Five months after dozens of members of a house church in China were arrested by Xi Jinping’s communist regime, reports have surfaced that Beijing is ratcheting up its persecution of the group of Christians by revoking and suspending the legal licenses of the attorneys attempting to defend them.

On October 9, 2025, approximately 30 members of the Zion Church network, including founder and head pastor Ezra Jin along with 21 other pastors, were arrested in a widespread operation that spanned nine provinces across China. A number of them were charged with “illegal dissemination of religious information via the internet.” Zion Church has long been targeted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) because of its status as a “house” church that has not been officially registered with the government, with its original Beijing headquarters being shut down in 2018. Since then, the church resurfaced as a hybrid online and in-person church at several locations across China. It eventually gained over 5,000 members, and up to 10,000 viewers watch the church’s livestreamed devotionals.

Following the mass arrest of Zion members, several have since been released, but 18 remain imprisoned, including Jin. According to Jin’s daughter Grace Jin Drexel (who is a U.S. citizen) and Li Xiaoming, a Chinese attorney familiar with the case, the lawyers who are attempting to defend the Zion members are facing increasing threats from the CCP. Zhang Kai, an attorney involved in the case, had his legal license revoked, while “Several others have had their licenses suspended or faced verbal warnings in recent meetings with authorities,” The Wall Street Journal reported.

These latest actions by the communist regime continue a decades-long pattern of persecution against Christians in the country, which Beijing has ramped up considerably in recent months under the reign of dictator Xi Jinping. In December, 100 members of Yayang Church in Wenzhou were arrested, with 24 still in custody. Local authorities then began demolishing part of Yayang’s church building. Days later, nine members of the Early Rain Covenant Church were arrested (five were eventually released). The current crackdown followed a previous one in 2018, when at least 100 members of Early Rain were arrested, including founding pastor Wang Yi and his wife Jiang Rong (Yi was sentenced to nine years in prison).

Still, experts estimate that tens of millions of Chinese Christians are part of underground house churches. Some sources estimate that there are up to 100 million Christians among a population of 1.4 billion in China.

For its part, the Trump administration has voiced its objection to China’s current campaign against house churches and the imprisonment of Ezra Jin. “This crackdown further demonstrates how the CCP exercises hostility towards Christians who reject Party interference in their faith and choose to worship at unregistered house churches,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio remarked in a statement following the arrests. “We call on the CCP to immediately release the detained church leaders and to allow all people of faith, including members of house churches, to engage in religious activities without fear of retribution.”

U.S. lawmakers like Senator Ted Budd (R-N.C.) have also voiced their opposition to China’s actions and backed it up by introducing legislation that would place sanctions on CCP officials who carry out the targeted persecution of Christians. Budd’s bill is co-sponsored by Senators Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Ashley Moody (R-Fla.), and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska). Rep. Mark Alford (R-Mo.) introduced companion legislation in the House, which is co-sponsored by Reps. Greg Steube (R-Fla.), Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), and Michael McCaul (R-Texas).

“If you look at what China has done in the last six or seven years, it’s actually one of the worst crackdowns in recent days that they’ve done since 2018, so they definitely need to be called on the carpet for this, and it needs to be part of the broader context when they want to trade and sell their goods in the U.S.,” Budd emphasized during “Washington Watch” last October.

Arielle Del Turco, who serves as director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council, further highlighted the CCP’s targeting of religious practitioners. “The Chinese government has not only unjustly imprisoned an innocent man for nothing other than pastoring an influential house church, but now they are harassing Pastor Jin’s lawyers and revoking some of their legal licenses so they cannot defend him,” she told The Washington Stand. “China pretends to be a modern, respectable nation on the world stage, yet it continues to crack down on religious communities in barbaric ways.”

“I’m glad that Secretary Marco Rubio has already called for the release of the Zion church leaders,” Del Turco added. “The U.S. government should keep calling for this until they are freed and continue to raise the plight of the Zion church leaders and other religious prisoners of conscience in China, such as Jimmy Lai, in all their dealings with Chinese counterparts.”

Family Research Council is a nonprofit research and educational organization founded in 1983, dedicated to articulating and advancing a family-centered philosophy of public life.