Chinese lawyer Ruth Wang fled to Taiwan on September 2 after authorities\u00a0threatened to shut down her law firm. Her offense? Representing members of China\u2019s\u00a0Zion Church, a prominent underground Protestant congregation.
While founding pastor Ezra Jin was\u00a0freed from custody in July following high-level US intervention, eight other church members have remained wrongfully detained since their October 2025 arrests.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping launched his \u201cSinicization of religion\u201d policy in 2016, which included\u00a0government regulations tightening controls over religious life. Beijing is not only punishing people for independent religious practice but also those\u00a0defending their rights.
Recently, authorities have continued to tighten surveillance over religious activities. In the first half of 2026 alone, more than a dozen cities across the country introduced measures encouraging or rewarding people to report religious activities the government labels \u201cillegal.\u201d The reporting rules are sweeping.
In February, authorities in Honghe prefecture, Yunnan province, listed 35 categories of reportable \u201cillegal religious activity.\u201d These\u00a0include holding collective religious activities or ceremonies in private homes or other \u201cunapproved\u201d venues, clergy preaching through livestreams or WeChat groups, distributing religious materials in public places, and organizing religious education or training without official approval.
Authorities in Haidong, Qinghai province,\u00a0extended reporting obligations to businesses, ordering hotels and travel agencies to screen the events they host and report any \u201csuspicious situation.\u201d
Almost all of the new regulations offer informants rewards. In Chengdu, Sichuan province, authorities are offering up to 800 RMB (US$120) for verified tips about vaguely defined \u201cillegal\u201d religious conduct.
These measures, which appear to build upon similar ones in\u00a0Xinjiang since 2013 and in\u00a0Guangdong since 2019, send yet another chilling signal to\u00a0Christians,\u00a0Muslims, and\u00a0Tibetan Buddhists in China who have faced intense pressure to closely reflect and follow Han Chinese culture and Chinese Communist Party ideology.
The new measures followed changes to the\u00a0Public Security Administration Punishment Law, which took effect on January 1. For the first time, the law made \u201cillegal religious activities\u201d grounds for 5 to 15 days of administrative detention.
The Chinese government\u00a0insists that people in China can freely worship. While many people in China continue to practice religion, they can only do so strictly within the authorities\u2019 ever-tightening bounds. That is what \u201cSinicization\u201d means in practice.
Beijing\u2019s claims won\u2019t be taken seriously so long as churchgoers and other religious adherents are being detained for exercising their religious freedom.
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