Imprisoned Chinese pastor's daughter vows 'even repression cannot extinguish faith'

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, February 03, 2026

WASHINGTON — The daughter of an imprisoned Chinese pastor is expressing confidence as she shared the story of her father’s detention Monday during the sixth annual International Religious Freedom Summit, proclaiming that “even repression cannot extinguish us” and “God will not abandon us.” 

During her Monday appearance, Grace Jin Drexel discussed the imprisonment of her father, Chinese pastor Ezra Jin. Jin Drexel, who resides in the United States, shared how her father was arrested on Oct. 10 along with 27 other pastors and leaders from Zion Church in what she described as “one of the largest takedown of the independent Christian congregation and China since the Cultural Revolution, a sweep so brazen it has drawn international condemnation, including from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.”

Jin was detained at his home in Beihai, Guangxi Province, while the remaining leaders were arrested or reported missing from multiple cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. 

“To understand why my father is in prison, you must understand that China under Chairman Xi Jinping has embarked on a systematic campaign to achieve total state control over religious life through what the government calls sinicization of religion,” she explained.

While she noted how the Chinese government portrays “sinicization” as an effort at making religions “more Chinese,” Drexel insisted that “sinicization is not about making religion more Chinese.”

Drexel condemned “sinicization” as “repression plain and simple.” After defending Chinese Christians as authentically Chinese and highlighting how they have adopted hymns and Bibles in their native language, Drexel lamented that “beginning in 2018, a wave of persecution and crackdown on all religious life began under the auspices of sinicization.” 

“It included removing crosses and replacing them with portraits of Xi Jinping, replacing hymns with revolutionary party songs, rewriting sermons to align with socialist core values, installing facial recognition cameras inside the sanctuary and shutting down or even leveling churches,” she recalled.

She clarified that Muslims, especially Uyghurs in western China, as well as Buddhists and other religious groups, are also subject to the crackdown. 

 “In 2018, Zion Church became a target ... specifically because the church leadership refused the government’s demand to install 23 facial recognition cameras inside its sanctuary," she said. "In response, the government brutally seized the church building and imposed an exit ban on my father, forbidding him from leaving the country.”

“Yet even repression cannot extinguish faith,” she proclaimed. “My father and his congregation did not give up in the face of these actions. They developed a hybrid online/offline model.”

After the COVID-19 pandemic led many churches to embrace online services, the popularity of Zion Church exploded.

“Zion Church’s online model allowed church gatherings to explode and expand nationwide, launching 100 new church meeting spaces across 40 cities all across China,” she said. “The church grew ... to its largest size ever, often attracting 10,000 individuals daily.” 

Imprisoned church leaders, including her father, face harsh conditions in prison, Drexel said.

“The church leadership arrested in recent months are not arrested and punished because they are political, but because they seek to worship freely. We hear reports that they are made to sleep on mats on the floor in the cold, and they are subject to sleep deprivation and endless interrogation as punishment. Many of them, including my father, have severe health concerns and grow worse under harsh prison conditions.”

“I have not seen my beloved father in person in seven years. He was not there at my wedding to walk me down the aisle, and he has never met his grandchildren. And though I hold on to hope, I know the grim reality that many prisoners of the Chinese government will never see their families again,” she emotionally lamented.

Drexel said her “family has also experienced transnational repression” and “been targeted by the Chinese government abroad” in the form of “threatening phone calls” and being “watched and followed in Washington, D.C.”

Drexel acknowledged that although she is “sometimes fearful,” she remains optimistic.

 “As a Christian, I believe that we are asked to take courage and to speak truth that the God who created Heaven and earth will stand by our side," she declared. 

“As a Christian, I also believe in miracles. I draw strength in knowing that my God is a good God and that even these bleakest moments might be used to serve a greater purpose. Our prayers are not in vain,” she concluded. “As my dad wrote me in a letter from prison, God has indeed used His power to uphold us.” 

Drexel assured that “God will not abandon us” as her speech drew to a close.