US calls for China to release 30 leaders of influential underground church
Jin Mingri, who founded the influential Zion Church is 2007, is among those detained
Christians have long been pressured to join only state-sanctioned churches that are led by government-approved pastors and toe the party line.
The Chinese Communist Party promotes atheism and tightly controls religion - still, some Christian groups are calling this the most extensive crackdown against the faith in decades.
The list includes several pastors and Zion Church founder Jin Mingri who was arrested in the early hours of Saturday after 10 officers searched his home, said US
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