Most of the leaders detained in coordinated raids on Zion Church network in October remain in two detention centres in Beihai, Guangxi province, including senior pastor and church founder Jin (Ezra) Mingri.

While Pastor Jin’s wife and adult children are safe in the US, family members of other detained leaders in the network have suffered trauma and ongoing struggles – it can be particularly distressing for children who experience a police raid on the family home and witness their parents taken away into detention.

During the recent crackdown Beihai Public Security Bureau led arrest operations across at least ten provinces and municipalities, with most taking place late at night or early in the morning as police cut power and broke into homes to conduct searches. China Aid has told the stories of many of the traumatised families, some of whom are profiled below.

Pastor Jin recently wrote a pastoral letter from prison and his wife Chunli Liu also wrote an open letter expressing her emotions about her husband’s detention and describing his background.

Children suffer “severe emotional distress”

At least seven police carried out an evening raid on the home of a Mongolian Christian named Huhe Tuya (pictured above, with one of her daughters) in Beihai, where they conducted a search and confiscated mobile phones and a Bible. Huhe’s husband Hasi said police separated him and his wife and questioned them separately for about two hours. Their two daughters, who were doing homework at the time, witnessed the entire scene and reportedly suffered “severe emotional distress”. Huhe was taken away to the detention centre on suspicion of “illegally using an information network”, leaving Hasi and the children terrified.

A lawyer who visited Huhe in the detention centre said she looked very haggard and was in a poor mental state, with disrupted appetite and sleep, and deeply worried about her children. The lawyer said she was being interrogated every day.

Hasi said that the children have been severely affected and often cry at night, and that the denial of case information had left him feeling anxious and helpless. “My two young daughters, missing their mother, have been unable to concentrate on their studies and have been crying loudly every night,” he said. “Their heart-wrenching cries have broken even my heart… I’m anxious and frustrated every day, not knowing which department to contact to find out how things are progressing.”

Police raided and searched the home of Pastor Sun Cong (pictured) at night and took him away. The pastor has three children aged 9, 5 and 22 months. Dr Bob Fu reported, “Sun Cong’s mother collapsed from fright on the spot and was rushed for emergency treatment.”

More than ten police officers took Pastor Sun Xue away while he and his wife Shi Lin and their toddler were visiting relatives in Zhengzhou, Henan province. Police arrived at around ten in the evening, did not show a warrant and the couple refused to open the door until their son (aged one year and 9 months) had fallen asleep, to prevent him witnessing his father’s arrest. Police waited for over three hours before breaking in, handcuffing Pastor Sun behind his back and taking him away to the detention centre in Beihai. Shi Lin said two female officers strip-searched her without showing a warrant or summons.

China Aid reported that the sudden arrest caused “severe emotional and humanitarian pressure on Shi Lin and her young child, who suffered five days of diarrhoea”. Shi Lin said her son did not speak of his father’s disappearance during the day but was restless at night, calling out for him while half-asleep. Pastor Sun’s mother-in-law went to the Yinhai branch of the Beihai Public Security Bureau to request a detention notice but staff loudly threatened her and she was so frightened that her legs trembled uncontrollably.

Beihai police took Preacher Zhan Ge (pictured) from her sister Zhan Jing’s home in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province late in the evening and transferred her by van to the detention centre in Beihai. Her sister and mother were severely traumatised by the incident – China Aid reported that Zhan Jing developed optic arachnoid hemorrhage and that their mother suffered a recurrence of shingles. Her bank accounts were frozen following the raid.

Zhan Ge endured a bumpy overnight journey during which she was handcuffed, bleeding heavily during her menstrual period and feeling dizzy and weak. She has reportedly been intimidated by interrogation police in detention – her second within a year, having been detained earlier in 2025 for her church ministry.

Police detained Pastor Wang Lin at Shenzhen Bao’an Airport, where he had travelled from his home in Shanghai. He and his family have faced repeated harassment since June 2025, including frequent forced relocation, disrupting his two children’s education. China Aid reports that the pastor’s wife and children are under “significant emotional distress”.

(China Aid, China HRC, Zion Church)

Image credits:

Photo of Huhe Tuya: China Aid

Photos of Sun Cong, Zhan Ge and Wang Lin: Zion Church