"Pastors of 'Zion Church' Arrested in China Could Face Up to 3 Years in Prison"

Pastor Jin Ming-re of China's Zion Church. Yonhap News Agency

It has been reported that pastors of Korean ethnicity arrested for their involvement with the underground church "Zion Church" in China may face prison sentences of up to three years.

Reuters reported on the 19th, citing Bob Fu, founder of the NGO ChinaAid, that 18 leaders of Zion Church, who were detained last month, were officially arrested by authorities the previous day, stating this possibility.

They are accused of illegally using information networks, and the maximum penalty for this charge is three years.

Reuters explained that in China, criminal investigations begin after a detained suspect is officially arrested, leading to a trial, and this process can take over a year for complex cases.

Previously, nearly 30 pastors and staff members of Zion Church, a house church network in China, were detained by authorities in mid-October. Of these, five were released last month, and four staff members were additionally released on bail on the 10th of this month.

The remaining 18, including Korean-ethnic Pastor Jin Ming-re, are reportedly being held in detention facilities in Beihai, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, in southern China.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (Texas, Republican) have previously condemned the detention of Zion Church leaders through statements issued last month.

Pastor Jin's family also urged for his release and that of others in an op-ed published by the U.S. daily The Washington Post (WP) on the 3rd.

Zion Church, founded in 2007, began facing pressure from authorities around 2018, experiencing difficulties in securing meeting venues. In response, they shifted to a hybrid model combining online and offline gatherings, which led to a significant expansion of their congregation.

Pastor Jin, a graduate of Peking University, became a Christian after witnessing the violent crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests. He initially worked within the government-controlled "Three-Self Patriotic Movement Committee of the Protestant Church in China" before independently establishing house churches, becoming a person of interest to the authorities.

Yonhap News Agency