<\/p>\n
On 9 October 2025, Pastor Wang Lin was taken away by police during a crackdown on Zion Church. Zion Church is a \u201chouse church\u201d \u2013 in other words, one of the primarily protestant churches in China that operate independently of the state-approved religious system and therefore lack official registration. Wang Lin\u2019s case highlights ongoing concerns about religious freedom for independent Christian communities in China. In the months that followed Wang\u2019s arrest, his wife Su Ziming and their young son and daughter endured constant surveillance and harassment, restrictions on their ability to leave China, and prolonged family separation. Today, Su and her children live in the United States, while her husband remains detained in China.<\/em><\/p>\n Here, Su tells Amnesty International how the crackdown changed the course of her family\u2019s life and describes the wider repression faced by China\u2019s \u201chouse churches\u201d and its faith-based communities<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n Before becoming a pastor, Wang Lin worked as a lawyer. In 2006, after he became a Christian, he left the legal profession, enrolled in seminary, and spent several years in the US pursuing theological studies. We returned to China at the end of 2017 and Wang Lin became a faith leader at Beijing Zion Church.<\/p>\n As a pastor, his greatest joy came from being with others.<\/p>\n After the shutdown, many members were driven out of Beijing by authorities through harassment, including coerced evictions, or concerns about their jobs. A congregation that had once worshipped together found itself scattered across the country.<\/p>\n During the COVID-19 pandemic, believers stayed connected through Zoom services and online Bible studies. Gradually, the church became a network spanning multiple provinces rather than a single congregation based in Beijing. \u00a0<\/p>\n No! At the same time this network developed, surveillance and repression intensified.<\/p>\n I think the authorities have tried for a long time to bring house churches fully under their supervision.<\/p>\n When house churches refuse government control and wish to exercise their beliefs freely, the governments see this as a problem. And they\u2019re not afraid to use trumped up charges under existing criminal law to solve that problem. At the end of the day, whatever charges they use, their ultimate goal is to crush the church and make it disappear.<\/p>\n In the case against Zion Church, authorities accused church leaders of receiving \u201cfraudulent proceeds\u201d, treating believers\u2019 tithes and offerings as unlawfully obtained funds. They also characterized church training programmes and seminary courses were deemed as engaging in \u201cillegal business activities.\u201d My husband Wang Lin has been charged on both counts.<\/p>\n I think the charges against Zion Church reflect a broader trend in recent years. While some church leaders, like many human rights defenders, are prosecuted on national security charges, authorities have increasingly used charges such as \u201cfraud\u201d and \u201cillegal business operations\u201d to target the normal actions and management of the institutions and communities themselves.<\/p>\n In the Zion case, the authorities have defined believers\u2019 voluntary offerings as money obtained through fraud. They see it as money that was obtained from people through deception. And as to the theology courses, this was a discipleship training programme within the church. It was never intended to make money. I don\u2019t think this was about actually finding problems with our financial activities; it was aimed at faith communities themselves. \u00a0<\/p>\n A lot of human rights activists, and very high-profile church leaders, face serious criminal charges like \u201cinciting subversion of state power\u201d. But a lot of damage can be done with these ordinary or more \u201cminor\u201d criminal prosecutions. Not least because it affects the ability of parishioners and believers to exercise their right to freedom of religion.<\/p>\n These charges not only stigmatize normal religious activities but also obscure the broader issue of freedom of religion. By treating voluntary offerings as \u201cfraudulent proceeds\u201d and church training programmes as \u201cillegal business activities\u201d, the authorities are effectively criminalizing the peaceful exercise of religious freedom, making it easier to target church leaders and entire faith communities.<\/p>\n Even before my husband\u2019s arrest, we were living under immense pressure. We had to move repeatedly, we\u2019d get evicted for no reason, we couldn\u2019t finalize a contract to buy our own home.<\/p>\n Wherever we went, it seemed like someone was watching. \u00a0<\/p>\n The most painful thing was seeing our children unable to Su Ziming<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Obviously, this had an effect on our children, too. But the most painful thing was seeing our children were unable to get an education. One afternoon, a teacher packed up all of our children\u2019s books and supplies and sent them home. My son asked: \u201cMom, why do we always have to take our things home?\u201d Even he had begun to realise that this was not the first time our family had faced such disruption. How can I explain?<\/p>\n It\u2019s terrible that in China today, simply because of their father\u2019s work, my children don\u2019t have the right to go to school. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Yes. When I tried to leave with our two children in November 2025, we were stopped after entering the airport in Shanghai. The airport security took me aside and escorted me to an interview room; they said I was under an exit ban. They refused to show me any legal documents to justify their actions until hours later \u2013 at around 4 in the morning, when I copied down the details of the restriction. Our children were there and saw everything: their mother confronting a room full of police officers.<\/p>\n Following sustained international attention and pressure, the authorities eventually lifted the exit ban, allowing us to leave China. But I know this experience has taken an emotional toll on our children. Even here safe in the US, the trauma remains. They often ask: \u201cWhat if you get arrested too?\u201d It\u2019s a question no mother ever wants to answer. \u00a0<\/p>\n There have been other church cases that received little public attention over the years, and we have heard reports that people detained then were subjected to abuse and mistreatment. Another house church leader, Yang Rongli, was sentenced to 15 years in prison<\/a> on fraud charges. But we think that if a case becomes internationally known, authorities often become more cautious in how they treat those in custody.<\/p>\n This would be important for the family members of Zion Church, but also to other house churches and believers facing persecution because of their faith. You \u2013 international NGOs, governments, the media, the UN \u2013 your voices can be the strongest support.<\/p>\n Our children and I will stand with you. I will always believe in you. And no matter if you get sentenced, or for how long, our children and I will wait for you.<\/p>\n Amnesty International continues to <\/em>document the ways<\/em><\/a> in which human rights defenders and others, including faith-based leaders, are targeted<\/em> with punitive measures by the authorities \u2013 and the ways this extends to their family members, despite them not being accused of any crime themselves. Amnesty is <\/em>concerned about the new Entry-Exit Regulations<\/em><\/a> and the risk that they codify a persistent use of de facto travel and exit bans to constrain freedom of movement for activists and their families.<\/em><\/p>\n kabarsula SLOT <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On 9 October 2025, Pastor Wang Lin was taken away by police during a crackdown…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kabarsula"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How did your husband end up a faith leader?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
In 2018, the Chinese authorities shut down Beijing Zion Church. What happened next?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
And did the authorities allow this?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
What are some of the tactics used by the authorities to target the Zion Church?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
What activities are being targeted with these allegations?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
What\u2019s been the impact of these allegations?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
What about the family members of those targeted \u2013 how has it affected you and your family?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n
get an education.<\/p>\nAnd so, you decided to leave?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Why have you and other family members decided to go public with this case and the challenges facing Christians, among many faith communities, in China?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Would you like to share a message for your husband?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Stand with Su and her family<\/h2>\n
call on Chinese authorities to release Wang Lin and stop targeting faith leaders, their families and communities<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n