The founder of a prominent Chinese underground church has been detained along with more than 20 of its members in a sweeping national crackdown, according to his daughter and one of its pastors.

Police arrested Jin Mingri, who founded the unregistered Zion Church, at his home in the southern region of Guangxi on Friday and several pastors in other cities including Beijing were taken into custody overnight.

Jin was detained on "suspicion of the illegal use of information networks," a detention notice showed.