Key takeaways:
- Ezra Jin Mingri arrived in Los Angeles on July 4 after being detained in China since October, according to ChinaAid and his family.
- Jin and 17 other Zion Church leaders were detained during a crackdown on the underground church and accused of “illegally using information networks.”
- Trump said he raised Jin’s case with Xi Jinping during a May visit to Beijing; Jin’s family said the release could not have happened without Xi’s direct intervention.
Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri, founder of one of China’s largest underground churches, has been released from detention and reunited with his family in Los Angeles, his family and rights advocates said, weeks after President Donald Trump raised his case with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Jin, also known by his English name Ezra Jin, arrived in Los Angeles on July 4 after being held since October in detention centers in Beihai, a city in southern China, the Christian rights group ChinaAid said. Frances Hui of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation wrote on X that Jin “is finally reunited with his family.”
Jin was detained along with 17 other leaders of Zion Church during what advocates described as one of China’s largest crackdowns on a single church in decades. The church leaders were accused of “illegally using information networks,” Al Jazeera reported, citing ChinaAid.
“We truly witnessed a miracle and we are feeling overwhelmed with joy,” Jin’s family said in a statement. “We thank God for this tremendous miracle. We also thank President Trump and his administration for their tremendous leadership.”
In a separate statement, the family said Jin’s release happened quickly and thanked Trump. “We know that this could not have happened without the direct intervention from Chairman Xi Jinping. We hope this is a signal of a positive turn for people of faith in China and relations between our two nations,” the family said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment, NPR reported. Al Jazeera reported that there was no immediate comment from China’s foreign ministry.
Jin’s case drew international attention after Trump said he raised the pastor’s detention during a May visit to Beijing. Speaking to reporters on his flight home, Trump said Xi had told him he would “strongly consider the pastor.” Trump said he had also brought up imprisoned Hong Kong activist Jimmy Lai, but said Xi described Lai’s case as “a tough one.” Lai, a 78-year-old former clothing magnate and publisher of a Hong Kong tabloid critical of Beijing, received a 20-year sentence in February, NPR reported.
Zion Church, which Jin founded in Beijing in 2007, is one of China’s largest underground or house churches, operating outside the state-approved religious system. Such churches defy a requirement that believers worship only in registered congregations. Chinese authorities shut Zion Church’s physical premises in 2018, but the group continued operating online and reached thousands of worshippers.
The ruling Communist Party, which is officially atheist, treats organized religion as a potential challenge to its authority. Under Xi, authorities have pushed to “Sinicize” religion by demanding loyalty to the party.
Jin had moved his family to the United States after authorities targeted Zion Church in 2018, but he later returned to China despite the risks. His daughter, Grace Jin Drexel, who lives in the United States, told a congressional committee in November that her father founded Zion “in order to worship freely in a church that put God as the sole head of our church, like many faithful Christians everywhere.” She said last fall that she had not seen him in six years.
Rights advocates welcomed Jin’s release while urging China to free other detained Zion Church members. “At least 8 members of Zion Church remain detained in China,” Maya Wang, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, wrote on X. “They should all be freed.”
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