China formally arrests 18 underground church leaders from Zion Church

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Chinese language authorities formally arrested 18 leaders of a serious underground church, clearing the way in which for his or her prosecution and potential jail sentences of as much as three years.

In accordance with Reuters, which reported the arrests Wednesday citing a Christian NGO advocate, practically 30 pastors and workers members belonging to Zion Church had been detained by police in mid-October within the largest crackdown on Chinese language Christians in seven years.

ChinaAid, a Christian non-profit human rights group, stated in a statement that the leaders had been arrested on "politically motivated fees."

"These pastors and associates are being handled as criminals just because they faithfully shepherded a big, legally unregistered church that refused to undergo CCP management and surveillance," the assertion learn partly.

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Christians attend a home church service at Zion Church in Beijing, China, on April 6, 2008. (Jos+¼ M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune/Tribune Information Service through Getty Photos)

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Dr. Bob Fu, the founder and president of the group, known as the arrests of the pastors and workers members a "chilling milestone within the CCP’s all-out battle on Christianity in China ."

"Their solely ‘crime’ is preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, shepherding God’s flock, and refusing to show Christ’s church right into a propaganda device of the Communist Celebration," he added. "By turning pastors into political prisoners, the CCP just isn't solely persecuting these people and their households—it's sending a warning to each unbiased church in China: undergo Celebration management or face destruction."

Jin Mingri, head pastor of the Zion Church, poses in Beijing on September 12, 2018, days after officers shut down considered one of China’s largest underground Protestant church buildings. (Fred Dufour/AFP through Getty Photos)

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio denounced the detentions of the Zion Church members in October and requested the Chinese language authorities to launch them.