Beijing Arrests Pastor of Underground Church After Raid by 100 Officers

Chinese authorities have arrested the founder of an unregistered Protestant church in Beijing, the latest blow in Xi Jinping's long campaign to bring every congregation under Communist Party control.

Police arrested Pastor Xianfeng Edward Cui, founder of Beijing Jiaquan Church, on Oct. 23 on fraud charges, the Associated Press reported ^[1]. He had first been detained on Sept. 4 in a raid on his church involving about 100 officers ^[1]. The AP reported that the charges, tied to members' offerings, are likely linked to the church's unregistered status ^[1].

Cui's wife, Jin Young Gu, a Korean national living outside China, told the AP she has been denied a visa to return as a family member since 2023 ^[1]. Authorities sealed the church's worship hall in 2019, and in 2023 warned that it had grown too large, ordering Cui to lead a single church of fewer than 100 people ^[1].

The arrest follows the October 2025 roundup of 30 leaders of Zion Church, one of China's largest underground networks. Zion's founder was freed in July after President Trump personally raised the case with Xi, the AP reported ^[1]. Catholics who refuse to join the state-run church face the same pressure, as reporting on China's underground Catholics shows ^[2].

Believers in America can do something concrete: pray for Pastor Cui and his congregation by name, and ask our leaders to raise his case the way they did for Zion Church.