(Beijing –Thailand — December 16, 2025) Two months after Chinese police launched a large-scale crackdown on Beijing’s Zion Church, Geng Pengpeng, the wife of detained pastor Gao Yingjia, recently confirmed that, out of concern for her own safety and her child’s schooling, she has left China with her six-year-old son and is currently staying in Bangkok, Thailand.
In an interview with Radio Taiwan International (RTI), Geng Pengpeng said that since the arrest operation in October, her life has been plunged into uncertainty and fear. She described what happened as “not a dream,” but a real blow suffered by Zion Church and their family.
Cross-Provincial Raids: Largest Arrest Operation Since 2018
Beginning on October 9, Chinese police carried out a coordinated, cross-provincial operation against Beijing’s Zion Church over three consecutive days. Multiple pastors, coworkers, and members were detained, with the total exceeding thirty people. By mid-November, at least 18 people had been formally arrested with approval from the Beihai Procuratorate in Guangxi, while another five were released on bail pending trial.
This has been widely viewed as the most extensive persecution campaign since China intensified control over urban house churches in 2018.
Decision to Flee: Learned She Was Also “On A List” After Returning from Beihai to Beijing
According to Geng Pengpeng’s recollection, after returning to Beijing from Beihai, Guangxi, she learned that she herself had also been placed on the arrest list. On the advice of lawyers and friends, she decided in early November to leave the country with her child to seek safety.
At first, she took her child and was in South Korea briefly. “I did not know how to plan the next step… just for my child and me to not fall ill from the exhaustion of traveling around,” she said. Later, due to her child’s social and educational needs, they went to Bangkok, Thailand, next. Geng Pengpeng said the entire decision was made under extreme urgency and without any preparation.
Arrest in the Early Morning: Phones Turned Off and SIM Cards Removed; However, They Were Still Tracked Down
Geng Pengpeng recalled that the arrests from October 9 to 11 were the most frightening three days of her life. After Pastor Wang Lin lost contact, Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri and Elder Yin Huibin were successively arrested. Power was cut to multiple church members’ homes, and door locks were pried open. At the urging of friends, she and Gao Yingjia went elsewhere to hide temporarily, turning off their phones and removing SIM cards, believing this might at least help them evade tracking. Nevertheless, at 2 a.m. on the 11th, they were still located by Beihai police.
“My husband was taken away from a friend’s home,” she said.
She believed she herself would also be taken at the same time and felt completely stunned in the moment. Looking back, she expressed regret: “Thinking back now, I still regret that I was not able to give Pastor Gao a hug at that moment.”
Door Forced Open and Put Under Surveillance; Other Pastors’ Families Also Forced to Move
After Gao Yingjia was taken away, Geng Pengpeng traveled with her child to Guangxi to handle legal follow-up matters and sent items such as glasses and reading materials, including a Bible. A week later, upon returning to Beijing, she discovered that the lock on her home had been forced open, some belongings were missing, and she sensed that she was being monitored.
Other Zion Church pastors’ families were also thrown into upheaval. The wife of Pastor Sun Cong, Gu Xiaoyu, was forced to leave home with her three children. Gu wrote on social media:
“Telling myself that the old days are gone forever… A profound sense of rootlessness rises from my chest, as if I have lost the home my husband gave me. This is the first time I have so deeply understood: this is what it means to be like duckweed, floating without roots.”
The impact on children has been particularly evident. Pengpeng’s six-year-old child frequently has nightmares, worrying that his mother will be arrested. Another three-and-a-half-year-old girl who was traumatized from experiencing the raid has remained in a state of prolonged terror. “Their three-and-a-half-year-old daughter was terrified. When I later saw the child, her hair was wet every day, because she was constantly in a state of fear,” she said.
Border Controls Tighten, Pastors’ Wives and Children Flee One After Another
Out of fear of further detention, some pastors’ wives have taken their children and traveled one after another to Thailand. Most entered on tourist visas, leaving them anxious about their future legal status and the length of stay.
In addition, some pastors’ families were intercepted while attempting to leave the country. Some families were eventually allowed to pass, while others were stopped at border control and prevented from departing.
Lawyers assess that, because the investigations may continue for a long time, these families must prepare for a period of medium- to long-term displacement abroad.
“Waking Up Hoping It Was All Just a Dream”
Geng Pengpeng admitted that life in flight is filled with uncertainty, and she often weeps alone late at night:
“I wish for all of this to be just a dream. When I wake up, everything returns to normal life, but clearly it is not. Because now I am constantly drifting, worried about my husband and also worried about what I should do next.”
Even so, in her interview with Radio Taiwan International (RTI), she said that prayer allows her to find moments of comfort amid the chaos. She believes that her husband and the other pastors, even while held in detention centers, can still bring light to those around them despite being in darkness.
These pastors’ wives, now living abroad, hope to continue speaking out on behalf of the detained pastors, calling on the authorities to safeguard their lawful rights and looking forward to their early release without conviction.
Beijing’s Zion Church is an urban evangelical house church founded in 2007. After being shut down in 2018, the church shifted to online gatherings. Since October of this year, the church’s pastors and coworkers have faced comprehensive repression.
China Aid Association, based on reporting by Radio Taiwan International