One pastor was at an airport in Shanghai. Another was in the rural outskirts of Beijing. Another was at home in Guangxi, in southwestern China.

一名牧师当时在上海的一座机场。另一名在北京的城乡结合部。还有一名在位于中国西南部广西的家中。

In early October, they were all detained, alongside nearly 30 other pastors and church members across China, as the police rounded up people affiliated with Zion Church, one of the country’s largest unofficial Protestant congregations.

10月初，他们与全国各地近30名牧师和教会成员一同被拘留。警方当时在全国范围内展开行动，抓捕与锡安教会有关联的人士。锡安教会是中国规模最大的非官方新教教会之一。

It was the most wide-ranging crackdown on Chinese Christians in years, according to activists and supporters. And many fear it is just beginning.

据维权人士和支持者称，这是多年来针对中国基督徒范围最广的一次打压。许多人担心，这只是一个开始。

在警方10月那次行动中被捕的人士。

The detained members included people who had been Christians since childhood, and others who had joined the church recently. They ranged in age from their 30s to their 50s, and included lawyers, physicists and music students.

被拘留者中有些人自幼就是基督徒，也有近年才加入教会的人。他们年龄从30多岁到50多岁不等，职业包括律师、物理学家和音乐专业学生。

So far, 18 of the detainees have been formally arrested. The police have provided little information about the investigation, other than issuing the families of those arrested one-sentence notices listing only the suspected crime and where the person is being held.

截至目前，已有18人被正式逮捕。除了向被捕者家属发出仅列明涉嫌罪名和被关押地点的简短通知外，警方几乎没有披露调查细节。

The most prominent of those arrested was the church’s lead pastor, Jin Mingri, who also goes by the name Ezra. He founded Zion in Beijing in 2007 as an unregistered evangelical church.

被捕者中最引人注目的是教会的主任牧师金明日，他也使用以斯拉(Ezra)这一名字。2007年他在北京创立了锡安教会，这是一个未注册的福音派教会。

Chinese law guarantees freedom of religion, but in reality, the governing Chinese Communist Party requires religious groups to register with the government and submit to strict political controls. Those who do not want to do so — including by some estimates, tens of millions of unregistered Chinese Christians — have to worship underground.

中国法律保障宗教信仰自由，但在现实中，中共当局要求宗教团体向政府登记，并接受严格的政治控制。那些不愿意这样做的群体——据估计包括数以千万计未登记的中国基督徒——只能在地下进行宗教活动。

That has become especially difficult under China’s current leader, Xi Jinping. As he has tightened control over Chinese society, major underground churches have been shut down, including Beijing Zion in 2018.

在现任领导人习近平上台后，这变得尤为艰难。随着他不断收紧对社会的控制，许多大型地下教会被关闭，其中就包括2018年遭到取缔的北京锡安教会。

锡安教会牧师金明日（又名以斯拉），2018年摄于北京。该教会是中国国内最著名的地下教会之一。他的家人表示，他于周五被拘留。

Some churches, like Zion, have moved largely online instead. But the government is cracking down on that, too. The charge that the Zion members are being accused of, “illegally using information networks,” broadly targets the sharing of so-called illegal or criminal information online. The government has moved recently to classify unauthorized religious activities under that label. It issued new regulations in September that online preaching may be done only through the licensed websites and platforms of officially registered faith groups.

一些像锡安这样的教会转而主要在网上活动。但政府对此同样展开了打压。锡安教会成员被指控的罪名是“非法使用信息网络”，这一罪名范围广泛，主要针对所谓在网上传播非法或犯罪信息。近年来，政府已将未经授权的宗教活动纳入这一范畴。9月出台的新规规定，线上布道只能通过依法登记的宗教团体所运营、并获得许可的网站和平台进行。

Dr. Jin had helped turn Zion into one of the most successful online churches, according to members. He still met church members offline, but he also gave sermons online, using platforms like YouTube or WeChat. There are hundreds of videos on Zion Church’s YouTube page featuring members singing hymns and putting on Christmas shows.

据教会成员介绍，金牧师曾将锡安教会打造为最成功的线上教会之一。他仍然在线下与信徒见面，同时也通过YouTube、微信等平台进行线上布道。锡安教会的YouTube频道有数百段视频，记录着成员们唱圣诗、举办圣诞演出的画面。

When the coronavirus pandemic forced many unofficial churches to stop in-person services, Zion, with its established online presence, grew rapidly, according to Dr. Jin’s daughter, Grace Jin, who lives in the United States. More than 100 small groups met every Sunday across dozens of Chinese cities, she said.

金牧师的女儿金婷雅现居美国。她说，新冠疫情迫使许多非官方教会停止线下活动，而锡安教会凭借既有的线上基础迅速壮大。她表示，当时每个周日全国数十座城市里有100多个小组同时聚会。

But the government surveillance followed. In the past three years, officials stepped up the pressure on Zion. Before his arrest, Dr. Jin said in a series of video conversations with Grace and her husband that church staff members had been detained or groundlessly accused of offenses like bribery or disorderly conduct.

但政府的监控随之而来。过去三年里，当局不断加大对锡安教会的压力。在被捕前，金牧师曾在与女儿及女婿的一系列视频通话中表示，教会工作人员被拘留，或被无端指控行贿、寻衅滋事等罪名。

Dr. Jin’s family said it had decided to record those conversations because it was concerned that a bigger crackdown was coming and wanted to keep a record.

