The following is a letter received from the family members of Zion Church which was raided in October 2025:
We are the family members of 18 pastors and church workers who remain imprisoned from the Beijing Zion Church. Over the past five months our loved ones have been held on charges of “illegally using information networks” and are currently detained in Beihai, Guangxi detention center.
They have been imprisoned for 165 days.
We are deeply grieved to see that the legal team providing defense for our loved ones are facing extreme repression. Every lawyer has, to varying degrees, been subjected to investigations, audits, interrogations, warnings, and finds. They have even been threatened to have their license to practice law suspended. This systematic persecution of defense lawyers infringes on human rights and tramples on China’s own constitution.
We strongly protest these actions. Lawyers providing legal defense in accordance to the law is one of the most fundemental guarantees of every citizen’s rights. The Chinese government are stripping the lawyers of their rights and depriving our loved ones the right to have a fair trail.
Together we petition for:
- The immediate cessation of all threats, summons, warnings, and repression against our legal team.
- The restoration of the practice of rights of all lawyers who have been suspended or had their license revoked.
- The guarantee that laywers can perform their duties normally and provide legal assistance to our loved ones without any external interference.
We also ask all sections of society, members of the legal community, and all who are concerned about justice to continue paying attention to this case, to raise their voices together with us, and to put a stop to this unlawful persecution.
We pray that justice be manifested soon, and may our loved ones and their lawyers obtain the dignity and freedom they deserve under the protection of the law.
Signed
Liu Chunli Su Ziming Geng Pengpeng Gu Xiaoyu Yang Jun Tao Tingting Li Hongyang Ren Zhong Zhang Jie Tong Hong Zhan Jing
