Click to expand Image The eight members of Zion Church who remain detained. Top from left to right: Gao Yingjia, Wang Cong, Wang Lin, Lin ShuchengBottom from left to right: Wu Qiuyu, Liu Zhenbin, Yin Huibin, Wang Zhong © Private Chinese lawyer Ruth Wang fled to Taiwan on September 2 after authorities threatened to shut down her law firm. Her offense? Representing members of China’s Zion Church, a prominent underground Protestant congregation.While founding pastor Ezra Jin was freed 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 “Sinicization of religion” policy in 2016, which included government regulations tightening controls over religious life. Beijing is not only punishing people for independent religious practice but also those defending 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 “illegal.” The reporting rules are sweeping.In February, authorities in Honghe prefecture, Yunnan province, listed 35 categories of reportable “illegal religious activity.” These include holding collective religious activities or ceremonies in private homes or other “unapproved” 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, extended reporting obligations to businesses, ordering hotels and travel agencies to screen the events they host and report any “suspicious situation.”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 “illegal” religious conduct.These measures, which appear to build upon similar ones in Xinjiang since 2013 and in Guangdong since 2019, send yet another chilling signal to Christians, Muslims, and Tibetan 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 Public Security Administration Punishment Law, which took effect on January 1. For the first time, the law made “illegal religious activities” grounds for 5 to 15 days of administrative detention.The Chinese government insists 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’ ever-tightening bounds. That is what “Sinicization” means in practice.Beijing’s claims won’t be taken seriously so long as churchgoers and other religious adherents are being detained for exercising their religious freedom.