Chinese Lawyer Who Defended Zion Church Seeks Refuge in Taiwan

Chinese lawyer Wang Xiahong, who helped defend members of one of China’s largest unregistered Christian churches, has fled to Taiwan after deciding not to return to mainland China amid mounting pressure and coercion from Chinese authorities due to her support of religious freedom.

Wang and her family arrived in Taiwan on Sept. 3 after traveling to Japan for a vacation, according to the Associated Press (AP). Taiwanese immigration authorities have allowed the family to remain in the airport transit area while Wang seeks international assistance and possible resettlement in a country such as the United States or Canada, where she can continue her legal career without fear of political retaliation.

Wang told the AP that while she and her family were in Japan in August, Chinese authorities called and ordered her to return for an in-person meeting with officials. She told them she was not in Beijing and could not attend. She then decided not to return to China and risk being arrested, imprisoned, or worse.

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Harassed for defending religious freedom

Wang is a partner at Beijing Kaimen Law Firm and has served on the legal team representing pastors and other members of Beijing’s Zion Church since October 2025. Chinese authorities repeatedly pressured her to withdraw from the case and dissolve her law firm, according to the report, warning that the firm could otherwise be forcibly shut down.

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Speaking to the AP in an exclusive video interview, Wang said she was now facing direct pressure from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). As a partner in the firm, Wang questioned what would happen if she refused to sign documents agreeing to its dissolution, saying she believed the consequences would “definitely have a serious impact on my career development, as well as my life and other aspects.”

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council confirmed to the AP that Wang was in Taiwan. The agency said that although Taiwan does not currently have a specific law governing political asylum, mechanisms exist for handling such cases and that Wang’s situation would be addressed under those procedures.

Crackdown on Zion Church

Founded by Pastor Jin Mingri in 2007, Beijing’s Zion Church became one of China’s largest unregistered Protestant house churches. More than 20 Zion Church pastors and members, including Jin, were targeted and criminally detained beginning Oct. 9, 2025, on suspicion of “illegally using information networks.” Though Jin was released in July 2026 after spending nearly a year behind bars, dozens of member from the church remain in prison.

Bob Fu, founder of the U.S.-based Christian human rights organization ChinaAid, said Wang’s experience illustrates the pressure facing Chinese lawyers willing to represent religious believers and other prisoners of conscience. Founded in 2002, ChinaAid monitors religious persecution and human rights abuses in China and provides legal and humanitarian assistance to persecuted Christians and rights advocates.

Fu said lawyers who dare to provide legal representation to Christians facing religious persecution and other prisoners of conscience in China live under “enormous pressure,” and noted that Wang was simply “performing the most basic duty of a lawyer.” Fu, a former house church leader who fled China in the 1990s, has documented Beijing’s treatment of religious communities and human rights defenders for more than two decades.

A long history of targeting lawyers

Wang’s case follows years of pressure on Chinese attorneys who take politically-sensitive cases involving religious freedom, dissidents, and other human rights issues. The crackdown intensified dramatically during the so-called “709 Crackdown,” which began on July 9, 2015, when Chinese authorities detained, interrogated, summoned, or otherwise targeted hundreds of rights lawyers and activists across the country for their humanitarian work.

The China Human Rights Lawyers Group said in a 2020 statement that many rights attorneys had been detained or sentenced in the years following the 709 Crackdown, while others had their licenses revoked or canceled or faced repeated interference with their ability to practice law. Other rights lawyers have described the forced dissolution of law firms as another tactic used to pressure the legal profession.