Yankui from his home. His wife Yao Congya received a phone call from the police and was told that he had been placed under administrative detention for 15 days for "illegally organizing religious activities."

On September 3, 2026, the Associated Press reported that Wang Xiahong, a partner at Beijing's Kaimen Law Firm, fled to Taiwan under the pressure of official orders to dissolve the firm after taking on the Zion Church case, and is seeking resettlement assistance.

On the eve of Xi Jinping's planned visit to Washington for a meeting with U.S. President Trump, several religious groups in Washington held an event at the Museum of the Bible, calling on Trump to demand that the Chinese government release individuals imprisoned for their faith and freedom of speech during the meeting, and to include religious freedom and human rights issues on the diplomatic agenda.

According to Hu Liren's video, U.S. President Trump raised the cases of Li Zhiying and Pastor Kim Myeong-il directly with Xi Jinping. Xi Jinping said the release of Pastor Kim could be considered, and Pastor Kim was subsequently rescued and released from prison.

On August 31, 2026, Hunan home church pastor Cao Sanqiang disclosed in an exclusive interview that, two and a half years after being released from a 7-year prison sentence, he is still on the list of those barred from leaving the country. Cao Sanqiang, who suffers from late-stage prostate cancer, urged the authorities to permit him to travel to the United States to reunite with his family.

On August 28, 2026, Radio Free Asia reported that the Baoxing Funeral Home in Hongkou District, Shanghai, had stopped holding Catholic and Christian funeral services and no longer allowed priests to officiate, while other funeral homes were also subjected to strict time limits.

The Beihai Procuratorate in Guangxi has officially indicted Pastor Jin Mingri and eight other pastors and co-workers from the Xi'an church on charges of fraud and illegal business operations, marking a continued crackdown on religious faith groups by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

On July 27, 2026, Beijing Zion Church pastor Kim Myeong-il, after arriving in the United States, gave an exclusive interview, disclosing that the authorities handling the case had characterized the believers' voluntary offerings, support for pastors, and theological training as fraud and illegal business operations involving over 10 million yuan.

The 8 detainees in the Xi'an church case were swiftly handed over to the court; their lawyers received no notice and were not heard.

Pastor Kim Min-chul was released on Independence Day, less than two months after the summit between Trump and Xi Jinping in May.

Pastor Kim Myeong-il of Beijing Xi'an Church was released on July 3 after being detained by the Chinese government for nearly ten months, and subsequently traveled to the United States to reunite with his family.

Jin Mingri, a Beijing house church figure and founder of Zion Church, has been released after years of detention and flown to the United States by a chartered flight from Beijing.

Pastor Jin Mingri has been released by the CCP. Host Hu Liren believes this is a signal of Xi Jinping 'kneeling and begging' to the United States, and predicts that Jimmy Lai will also be released soon.

Kim Myeong-il said that in July, Autumn Rain Church, Wuhan Cedar Tree Church and Hunan Rock Church were raided, and personnel may have been summoned by the relevant authorities.

On July 1, 2026, Chinese Human Rights Defenders released a report disclosing that authorities in Beihai, Guangxi seriously infringed on the right to defense in the prosecution of the Beijing Zion Church case, obstructed lawyers' access to case files, and that pastoral staff such as Wang Lin and Wu Qiuyu face prolonged detention and harsh detention conditions.

Pastor Kim Min-il was detained by the Chinese government for 266 days and was released on the eve of U.S. Independence Day in 2026. At a religious group event in Washington, he expressed his hope that the Trump-Xi meeting would facilitate the release of eight colleagues still in prison, as well as house church leaders such as Pastor Gao Quanpu and Pastor Wang Yin.

Pastor Wang Lin and seven others were formally indicted after undergoing rigorous interrogation in the detention center.

On June 14, 2026, when Chengdu Autumn Rain Covenant Church held a Sunday gathering at the Jiangyou City auditorium, it was raided by a large number of police; 33 church members at the scene were taken away and detained, and several elders were not released.

On March 17, 2026, Wang Sanyuan, a 73-year-old pastor of Changchunli Christian Church in Jinan, Shandong, was taken away by the police. The authorities issued no notice of any kind, and his family has nowhere to turn to file a complaint. Observers outside China point out that this may be a settling of scores over his earlier involvement in the struggle to protect church property.

In October 2025, police intervened during the Sunday worship service of the Xuncheng Reformed Church in Taiyuan, and 11 people, including An Yankui, were placed under 15 days of administrative detention.

Pastor Jin Mingri (formerly a U.S. citizen) was arrested by the CCP in China last October (calculated as October 2025 based on the video release date), along with dozens of members of the Xi'an church. Pastor Jin had lived in the U.S. and later became a U.S. citizen, but chose to return to China to shepherd the church.

The Light of Xi'an Church in Xi'an, Shaanxi, has been subjected to government suppression, with three people, including Pastor Gao Quanfu, arrested and held in custody.

In 2023, after attending a church youth camp, An Yankui was first given 15 days of administrative detention, and on the day that term expired he was given another 15 days of judicial detention over the enforcement of a fine.

An Yankui traveled to Malaysia with a passport and visa to attend a religious conference. In 2022, the Fenyang City Court sentenced him to one year in prison and a fine of 5000 yuan for the crime of "illegally crossing the national border." The court found that he had obtained a visa in the name of tourism while actually attending a religious conference, which constituted "fabricating the purpose of exit and entry."

On May 15, 2022, Chou broke into a lunch gathering of the Taiwanese Presbyterian Church in Irvine, California and opened fire, killing 1 and wounding 5, before being subdued by church members; police believe the motive was related to hostility toward the Taiwanese diaspora.

While staying in Flushing, New York, Hu Liren met a Shanghai couple who practice Falun Gong. The wife said she had served two years in a Shanghai women's prison, where every day she was handcuffed behind her back and hung from a railing for hours, only being lowered during meals, which damaged the nerves in her hands and left her disabled. After her release, the couple hand out leaflets exposing the Chinese Communist Party every day in front of the Flushing post office.