Why China’s War on Religion Matters to the U.S.

Chinese security agents swept through cities from Beijing to the coast this month, raiding the Zion Church network and detaining its founder, pastor Jin “Ezra” Mingri. The point was plain: In Xi Jinping’s China, devotion that isn’t Communist Party-approved is treated as a political problem for police to solve.

Mr. Jin’s case is not an aberration; it’s the product of a system built to subordinate conscience to the Chinese Communist Party. Under the banner of “Sinicization,” Beijing licenses clergy, edits holy Scriptures, censors online worship, bars minors from religious life and restricts contact with fellow believers abroad. Officials enforce these rules by raiding services, charging pastors with “fraud” or “illegal business” and blocking them from leaving the country.