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Chinese underground church pastor, father of US citizens, detained by authorities, family says
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The pastor of one of China’s biggest underground evangelical churches was arrested Friday in what appears to be a roundup of Christian leaders, and his family and followers fear for his safety.
Pastor Ezra Jin of Zion Church was detained by Chinese authorities, his daughter, Grace Jin, told Fox News Digital. Zion Church was at one point Beijing’s largest church. In a document provided to Fox News Digital by Grace, it states that Jin’s arrest came as nearly 30 Zion Church pastors and workers were detained or went missing across Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Chengdu, Beihai, Jiaxing and Huangdao.
The Associated Press reported that dozens of other church leaders in Bejing and at least five other provinces across China were arrested Friday as well.
«One after another, they were also taken, detained. Like, they were saying that there were people outside their doors, and then one at a time they were taken into custody,» Grace told Fox News Digital.
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In this photo taken Aug. 4, 2018, pastor Jin Minri leads a class on the basics of Christian beliefs at the Zion Church in Beijing, China. (Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)
Zion Church is one of several underground churches operating in China, meaning it is not registered with authorities, making it unlawful, according to the AP.
«The charges have been something like online dissemination of religious materials, but they have not given any paperwork out to anyone physically. But they’ve shown the detention slip, and that’s what it says on most people’s detention [slips],» she said.
Grace told Fox News Digital that China has implemented a sweeping crackdown on religious leaders in recent months. In May, Light of Zion Church Pastor Gao Quanfu of Xi’an was detained by authorities on charges of «using superstitious activities to undermine the implementation of justice.»
Additionally, in June, multiple church workers from the Golden Lampstand Church in Linfen were sentenced to prison time for «fraud» charges. Grace is concerned authorities could also file a fraud charge against her father because financial documents were taken from Zion Church.
Since 2018, Jin has been under surveillance and faced an exit ban, meaning he has been unable to reunite with his children, who are U.S. citizens. He has not seen them in more than six years.
This photograph provided by Pastor Sean Long of Zion Church shows police raiding the home of pastor Sun Cong of Zion Church in Beijing, China on Friday, Oct. 10, 2025. (Sean Long via AP)
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Grace told Fox News Digital the Chinese government shut down Zion Church in 2018 because of its influence because it would host up to 1,500 people each week.
«When it shut down in 2018, there was no longer anywhere like physical locations that would ever rent out such a big space for Zion,» Grace said. «In fact, if you were to rent out even a small space, they would immediately find out, and they would come and take down Zion.»
This put Zion Church in a difficult position, but it instead turned to the now-familiar hybrid model, holding live praise and worship sessions online while also distributing information so people could pray together in smaller groups.
«When COVID hit in 2020, Zion Church was one of the only churches with this online model,» Grace said. «Zion kind of blew up at this point. … Christians all across China were attending Zion’s services because it was the only church service for a while that was hosting things every Sunday online with music and sermons.»
She recalled that as other churches tried to adjust to the virtual world, her father offered his resources and methods to others. She said this helped her father connect not only with the other churches, but with congregants as well.
This photograph provided by Pastor Sean Long of Zion Church shows pastor Sun Cong of Zion Church standing, wearing handcuffs, after being detained by police at his home in Beijing, China, Friday, Oct. 10, 2025. (Sean Long via AP)
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Jin’s family is calling on the U.S. State Department to demand the Chinese Communist Party release him «immediately and unconditionally, allowing him to return to his family in the United States prior to further persecution at the hands of the Chinese government.»
Jin’s fate and the fates of the other church leaders arrested with him remain uncertain, but China Aid, a U.S.-based religious group, said that so-called «house churches,» such as Zion, are «facing unprecedented pressure.»
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«Xi Jinping has waged a war against God’s Church, such as the Zion Church, that he will never win. The level of persecution against religious freedom has reached the worst [level] in 40 years,» China Aid founder and President Bob Fu told Fox News Digital. «Faith is not a crime. Worship is not a crime. Prayer is not a crime.
«The courage of China’s urban pastors and believers will be remembered in history as a living testimony that the light of Christ cannot be extinguished by tyranny,» Fu added. He also called on President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to speak out and condemn the CCP’s crackdown.
china,religion,world,faith,christianity religion
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GOP rips FISA court for tapping ex-Biden ‘disinformation’ lawyer to advise on surveillance
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Republican lawmakers called it «insane» that the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court appointed to a key advisory panel a lawyer with past ties to the Biden administration’s controversial Disinformation Governance Board.
Judges on the FISC appointed Jennifer Daskal this month to serve as an amicus curiae, meaning Daskal is now among a small group of lawyers designated to advise the secretive court, which approves warrants for federal authorities to surveil targets for foreign intelligence purposes. The GOP lawmakers say Daskal’s history with the disinformation board raises worries about her ability to discern whether warrants are appropriate.
«The same person who helped to build a board to censor American speech now advises judges on how to protect American liberties,» House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital in a statement. «That’s ridiculous — and exactly why Congress must continue our oversight.»
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Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, looks on during a hearing with the House Judiciary Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Sept. 3, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., echoed Jordan’s concerns, saying Daskal’s appointment was «insane» and calling for reforms to the FISC.
Schmitt shared a video of himself on X questioning Daskal during a hearing about what he called the Biden administration’s «censorship enterprise,» referencing Daskal’s role in aiming to dispel what the administration viewed as inaccurate information about COVID-19 masks and vaccines and information about election security.
