Police pressure expands from Shaanxi to the coast as lawyers and families struggle to defend detained Christians.
by Tao Niu
On the morning of September 21, 2026, Pastor Jiao Yong was taken away in Shanghai by officers who introduced themselves as coming from the Beilin Branch of the Xi’an Public Security Bureau. No warrant was shown, and relatives were told he was suspected of assisting Pastor Gao Quanfu of Xi’an Zion’s Light Church in “fraud.” Since that moment, the family has received no reliable information about his whereabouts or about possible criminal coercive measures.
This is not the first time Pastor Jiao has faced police action. In May 2025, police detained him and later released him on bail, after he was already linked to the same network of house churches in Xi’an. His name appears among the pastors and co-workers of Zion’s Light Church who were targeted in the large-scale operation of May 16, 2025, when ten leaders and members were taken away under accusations of “using superstition to undermine the implementation of the law.” The crackdown followed years of pressure on the community and on its senior figure, Pastor Gao Quanfu, a former Xi’an Drama Theater professional who devoted his life to preaching the gospel and documenting the history of Christian missions from Xi’an to Jerusalem and toward Northwest China.
Authorities in Xi’an later reframed part of the case. After the 2025 detentions, they opened new files against Pastor Gao, Pastor Tang Bingyi, and Gao’s wife, Pang Yu, under fraud charges, separating them from the original “superstition” case and prolonging custody far beyond ordinary limits. Months passed without a verdict, and the families turned to well-known human-rights lawyers to challenge the delays and how the proceedings were handled.
As reported in “Bitter Winter,” lawyers representing Pastor Gao and his co-defendants were mistreated at the Beilin District Court earlier this month.
Pastor Jiao’s detention in Shanghai connects this long story of repression in Xi’an with new actions far from Shaanxi. A pastor already associated with the 2025 crackdown has now been taken away again, this time by officers claiming to act on behalf of the Beilin police in another city. Families and lawyers face uncertainty about his situation. At the same time, the broader case of Zion’s Light Church continues to move through a legal environment where pastors, believers, and their defenders encounter pressure, obstruction, and physical confrontation inside court buildings.
Uses a pseudonym for security reasons.
