By PIA Global* - A series of simultaneous raids in Beijing, Beihai, Shanghai and Chengdu has triggered a political and media earthquake between China and the United States.

Pastor Jin “Ezra” Mingri, founder of the so-called Zion Church , was arrested by Chinese authorities on charges of “illegal use of computer networks,” in what Western media describe as “religious persecution.” However, behind the rhetoric of “freedom of worship” lies a much darker plot: the use of religious movements as instruments of geopolitical influence.

The arrest of a religious agent of American soft power

Jin Mingri’s case is not an isolated incident. According to available information, the pastor had maintained close ties with US-based organizations, especially China Aid, led by the exiled Bob Fu, a figure with a long history of collaboration with the State Department and US intelligence agencies.

Bob Fu—presented by the Western press as a “defender of religious freedom”—has been identified by multiple analysts as a key player in the CIA’s soft power apparatus in Asia, dedicated to funding and coordinating unregistered churches, protest movements, and parallel communication networks within China.

Jin Mingri’s arrest comes in this context. Beijing sees him not as a simple pastor, but as a political operative disguised as a religious figure, a figure destined to erode internal stability and fuel the Western narrative that China “persecutes Christians.”

The Chinese Ministry of State Security believes that these “house churches,” not belonging to the Three-Self Movement (the officially recognized Protestant organization), often function as channels for ideological penetration and cultural espionage, under the guise of religion.

Washington reacts: the evangelical lobby at the service of geopolitics

Reactions in the United States were swift. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, one of the Trump administration’s most belligerent figures in its anti-China crusade, demanded Jin Mingri’s “immediate release” and denounced Beijing for “religious persecution.” The American press, from CNN to The Washington Post, followed suit: presenting the pastor as a martyr for freedom in the face of “Chinese authoritarianism.”

However, this reaction cannot be understood outside the political and financial framework of pro-Zionist and dispensationalist American evangelicalism, a movement that has operated for decades as an ideological arm of US imperialism.

It is no secret that pro-Zionist evangelical networks (which preach unconditional support for the State of Israel and US hegemony as “divine designs”) have been directly or indirectly funded by US agencies, both in Latin America and Asia.

European media outlets such as Deutsche Welle had already documented how the CIA funded evangelical churches in Latin America during the Cold War to contain liberation theology and replace social movements with an uncritical religiosity focused on individual success and obedience to power.

The same pattern is repeated today in China: “underground” or “unregistered” churches function as tools of ideological penetration, promoting pro-American values, neoliberal individualism, and an openly hostile narrative toward the Chinese Communist Party.

In this sense, the so-called “Church of Zion” is not simply a place of faith, but a political instrument designed to undermine China’s spiritual and cultural sovereignty.

A global destabilization strategy

The US religious offensive in China is part of a broader “soft destabilization” strategy, combining media manipulation, funding for “humanitarian” NGOs, and cultural infiltration. The goal is to undermine the country’s internal cohesion and erode the legitimacy of the Chinese government by introducing religious, ethnic, and cultural divisions.

It is no coincidence that Jin Mingri’s arrest has coincided with a new wave of Western accusations of “persecution of religious minorities,” just as China strengthens its strategic cooperation with Russia, Iran, and North Korea, consolidating a power bloc that openly challenges US hegemony.

For Washington, religion is a political weapon: in Latin America, it has been used to neutralize popular movements; in Africa, to control political transitions; and in Asia, to fragment the national identity of countries that do not submit to the Western order.

Western double talk on “religious freedom”

The United States and Europe invoke “freedom of worship” only when it serves as a tool of geopolitical pressure. They remain silent in the face of Israeli bombings of mosques in Gaza or the persecution of Palestinian Christians by the Israeli army, but they revolt when China regulates foreign funding of illegal churches.

In reality, the goal is not to protect the faith, but to defend the interests of evangelical networks aligned with US power, whose pro-Zionist theology legitimizes Washington’s military expansion and the global dominance of Western financial capital.

Beijing responds firmly: spiritual sovereignty and national security

The Chinese government, aware of this game, has tightened regulations on foreign-funded religious organizations. Beijing maintains that all religion in the country must serve social harmony and national unity, not foreign interests.

For this reason, the Three-Self Movement and the Catholic Patriotic Association are structures designed to ensure that religious practice remains within the framework of Chinese sovereignty, free from foreign interference. Jin Mingri’s arrest is part of this policy: it is not faith that is being persecuted, but rather the political exploitation of faith.

What happened to Zion Church reveals a pattern that repeats itself from Vietnam to Venezuela: the United States uses religions as vehicles for ideological penetration, generating parallel power networks under the guise of “faith movements.”

Far from being victims, many of these “persecuted” leaders act as cultural agents of Western power, financed, trained, and promoted by the CIA and the State Department.

China, like other sovereign countries, defends its right to protect its national integrity and spiritual independence against an imperial machinery disguised as religiosity.

The Jin Mingri case is not a question of “religious freedom,” but of the geopolitics of the soul: the struggle between a world that seeks to preserve its identity and another that seeks to dominate everything, including the faith of its people.