Beijing arrests house church founder Cui on fraud charges

One hundred police officers raided a worship space in Beijing on Sept. 4, marking the beginning of a legal case against a local pastor. Three weeks later, on Oct. 23, authorities formally arrested Xianfeng Edward Cui, the founder of Beijing Jiaquan Church, and charged him with fraud.

Jin Young Gu, Cui’s wife, provided the details of the detention to The Associated Press this week. She resides outside of China and said the fraud allegations center on money collected from church members as offerings. Gu believes the charges stem from the fact that the congregation operates without official state registration.

The arrest fits into a wider pattern of oversight under President Xi Jinping, who has sought to ensure religious groups align with Communist Party rules. In October 2025, police conducted overnight raids in several cities and arrested 30 leaders of Zion Church, one of the largest underground networks in the country. Among those detained was founder Jin Mingri, who was released in July after U.S. President Donald Trump raised the case during a visit to Beijing.

Beijing Jiaquan Church began in 2006 and grew without registering with the state. Gu said authorities sealed off the group's main worship facility in 2019, forcing members to split into smaller groups and meet in various locations. In 2023, police interrupted a Sunday class to issue a specific warning about the church's size.

“They told him that he should lead only one church with fewer than 100 people,” Gu said. “This was a direct warning from the authorities concerning the size and organization of our church.”

Gu, a Korean national, has been unable to return to her family in China since 2023 because she was denied a visa. Officials in the Shijingshan district of Beijing, where the church is located, did not respond to requests for comment from the news agency. The Chinese Foreign Ministry also did not answer questions regarding the pastor's status when contacted via a messaging app.