When President Donald Trump meets China’s President Xi Jinping on October 30 during the APEC Summit in Seoul, South Korea, he will face a defining moral test: will he speak boldly for those who cannot speak for themselves — the imprisoned shepherds and faithful believers of China’s house churches?

For decades, China’s communist regime has sought to crush the spiritual vitality of its citizens through surveillance, forced ‘sinicization,’ and imprisonment of Christian leaders. The latest wave of persecution has struck one of the most vibrant and influential congregations in the nation — the Zion House Church of Beijing.

On the night of October 9, 2025, Chinese police launched a sweeping, coordinated operation across nine provinces and municipalities. More than 22 pastors, preachers, and church coworkers of Zion Church were arrested or disappeared into detention. Those taken include Senior Pastor Mingri “Ezra” Jin, Pastor Wang Cong, Pastor Yin Huibin, Pastor Liu Zhenbin, Pastor Sun Cong, Pastor Gao Yingjia, Pastor Lin Shucheng, Elder Wang Zhong, and many others.

Women pastors and pregnant wives were dragged from their homes. Children cried for their missing parents. Church offices were sealed; bank accounts were frozen; lawyers were blocked from contact. This operation — already dubbed the “10.9 Church Persecution Case” — is the most severe suppression of a single Protestant network in China since the 2008 crackdown on the Beijing Shouwang Church.

The Zion Church Pastoral Team released a heart-wrenching open prayer letter on October 16, calling upon the global body of Christ to intercede. Their words echo from a prison cell to the nations: “The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as King forever” (Psalm 29:10).

I have personally known Pastor Ezra Jin for many years. He is a brilliant theologian, a visionary leader, and a faithful shepherd who refused to bow to the idolatry of state-controlled religion. Zion Church, founded in Beijing in 2007, grew to over 1,500 members before the authorities banned it in 2018 for refusing to join the communist-approved Three Self Patriotic Movement.

Since then, despite relentless harassment, the church has multiplied through an underground network that now reaches more than 5,000 members across 40 cities and about 100 congregations nationwide. Each morning, over 10,000 Christians join Zion Church’s online devotional livestream, a powerful testimony to how persecution cannot silence faith but only spread it further.

Today, Pastor Jin and his coworkers languish in detention centers in Beihai, Guangxi Province. Thirteen women are held in Beihai First Detention Center and nine men in Beihai Second Detention Center. Several others have been placed under house arrest or disappeared into the security apparatus. The families are exhausted and traumatized yet unbroken in faith.

One husband, Brother Ren Zhong — whose wife Pastor Wang Cong was taken — now cares alone for their three-year-old daughter who cries night and day for her mother. His old ankle injury has flared from running between police stations and law offices. Another pastor’s wife is two months pregnant and pleads for her husband’s release while traveling long distances to petition authorities. Other wives have lost their homes to seizure and live under surveillance.

The pastors of Zion have asked for seven specific prayers — from physical healing for the injured and pregnant to legal protection for Christian lawyers now targeted for helping them and financial support for families cut off from their livelihoods. They ask that believers around the world join in a “24-hour International Prayer Relay for Zion Church,” a chain of unceasing intercession until every pastor and believer is free.

President Trump has a unique and historic opportunity when he sits across from Xi Jinping in Seoul on October 30. He is the only Western leader who has ever commanded Beijing’s attention through direct moral and economic leverage. During his first term, the Trump administration made religious freedom a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy — launching the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom and declaring China’s actions against Uyghur Muslims a genocide.

Now is the time to extend that moral leadership again. When President Trump meets Xi, he should look him in the eye and say: “Release the pastors. Release the Christians. Release the prisoners of faith.” He should make clear that a nation that jails its pastors and burns its churches cannot claim to be a responsible global power.

The U.S. Congress has already spoken. Former Senator-turned-Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) have led a powerful bipartisan resolution in the Senate condemning the mass detentions of Zion Church leaders and calling for the release of all Christians imprisoned for their faith in China. Their courageous stance sends a clear message that America’s commitment to religious freedom transcends politics and partisanship. As someone who has testified before Congress many times, I applaud Secretary Rubio and Senator Cruz for their principled leadership.

The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) repression is not an abstract policy; it is a daily tragedy measured in broken families and weary souls. Each pastor detained represents hundreds of believers left without shepherds. Each sealed church door means a community of hope silenced. Each child crying for a parent in detention is a wound in the body of Christ.

The Zion Church case is a bellwether. It demonstrates that Beijing fears the moral strength of faith more than it fears economic sanctions. The CCP knows that a man whose heart is set free by Christ cannot be enslaved by fear. That is why it jails pastors and rewrites Scripture to serve the Party’s image of a “socialist Christ.” That is why it demolishes crosses, forces churches to display Xi Jinping’s portrait, and demands that children renounce Sunday school.

History shows that prayer is mightier than dictatorship. When Pastor Wang Yi and the Early Rain Covenant Church were raided in 2018, tens of thousands of believers worldwide joined in intercession. Today, Zion Church calls us again to stand in the gap. Let every church in America, Europe, Africa, and Asia commit one hour of the day to pray for these suffering saints. Let 24 hours of unbroken petition rise from the earth to heaven until chains fall and cells open.

We should remember the faces behind the statistics: the young believers singing hymns in custody, the elderly mothers who walk miles to bring food to their detained sons, the lawyers who risk their licenses and freedom to defend their clients. They are not simply victims of a regime — they are witnesses of a living Christ who promised, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:10).

China’s persecution of Christians is not only a human-rights crisis, it is a warning about the CCP’s view of freedom itself. A regime that cannot tolerate a Bible study in a private home cannot be trusted to honor international agreements or the rights of its neighbors. Religious freedom is the canary in the coal mine for all freedom. When it dies, democracy suffocates.

President Trump’s moral clarity can re-energize the global conversation on religious liberty. By publicly raising the Zion Church case with Xi Jinping, he can signal that America stands not only for trade balance but for truth. The eyes of the world will be on Seoul. The hearts of millions of believers will be praying that their president will speak with courage and compassion.

Despite the suffering, hope has not died in China. Even in detention, pastors sing psalms in whispers. Even in exile, families gather to pray. Even under threat, young believers are coming to faith because they see a joy the government cannot destroy. The blood of the martyrs remains the seed of the church.

The Zion Church pastoral team wrote in their closing appeal: “We cry not only for peace, but for revival; not only for release, but for the coming of God’s Kingdom.” This is the heart of the Chinese Church — steadfast, faith-filled, and anchored in a Kingdom that cannot be shaken.

As someone who escaped China after imprisonment for my faith, I know what it means to be voiceless behind bars and to hear that Christians around the world are praying. That knowledge gives courage to the soul and light to the darkest cell. I urge the global church: do not let this moment pass in silence. Speak in your pulpits, share on your platforms, write to your representatives. Join the 24-hour prayer relay and stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in chains.

And to President Trump, I say this as a pastor and a friend of America’s faith community: your words carry weight not only in politics but in eternity. When you meet Xi Jinping in Seoul, you represent millions who cherish freedom of faith. Use that moment to demand liberty for those who proclaim it in chains. History will remember not only the deals you make, but the truths you defend.

Let the world see that the United States still stands for the first freedom — freedom of religion — and that no nation, no party, no dictator can silence the Church of Jesus Christ.

May the Lord grant President Trump wisdom and courage in his meeting with Xi Jinping. May He strengthen the hands of the suffering saints in China. And may He awaken His Church around the world to pray without ceasing until every prisoner of faith is free.