September 23, 2026 — Fortify Rights has called on the Chinese authorities to immediately and unconditionally release eight pastors and leaders of the unregistered Zion Church who remain in detention awaiting trial, nearly a year after their arrest in a nationwide October 2025 crackdown.
In a news release issued September 21, 2026, Fortify Rights named the eight detained church leaders: Pastor Wang Lin, Pastor Yin Huibin, Pastor Lin Shucheng, Pastor Gao Yingjia, Pastor Liu Zhenbin, Pastor Wang Cong, Elder Wang Zhong, and Ms. Wu Qiuyu. They were arrested in raids on October 10, 2025 — one pastor was detained at Shenzhen airport on October 9 — carried out by Beihai police in Beijing and in Beihai, Guangxi Province. The leaders were transferred to Beihai, where they remain held: women in the Beihai First Detention Center, men in the Beihai Second Detention Center.
The eight face charges of illegally using information networks, illegal business operations, and fraud, all tied to the online Christian worship sessions they led, according to Fortify Rights. An additional nine church leaders detained in the same sweep were released on bail on June 18, 2026, but continue to face similar charges.
The figures are consistent with earlier reporting: ChinaAid, Voice of the Martyrs Canada, and Evangelical Focus reported that at least 18 Zion Church leaders were formally arrested in November 2025 following the crackdown known as the “10.9 Church Case” — with 18 minus nine bailed minus founder Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri, released July 3, 2026, leaving the eight still detained.
Fortify Rights says it interviewed six relatives of detained pastors and leaders in August 2026. The relatives described arbitrary arrests, mistreatment, religious persecution, and poor detention conditions. Geng Pengpeng, wife of Pastor Gao Yingjia, told Fortify Rights that more than 30 people are held in cells of 40 square meters, sleeping on hard wooden benches with no bedding, and that her husband nearly died from an appendix problem without proper medical care. Yang Jun, husband of detainee Wu Qiuyu, said his wife is forced to stand night watch and sit on a small stool for long periods and faces threats that family letters will be stopped. Peter Ren Zhong, husband of Pastor Wang Cong — the only female pastor still detained — said she is limited to one one-and-a-half-page letter per month, of which he has received only one of five.
Free China Movement has not independently verified the families’ accounts of detention conditions; they are presented here with attribution to Fortify Rights’ reporting.
The call comes more than two months after the release of Zion Church founder Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri, freed on July 3, 2026, who traveled to the United States to join his family. Fortify Rights notes that President Donald Trump raised Jin’s case with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a visit to Beijing in May — an account corroborated by ChinaAid, which reported Jin’s arrival in Los Angeles on July 4.
Fortify Rights also reports that Ruth Wang, a lawyer who represented the detained church leaders, fled to Taiwan and sought asylum in early September 2026 after authorities ordered her to close her law firm in retaliation for her representation — a development FreeChina.live previously covered in its Rapid Response on protecting lawyers in rights-sensitive cases.
ChinaAid reported separately on September 10, 2026 that the eight detainees had been scheduled to stand trial from August 14 to 18, but the trial was postponed after defense lawyers objected that they had not had sufficient time to review the case files. The report also relayed family accounts of overcrowded detention and inadequate medical care; some weight-loss details cited in this article come from a compilation of the situation by human-rights activist Lei Shiming (雷世明) on X, and this article attributes them to that source chain without independent verification.
Status update, October 22, 2026: The postponed trial has not been rescheduled and no verdict has been issued. In an interview published by The Christian Post on October 4, 2026, Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri confirmed that the eight leaders remain in detention in Beihai and said their treatment has reportedly grown harsher since his release. Reporting on October 10, 2026 likewise noted that the trial set for August has not gone ahead. Free China Movement will update this report when a new hearing date or a verdict is announced.
“These eight Christian pastors and leaders have already endured almost a year of unjust arbitrary detention in inhumane conditions simply for leading peaceful religious worship and teaching Christian doctrine,” said Benedict Rogers, Senior Director at Fortify Rights. “The false charges should be dropped immediately and they should be released unconditionally and without delay.”
Fortify Rights further urged the authorities to drop all charges against the nine church leaders who were released on bail.
Related: Xi’an Light of Zion Church cases · Tang Bingyi case
Sources
- Fortify Rights, “China: Immediately and Unconditionally Release Eight Detained Zion Church Leaders,” September 21, 2026
- NPR, “Persecuted Chinese religious leader finds refuge in the U.S.,” September 19, 2026
- ChinaAid, “U.S.-China breakthrough: Beijing pastor Ezra Jin released after diplomatic talks,” July 2026
- Evangelical Focus, “International pressure calling for religious freedom in China after 18 leaders of ‘Zion Church’ arrested,” November 2025
- Voice of the Martyrs Canada, “Coordinated Arrests Against Church Leaders,” October 2025
- ChinaAid, “Zion 8 detainees face harsh conditions as China church case moves forward,” September 10, 2026
- The Christian Post, interviews and reporting on Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri and the eight detained Zion Church leaders, October 2026