FISC proceedings are classified and «ex parte,» meaning a judge reviews the federal government’s warrant application and the target of the warrant has no awareness of the proceedings. A judge reviewing the application can, however, turn to an amicus curiae to present counterpoints to the government’s application, meaning Daskal is among a handful of lawyers who could be tapped to argue against allowing the government to wiretap a person’s phones or otherwise surveil them.
The logo of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is seen at the Los Angeles Federal Building after a news conference to provide an update on the investigation into a May 18, 2025, bombing at a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California, on June 4, 2025, in Los Angeles. (PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
Under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the government has access to these powerful spy tools for foreign intelligence purposes, but it has sometimes, whether inadvertently or intentionally, improperly targeted U.S. citizens.
Building more guardrails into the legislation has long been a point of contention for privacy hawks. Republicans, in particular, became highly critical of the FISC after finding that the court approved the FBI’s warrant applications, which contained flimsy and inaccurate evidence, to surveil Trump campaign aide Carter Page beginning in 2016.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told the Washington Free Beacon, which first reported on Daskal’s appointment, that the «American people need to have confidence in the people tasked to serve as amici» before the FISC. Grassley pointed to a bill he introduced, the FISA Accountability Act, which would allow Congress to have a say in who is chosen as an amicus curiae.
Jordan and Grassley have been some of the most vocal proponents of reining in the federal government’s use of FISA after identifying instances in recent years of intelligence officials allegedly abusing their authority and infringing on U.S. citizens’ Fourth Amendment right to privacy. In the case of Page, DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz released a report in 2019 that identified more than a dozen «significant errors or omissions» across the FBI’s four warrant applications used to surveil the former Trump aide. Daskal, in her new role, could offer confidential, weighty legal arguments to a FISC judge that support or oppose intelligence officials’ requests to surveil someone.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is seen in the U.S. Capitol during votes related to the government shutdown on Thursday, October 16, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Daskal served as a top lawyer in the Department of Homeland Security when she helped launch the Disinformation Governance Board. Conservatives heavily criticized it, describing the board as a «Ministry of Truth» that sought to censor their viewpoints in violation of the First Amendment.
Daskal chartered the board, while Nina Jankowicz was named its executive director, an appointment that fueled Republicans’ fury over it after finding Jankowicz’ past social media posts that they said revealed she was too partisan. Jankowicz, for instance, cast doubt on the New York Post’s bombshell story in 2020 about Hunter Biden’s laptop, which she said fit a pattern of Russian «information laundering.» Biden administration officials vehemently objected to the claims in the New York Post’s story about Joe Biden’s handling of Ukrainian foreign policy, though the authenticity of the laptop itself has been verified through court proceedings.
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Republicans put so much pressure on DHS about the board — calling it an «abuse of taxpayer dollars» and raising alarm that it painted policy disagreements over COVID-19, election security and immigration as mis- or dis- information — that it disbanded just a few months after its launch.
In Daskal’s hearing exchange with Schmitt, Daskal said «it’s not appropriate for the government to censor any points of view.» Daskal did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
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Russia urges Iran, ‘all parties’ in Middle East to show restraint amid US military buildup
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Russia warned Iran and «all parties in the region to exercise restraint and caution» Thursday amid a U.S. military buildup in the Middle East.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the remark as the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, and its strike group are moving from the Caribbean toward the Middle East.
«Russia continues to develop relations with Iran, and in doing so, we call on our Iranian friends and all parties in the region to exercise restraint and caution, and we urge them to prioritize political and diplomatic means in resolving any problems,» Peskov said Thursday, according to Reuters.
«Right now, we are indeed seeing an unprecedented escalation of tensions in the region. But we still expect that political and diplomatic means and negotiations will continue to prevail in the search for a settlement,» he added.
WORLD’S LARGEST AIRCRAFT CARRIER HEADS TO MIDDLE EAST AS IRAN NUCLEAR TENSIONS SPIKE DRAMATICALLY
A F-18E fighter jet takes off from aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford as it sails during NATO Neptune Strike 2025 exercise on Sept. 24, 2025, in the North Sea. (Jonathan Klein/AFP via Getty Images)
The move of the USS Gerald R. Ford would place two aircraft carriers and their accompanying warships in the region. The USS Abraham Lincoln and three guided-missile destroyers arrived in the Middle East more than two weeks ago.
Negotiations between the United States and Iran over the latter’s nuclear program advanced Tuesday toward what Tehran described as the beginning of a potential framework, but sharp public divisions between the two sides underscored how far apart they remain.
IRAN FIRES LIVE MISSILES INTO STRAIT OF HORMUZ AS TRUMP ENVOYS ARRIVE FOR NUCLEAR TALKS
The USS Gerald R. Ford is heading toward the Middle East as tensions with Iran escalate and President Donald Trump demands full nuclear dismantlement. (Jonathan Klein/AFP via Getty Images)
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said the two sides reached a «general agreement on a number of guiding principles» and agreed to begin drafting text for a possible agreement, with plans to exchange drafts and schedule a third round of talks.
Yet Washington has publicly insisted that any agreement must result in the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program — including its enrichment capacity — along with limits on Tehran’s ballistic missile program and an end to its support for allied militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
The world’s largest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford, is seen in the North Sea during NATO Neptune Strike 2025 exercise in September 2025. (Jonathan Klein/AFP via Getty Images)
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Those demands go well beyond temporary enrichment pauses or technical adjustments.
Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner and Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.
iran,russia,military,nuclear proliferation,middle east,world
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