The Chinese Communist Party has taken another brutal step in its campaign to crush religious freedom, formally arresting 18 pastors and co-workers of Beijing’s Zion Church after holding them in criminal detention since October 9, 2025. These faithful leaders now face politically motivated charges tied to vague internet laws — a thinly veiled attempt to criminalize worship and shut down independent churches that refuse to bow to Party control. The mass arrests mark a chilling escalation that should alarm every friend of liberty and faith around the world.
Zion Church is no fringe group; founded in 2007, it grew rapidly during the COVID pandemic and now ministers to thousands of believers across dozens of cities — a testament to a living faith that refused to be silenced by Communist dictates. The congregation’s growth and refusal to submit to state surveillance made it a target for Beijing’s drive to “Sinicize” religion and force churches into the Party’s orbit. This is not regulation; it is a crackdown on conscience and on the very idea that God, not the state, is the head of the church.
According to human rights monitors and ChinaAid, nearly 30 pastors and staff were rounded up in a coordinated nationwide sweep in mid-October, and after weeks of secret interrogations and solitary confinement, 18 were formally charged with “illegally using information networks,” an offense carrying up to three years behind bars. These charges expose the changing toolkit of authoritarian repression — using internet rules as a pretext to arrest pastors who preached and ministered online to their flocks. Families report limited legal access and grave concerns about detainees’ health, underscoring the human cost of Beijing’s political theater.
Americans should be clear-eyed about what this represents: a Communist regime that treats religion as a threat and seeks to erase any independent civic or spiritual life not stamped by the Party. U.S. lawmakers, religious leaders, and the Trump administration have been alerted and voices in Washington have condemned the detentions, but rhetoric must be matched by tough, targeted measures that make clear there are consequences for treating pastors as criminals. We should press for sanctions on officials responsible, deny safe haven and visas to persecutors, and leverage trade and technology controls to protect free worship abroad.
This moment calls for principled American leadership that stands with suffering believers rather than appeasing Beijing for the sake of profit or political convenience. Conservative patriots know that religious liberty is not a partisan perk — it is foundational to a free society — and we should demand that our leaders treat religious persecution as a national-security and moral priority. Congress and the administration must act now to build an international coalition that holds the CCP accountable and sends a clear message: persecuting pastors will cost you.
Beyond policy, ordinary Americans and churches must not be silent. Pray for the arrested pastors and their families, support organizations documenting persecution, and lift up the brave men and women in China who risk everything to worship freely. If freedom has any meaning, it is the duty of free nations and faithful people to speak loudly for those who are muzzled by tyrants. No amount of trade or diplomacy should excuse turning a blind eye to the persecution of conscience.
The CCP’s latest assault on Zion Church is a warning to every believer and a challenge to every freedom-loving American: stand firm, call out tyranny wherever it appears, and never cede the moral high ground to totalitarians who would remake faith into propaganda. Our duty is to defend the persecuted, to press our leaders to act, and to make sure the world remembers that liberty and faith flourish when courageous people refuse to be intimidated.
