5th July 2026 – (Beijing) A prominent Chinese house‑church pastor has been freed from prison and has arrived in the United States, weeks after President Donald Trump publicly pressed his case with President Xi Jinping.
Ezra Jin Mingri, founder of Beijing’s Zion Church, landed in Los Angeles following his release, according to the US‑based advocacy group ChinaAid, which monitors religious freedom in China. His family said the move came swiftly and expressed gratitude to the Trump administration, adding that they believed direct intervention from Xi had been decisive.
Jin was detained in October 2025 alongside 17 other church leaders in what observers described as one of the most extensive crackdowns on a single Christian congregation in China in decades. His arrest drew renewed international scrutiny in May 2026, when Mr Trump revealed he had discussed the pastor’s imprisonment during a state visit to Beijing.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One after returning from China, Mr Trump said he believed Xi was giving the matter “very serious consideration”. He also raised the case of jailed Hong Kong media proprietor and democracy advocate Jimmy Lai, though he indicated that Lai’s situation would be more complicated.
Lai, founder of the now‑closed Apple Daily newspaper, is serving a 20‑year sentence after convictions including conspiring with foreign forces and publishing seditious materials. Western governments and human rights organisations have criticised the use of national security legislation in Hong Kong, arguing it has been deployed to suppress dissent.
Rights groups welcomed Jin’s release but warned that many of his colleagues remain in custody. Brian Tronic, who leads the political prisoners programme at Freedom House, said that while the development would bring relief to Jin’s family and supporters, other members of Zion Church continue to face detention or serious charges.
Bob Fu, president of ChinaAid, thanked Mr Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other US officials for their efforts, while urging Washington to keep religious liberty and the release of prisoners of faith high on the agenda in future dealings with Beijing. The Inter‑Parliamentary Alliance on China, a cross‑party group of legislators that had campaigned for Jin’s freedom, said it was “overjoyed” at the outcome and commended those who had worked behind the scenes.
Zion Church was established by Jin in 2007 with a small congregation of around 20 worshippers. Within a decade it had grown into one of China’s largest unregistered Protestant churches, operating outside the state‑sanctioned religious framework that requires official registration. Authorities banned the church in 2018 as the ruling Communist Party, which maintains an officially atheist stance, intensified efforts to bring independent religious groups under tighter control.
Following earlier pressure from officials, Jin moved his family to the United States for safety but later returned to China despite the risks. His daughter, Grace Jin Drexel, told a U.S. congressional hearing last year that her father had founded the church to allow believers to worship freely under what he viewed as spiritual, rather than political, authority.