BY : Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor
Authorities in China detained Protestant Pastor An Yankui at his home on suspicion of “organizing illegal religious activities” amid an ongoing crackdown on unregistered churches.
Officers from the Taiyuan Public Security Bureau took An into custody Tuesday morning and presented a police record stating the allegation, the U.S.-based advocacy group International Christian Concern reports.
The record cited Article 96 of the Public Security Administration Punishments Law, which requires police to tell anyone they summon the reason and legal basis for the summons.
An leads Taiyuan Xuncheng Reformed Church, an unregistered Protestant congregation. In 2020, the pastor was detained for 15 days and fined over the same allegation.
Since then, police have held him several more times on various grounds, including an accusation that he gave false reasons for traveling abroad.
Authorities have raided the church repeatedly, including during a service in October 2025.
Unregistered congregations, often called house churches, operate outside the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, the government-approved Protestant body.
On Sept. 16 in southern China, officials confiscated biblical materials from members of another unregistered house church, Guangfu Church in Guangzhou, and accused them of “promoting a cult,” according to the U.S.-based group ChinaAid.
Authorities warned one member called in for questioning that they would investigate the member’s children if the member did not cooperate. Police also forced the congregation out of its rented meeting place.
Ezra Jin, a Chinese pastor recently released from detention, told the 2026 Global Religious Freedom Gathering at Dallas Baptist University that China still holds more than 150 church leaders and pastors. He credited advocacy and prayer for his release.
In an interview with The Christian Post at the Museum of the Bible, Jin said eight leaders of his Zion Church in Beijing remain in detention.
In July, Chinese President Xi Jinping allowed Jin to leave for the U.S., 266 days after Jin was detained. Jin said treatment of the eight has reportedly grown harsher since his release and that the Chinese Communist Party is trying to speed up their convictions.
Jin said he prays that Xi, who recently made a three-day visit to Washington, will end the persecution of Christians.
Raids on Zion, one of China’s largest house church networks, began in October 2025. Authorities detained members in several provinces and later formally arrested 18 of them — a step in China’s legal system that typically comes before prosecution. Jin and other leaders were charged with “illegal use of information networks,” a charge stemming from the discipleship ministry the church ran on Zoom.
ChinaAid reported Sept. 10 that authorities were holding eight Zion pastors and staff members in Beihai, a city in southern China’s Guangxi region. They face charges of “fraud” and “illegal business operations.”
In Beijing, authorities have also detained pastors and staff members of Jiaquan Church, a house church that operates independently of the state system. ChinaAid said it learned of the detentions from people with direct knowledge.
It is unclear how many people are being held or what charges they face.
Bob Fu, ChinaAid’s founder and president, called on authorities to identify the detainees, disclose where they are being held, state the legal basis for holding them and allow them access to independent lawyers. He said the detentions are part of a widening campaign against several of China’s most influential urban churches.
Jiaquan has been active in Beijing for more than two decades and has 1,000 members. The detentions came days before a summit between Xi and U.S. President Donald Trump.
On June 14, police broke up a hotel gathering of Early Rain Covenant Church in Jiangyou, a city northeast of Chengdu, and detained more than 30 members. On Sept. 10, another 11 Christians, most of them older than 60, were taken from a teahouse reading group.
Authorities banned Early Rain after police arrested many of its members in December 2018. Its founding pastor, Wang Yi, was later sentenced to nine years in prison.
Ruth Wang, a lawyer who has represented Jin and other Zion members since October 2025, has left China with her spouse and two children. She arrived in Taiwan in September. Authorities had been pressuring VDoor, the law firm where she is a partner, to dissolve.
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