Police arrest pastor in China for ‘illegal religious activities’

A pastor was arrested in China, accused of organizing what the government described as illegal religious activities, two Christian Christian human rights organizations reported last week. Chinese police took An Yankui into custody on Sept. 29, according to an arrest record obtained by International Christian Concern and ChinaAid. Yankui pastors Taiyuan Xuncheng Reformed Church, an unregistered Protestant ministry in northern China. It was unclear how long police planned to keep the pastor in detention.

Chinese authorities require churches to register because the government views Christianity as a threat that needs to be tightly contained and controlled, according to the nonprofit Open Doors. Many churches don’t register and instead meet underground to avoid the state’s intrusion, Open Doors said.

Has the pastor been arrested before? Yankui has repeatedly been arrested for his ministry work.

• In 2021, authorities detained the pastor and another church coworker for traveling to Malaysia the previous year to attend a global Christian conference.

• Then two years later, police raided a youth summer camp run by the church and arrested Yankui and three other church leaders.

• Yankui’s church was again raided in 2025, and police detained nearly a dozen church members, including the pastor.

Dig deeper: Read Christina Grube’s report on an attorney who fled to Taiwan after legally defending Beijing's Zion Church.