A pastor who founded an unregistered house church in Beijing has been arrested on fraud charges, according to his wife, in what the Associated Press describes as part of President Xi Jinping’s campaign to tighten state control over religion. The AP report, published on 9 November 2026, names him as Xianfeng Edward Cui, founder of Beijing Jiaquan Church.
His wife, Jin Young Gu, who lives outside China, told the AP that he was first detained on 4 September when about 100 police officers raided the church, and that he was formally arrested on 23 October. She said the fraud allegations concern church members’ offerings. The AP noted that charges of this kind are likely to be linked to the church’s lack of official registration. Police in Beijing’s Shijingshan district did not respond to the agency’s request for comment, and China’s Foreign Ministry did not answer questions sent by messaging app.
According to the AP, the church was founded in 2006 and grew as an unregistered congregation. Authorities sealed its Beijing worship space in 2019, after which members met in smaller groups in different places. In 2023, Gu said, an official told her husband that he should lead only one church of fewer than 100 people. She added that she, a Korean national, has been refused a visa to return to China as a family member since 2023. The report also recalled that 30 leaders of Zion Church were arrested in October 2025, and that its founder, Jin Mingri, was freed in July after a personal request from President Trump.
Reporting note: The details of the arrest and the nature of the fraud allegations come from Cui’s wife; Chinese authorities have not commented. This account rests on a single AP report and has not been independently confirmed.
Photo: EditQ / CC0 / Wikimedia Commons
