Chinese authorities have reportedly detained pastors and church workers from Beijing Jiaquan Church, adding to mounting pressure on independent Christian congregations operating outside the country’s state-controlled religious system.

ChinaAid said it received firsthand reports of the detentions involving Jiaquan Church, an independent house church that has operated in Beijing for more than two decades.

The number of people detained and the charges against them were initially unclear. ChinaAid said it was also investigating whether Jiaquan congregations and meeting sites outside Beijing had been targeted in the same operation.

ChinaAid founder and President Bob Fu expressed concern for the safety and legal rights of the pastors and church workers who were taken into custody. He called on Chinese authorities to identify those detained, disclose where they are being held, explain the legal basis for their detention and allow them access to independent attorneys.

Jiaquan is described by people familiar with the church as an influential urban Christian network with more than 1,000 believers and gathering sites in multiple parts of China. The church has particularly attracted younger Christians through discipleship, contemporary worship, and fellowship.

Church leaders have also operated the Noah Music School in Beijing for more than a decade. The school has trained worship leaders and musicians who serve house churches throughout China.

The reported detentions came amid a broader crackdown on unregistered Protestant churches. House churches operate outside China's officially recognized Three-Self Patriotic Movement, and authorities have increasingly used raids, surveillance, and criminal prosecutions against some independent congregations.

Beijing Zion Church has been among the most prominent recent targets. Authorities launched a nationwide crackdown against the church in October 2025, with at least 18 pastors and church workers detained and criminally arrested. ChinaAid reported in September that eight Zion pastors and co-workers remained in detention in Guangxi.

Authorities have also continued targeting Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu. Police detained more than 30 members after breaking up a June gathering in Jiangyou and later detained 11 Christians, most of them older than 60, during a September reading group. The church was banned following mass arrests in December 2018, and its founding pastor, Wang Yi, was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Other recent actions have extended beyond Beijing and the major house-church networks. ChinaAid reported that authorities raided an unregistered church in Anhui Province in September, confiscating phones and ordering young Christians to replace hymns with songs praising the Chinese Communist Party.

The Jiaquan detentions were reported shortly before President Donald Trump’s scheduled meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. ChinaAid said it had no evidence directly connecting the detentions to the summit, although the timing drew attention from religious-freedom advocates.

A broader operation targeting Jiaquan congregations in multiple Chinese cities would further expand the recent pressure on independent Christian churches operating outside Beijing’s state-approved religious structure.