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Pastor Wang Lin and seven other leaders of the unregistered Zion Church have been in jail in China for roughly 10 months, despite the Trump-negotiated release of a fellow pastor in July. Wang’s wife, Sarah Su, said he has lost nearly 35 pounds due to poor nutrition during his imprisonment, nonprofit Voice of the Martyrs told WORLD in an email. He has also endured long interrogations, during which authorities pressured him to confess to crimes he did not commit, according to Voice of the Martyrs.
Wang and the others were arrested in October 2025 amid a sweeping crackdown on the Beijing-based Zion Church network, which is active in roughly 40 cities and also holds online worship services. Although Wang has remained in custody since then, he wasn’t charged with any crimes until July 17, when authorities indicted him and most of the other leaders for fraud, the church said.
Why would pastors be charged with fraud? China’s laws require Christian pastors and churches to register with the government-regulated Three-Self church. Wang and his fellow leaders call themselves pastors and operate as pastors while unregistered, a practice the government considers to be criminal fraud. However, Wang argued that he was already ordained and serving as a pastor before the Chinese government passed that law, meaning that he didn’t fabricate an identity as a pastor. Visitors to the church network were also clearly aware that he was not registered, he said.
Dig deeper: Read my story on the July release of Zion Church pastor Jin Mingri.