Police in China apprehended several pastors from one of the largest underground churches in the country over the past weekend, according to a spokesperson from the church and family members. This marks the most significant crackdown on Christians since 2018.

The arrests, taking place amid heightened China-US tensions after Beijing’s significant expansion of rare earth export controls last week, received criticism from Secretary of State Marco Rubio. On Sunday, he demanded the immediate release of the pastors.

Pastor Jin Mingri, who founded Zion Church—an unsanctioned ‘house church’—was detained at his residence in Beihai, a city in the south, on Friday evening. This information comes from his daughter, Grace Jin, and a church spokesperson, Sean Long.

‘This incident is part of a new surge of religious persecution this year,’ commented Long, noting that police had interrogated over 150 worshippers and escalated harassment at physical Sunday services in recent months.

From his residence in the United States, Long further reported to Reuters that around the same time, authorities had detained nearly 30 pastors and church members across the nation, though five were subsequently released.

About 20 pastors and church leaders remain in detention, he added.

Attempts to contact Beihai police via telephone were unsuccessful, and a faxed request for comment to China’s ministry of public security went unanswered.

Jin, 56, is being held in Beihai City No. 2 Detention Centre on suspicion of ‘illegal use of information networks’, an official detention notice that Long provided to Reuters showed. The charge carries a maximum jail term of seven years.

Supporters fear Jin and other pastors could eventually be indicted on charges of illegally using the internet to disseminate religious information.

‘He’s been hospitalised in the past for diabetes. We’re worried since he requires medication,’ Grace Jin said. ‘I’ve also been notified that lawyers are not allowed to meet the pastors, so that is very concerning to us.’

The crackdown comes a month after new rules from China’s top religion regulator banned unauthorised online preaching or religious training by clergy, as well as ‘foreign collusion’.

Last month, President Xi Jinping also vowed to ‘implement strict law enforcement’ and to advance the Sinicisation of religion in China.

China has more than 44 million Christians registered with state-sanctioned churches, the majority Protestant, official figures show.

But tens of millions more are estimated to be part of illegal ‘house churches’ that operate outside the control of the ruling Communist Party.

Zion Church, with about 5,000 regular worshippers across nearly 50 cities, rapidly added members during the COVID-19 pandemic through Zoom sermons and small in-person gatherings, Long said.

The church was founded by Jin, also known as Ezra, in 2007, after he quit as a pastor for the official Protestant church.

A graduate of the elite Peking University, Jin converted to Christianity after witnessing the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, Long added.

In 2018, police shut down its church building in Beijing, the capital, during a crackdown on major house churches. Earlier this year, police temporarily detained 11 Zion Church pastors, Long said.

The government placed travel restrictions on Jin in 2018, so that he could not visit his wife and three children who had resettled in the United States, Grace Jin said.

‘I think he had always known that there was a possibility he would be imprisoned,’ she added.

Dozens of police officers forcibly intercepted Jin last month while he was trying to board a U.S.-bound flight from the commercial hub of Shanghai, and restricted his travel outside Beihai, said Bob Fu, the founder of Christian NGO ChinaAid.

‘The key underlying reason is that Zion Church has grown explosively into a well-organised network in recent years, which of course must scare the Communist Party leadership,’ said Fu.