金牧师的家人说，他们决定录下这些对话，是因为担心会有更大规模的镇压行动，希望留下记录。

The authorities also frequently disrupted church gatherings, like one in July in the city of Zhongshan, in southern China.

当局也频繁干扰教会聚会活动。例如7月在中国南方城市中山的一次聚会。

At least seven men in police uniforms stormed in during a Sunday service in an office building, alongside multiple men and women in plainclothes who later identified themselves as police officers or employees of the religious affairs bureau, according to videos. One officer in a white T-shirt said that they suspected the group, which included children, was holding an illegal gathering.

据现场视频显示，至少七名身着警服的男子闯入一栋写字楼内的周日礼拜现场，同行的还有多名便衣男女，后来他们自称警察或宗教事务部门工作人员。一名身穿白色T恤的人员表示，他们怀疑这场包含儿童在内的聚会属于非法集会。

As worshipers tried to leave the room, officers demanded that they first register their personal information. A uniformed officer filmed people on his phone as they filed out.

当信徒试图离开房间时，执法人员要求他们先登记个人信息。一名穿制服的警察还用手机拍摄信徒离开的过程。

Then, in October, officials cracked down, just as Dr. Jin and his family had feared.

随后，正如金牧师一家所担心的那样，当局在10月展开了集中打压。

On Oct. 10, Sun Cong, a Zion Church pastor, was at a guesthouse on the outskirts of Beijing at a retreat for older church members. Around 10:30 p.m., as the group was getting ready for bed, multiple men in plainclothes and one uniformed police officer appeared, according to Mr. Sun’s wife, Gu Xiaoyu. They handcuffed Mr. Sun as other attendees demanded to know what he had done wrong.

10月10日，锡安教会牧师孙聪正在北京郊外一家招待所参加为年长教会成员举办的团契活动。大约晚上10点半，当大家准备就寝时，多名便衣男子和一名穿制服的警察出现了。孙牧师的妻子谷晓羽说，对方当场给孙聪戴上手铐，其他参与者则质问他究竟犯了什么错。

Then a group of eight officers took Mr. Sun, still handcuffed, to his home in Beijing. They rang the doorbell at nearly 1 a.m., demanding that his wife let them in.

随后，八名警员将仍被铐着的孙聪带回他在北京的家中。接近凌晨1点，他们按响门铃，要求谷晓羽开门。

Once inside, the police began searching the home. They copied files from Mr. Sun’s laptop and rummaged through books of Christian literature, Ms. Gu said. When Ms. Gu asked if they had a search warrant, they filled one out on the spot, she said.

进入屋内后，警方开始搜查。他们拷贝了孙聪笔记本电脑里的文件，并翻查基督教书籍。谷晓羽询问是否有搜查令时，对方当场填写了一份。

Similar raids were happening across China. That same day, Dr. Jin was arrested at his home in Guangxi. Around 2 a.m. on Oct. 11, the police also arrived at a house in Beijing where Gao Yingjia, another Zion pastor, and his wife, Geng Pengpeng, were staying with friends. (The couple had left their own home after hearing about the arrests, Ms. Geng said.)

类似的突袭行动在全国多地同时发生。金明日牧师当天在广西的家中被捕。10月11日凌晨2点左右，警方还来到北京一处住所，锡安教会牧师高颖佳和妻子耿朋朋当时正借住在朋友家。（耿朋朋说，他们夫妇在得知逮捕行动后离开了自己家。）

The police took Mr. Gao away while Ms. Geng remained behind with their 5-year-old son, she said. When she returned to her own home the next morning, she found the front door ajar and the electronic lock had been dismantled and replaced.

警方将高颖佳带走，留下了耿朋朋与他们五岁的儿子。第二天早晨，当她回到自己家时，发现大门虚掩，电子门锁已被拆除更换。

Her home had been searched by the authorities. More than a dozen of her diaries were missing, she said, as well as some religious and philosophy books, the couple’s laptops and their bank cards.

她的家已被当局搜查。她说，十多本日记不见了，一些宗教和哲学书籍、夫妻二人的笔记本电脑以及银行卡也被带走。

Since October, the raids have continued. More than 20 police officers broke up a Thanksgiving gathering of Zion members in Beijing and took away one member, according to a statement from the church on X. Several of the arrested pastors’ relatives have fled overseas, including Ms. Gu, Mr. Sun’s wife. She said by phone that she did not dare return to China, even though it meant uprooting her three young children.

自10月以来，突袭行动仍在继续。据教会在社交平台X上发布的声明，20多名警察在北京突袭了锡安教会成员的感恩节聚会，并带走了一名成员。多名被捕牧师的亲属已逃往海外，包括孙聪的妻子谷晓羽。她在电话中表示，自己不敢回中国，即使这意味着不得不带着三个年幼的孩子背井离乡。

“In the current religious environment in China, especially with the waves of persecution of Christians, we had some mental preparation,” she said, choking up. “But when it really happened — and even now, even though two months have passed — my heart still hurts.”

“在中国现在的这个宗教环境下，尤其基督教的迫害，一波接着一波, 我们是有心理准备的，”她哽咽道。“但是当真的到的时候，包括现在，这个事情已经过去两个月了，我心里也会很痛。”