Pastor Wang Lin Writes Letter After Year in Detention

Pastor Wang Lin of Beijing Zion Church has written a letter from detention urging fellow Christians to persevere, more than a year after his arrest in China's October 2025 crackdown. The letter, written on 22 October 2026 from Beihai's Second Detention Centre and reported this week, describes overcrowding, poor medical care and constant pressure, and calls shared suffering a mark of one body in Christ.

"Since ancient times, the scar of bearing the cross has been among the most important marks of the entire Body of Christ," Wang writes. Thirty to forty men sleep on a single wooden platform in his cell, and his letter has now travelled further than he has in over a year.

Thirty Men on One Wooden Platform

Wang reports that thirty to forty detainees sleep on a communal wooden platform measuring 40 square metres, and by day crowd into a 30-square-metre exercise yard. He describes mosquitoes infesting the sleeping area, and writes of being bitten during the night, adding that a fellow detainee found a bright red centipede, 5 cm long, in his folded clothing.

Meals are mostly boiled vegetables, an egg each morning and soya beans twice weekly. Wang describes inadequate medical care for detainees with chronic illnesses, including hypertension and diabetes. Relatives report the same: 36 people on a platform bed in a 40-square-metre room, a washbasin on one side and an open toilet on the other.

The toll is visible. Activist Shiming Lei wrote on X in September that Wang had lost about 15 kg in detention, and Wang's mother, Lin Wenyu, said in an August video that by June he had lost approximately 15 kg. Sister An Mei, released on bail in June, reportedly lost 30 kg.

The Loudspeakers That Never Stop

Wang says the daily announcements blaring from loudspeakers at extreme volume distress him more than the physical conditions. "If music can soothe our souls, these loudspeakers seem to tear my soul apart," he writes. He relies on prayer and perseverance to endure what he calls "repeated bombardment".

Relatives describe mandatory political re-education, state news and political songs three times a day, and a "Three Positions" exercise in which detainees squat with hands on heads and sit fixed for up to three hours. Some detainees call the exercises a form of torture.

Wang also writes that a 36-year-old detainee died after suddenly becoming ill in October. That report could not be independently verified: Wang does not identify the person or the illness, and ChinaAid, which first reported the letter, says it could not confirm the death.

Poets, a Holocaust Survivor and a Jailed Preacher

What carries Wang through all of this is not anger but company. He draws encouragement from knowing that other Zion Church members are persevering alongside him, some detained just 100 to 200 metres away, glimpsed only occasionaly while being taken for questioning. Thinking of fellow believers who endured the same fate, despite smaller roles in church life, turned his anxiety into gratitude.

In his forties, Wang draws parallels with three classical Chinese poets, Li Bai, Bai Juyi and Su Dongpo, who all faced major political setbacks at the same stage of life. He also draws on Viktor Frankl, a survivor of Nazi concentration camps, and Wang Mingdao, a Chinese Christian leader jailed for refusing state control of his church.

He closes by urging Christians everywhere that hardship can strengthen shared faith. "Let us not be deceived by the devil into thinking that we are facing this battle alone," he writes.

The Eight Still Behind Bars

Wang is a former lawyer with a doctorate in Old Testament theology from Wheaton College, Illinois. He was arrested at Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport during the October 2025 crackdown and transferred to Beihai, a coastal city in Guangxi. He is one of eight leaders still detained, facing fraud charges based on church offerings and seminary fees.

Zion Church is a network of unregistered house churches in forty Chinese cities, founded by Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri.

In October 2025, police raided churches in eleven cities and detained eighteen pastors and workers. Nine were freed on bail in June; the charges against the rest changed from "illegally using information networks" to fraud and illegal business operations. Jin was released in July after 266 days and flown to the United States, where he pleaded for the eight still held, as reported in Freed After 266 Days in Chinese Cell, Pastor Prays for 8 Still Detained.

The eight, known as the "Zion 8", are Wang Lin, Yin Huibin, Lin Shucheng, Gao Yingjia, Liu Zhenbin, Wang Cong, Elder Wang Zhong and Wu Qiuyu. Twelve minor children belong to their families; one detainee's youngest child, born in June, has never met his father. Wang's wife Su Ziming, now in the United States with their two children, says the imprisonment has taken a hard toll on the family.

The pressure on China's unregistered churches reaches far beyond one network, as China Church Crackdown 2026: House Church Preacher Freed After 15-Day Detention, China Church Crackdown 2026: Pastor and Seven Christians Detained in Beijing Raid, Breaking: China Church Crackdown 2026 — Pastor An Yankui Arrested as Campaign Reaches Christian Students and China Police Detain More Than 20 Christians During House Church Gathering in Jiangxi show.

The wider picture is sobering: Latest: Vatican Admits China Deal Flaws But Vows to Keep Talking to Beijing, Amin Ismail Freed From Kobar Prison in Sudan After More Than a Year But Still Not Safe in Khartoum, Latest: Christian Mother Jailed 14 Years in Nigeria for Sharing Her Faith, All Australia and NZ Archdioceses Join Red November and Christian Persecution Report Today: Conditions Worsened in 55% of Countries, None Improved.

What will Wang's letter do now that it is out? A letter from a crowded platform has already travelled from Guangxi to churches around the world. The eight men it speaks for are still behind bars, still facing charges, still waiting.

Wang himself is not waiting for an answer. He is praying, persevering, and writing. And somewhere in a cell 100 metres away, another of the eight is doing the same.

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.