When President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping meet in Beijing later this week, there will be a lot to discuss: war, peace, Iran, Taiwan, trade. Trump has vowed to bring up another issue too: the case of Ezra Jin. A Christian pastor and the leader of the Zion Church, Jin was arrested by Chinese police in October and his family hasn’t been able to speak with him since.
Frannie Block has been following the case ever since Jin’s arrest, and has obtained exclusive access to never-before-seen footage of Chinese police arresting Christians, audio recordings of police interrogations, and testimonies from those who have witnessed the raids firsthand.
Jin’s case has become a flashpoint for the Communist Party’s attempt to control the most intimate part of its countrymen’s minds: their relationship with God. Read Frannie’s story—and watch her video report—on the Chinese Communist Party’s war on Christianity.
—The Editors
The 20-foot-tall image of Mao Zedong looks down at the line of people snaking through the vast square in the heart of Beijing. On the busiest days, they stand four or five people wide, waiting hours for their chance to get inside the gold and white marbled hall that holds his embalmed corpse. Draped across his body, which sits in a clear crystal coffin, is a red flag imprinted with a hammer and sickle in the top corner.
More than 50 years after Mao’s failed economic and social policies thrust his country into poverty, famine, and chaos, any image, any reference to him, is still revered. Mao Zedong Thought (毛泽东思想 Mao Ze Dong Si Xiang), his version of communism, still forms the foundation of China’s constitution.
Neither famine, chaos, nor coup attempts could bring down Mao’s reign in China. What could possibly threaten the power and legacy of a man—and an ideology—elevated to such a god-like status?
