Ezra Jin Mingri, the founder of Beijing’s Zion Church, has been released from prison in China and has successfully arrived in the United States. His release comes less than two months after U.S. President Donald Trump publicly raised the pastor’s case during discussions with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The pastor had been detained in October of last year alongside 17 other church leaders. The operation was part of one of the most significant crackdowns on a single religious congregation in China in several decades. The U.S.-based advocacy group ChinaAid, which tracks religious persecution, confirmed Saturday that Jin had arrived in Los Angeles following his release.
International attention was drawn to the case in May of this year when Trump revealed he had personally discussed the imprisonment with Xi Jinping during a state visit to Beijing. At the time, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he believed the Chinese leader was giving “very serious consideration” to the pastor’s case. During those same discussions, Trump also raised the imprisonment of Hong Kong democracy activist Jimmy Lai, though he noted at the time that Lai’s situation would be more difficult to resolve. Lai, the founder of the now-shuttered Apple Daily, is currently serving a 20-year sentence for charges including conspiring with foreign forces and publishing seditious material.
Jin’s family issued a statement expressing gratitude to the Trump administration for their leadership, noting their belief that the release would not have been possible without direct intervention from Xi Jinping. The family stated, “We hope this is a signal of a positive turn for people of faith in China and relations between our two nations.”
While human rights advocates have welcomed the news, many have cautioned that the broader issue remains. Brian Tronic, director of the political prisoners program at Freedom House, stated that while the release provides comfort, the public should not forget the other leaders and members of Zion Church who remain detained or face serious criminal charges. Bob Fu, founder of ChinaAid, thanked Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for their efforts but urged the administration to keep religious freedom as a top priority in all future engagements with Beijing. The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China also expressed its relief, thanking the diplomats who worked behind the scenes.
Jin founded Zion Church in 2007 with a small group of about 20 worshippers. Over the next ten years, it grew into one of the largest independent Protestant churches in the country, operating outside the state-approved religious system. Chinese authorities moved to ban the church in 2018, as the officially atheist Communist Party viewed independent religious groups as a potential challenge to its authority. Despite the risks and the closure of many affiliated congregations, Jin’s daughter, Grace Jin Drexel, noted in a congressional hearing last November that her father founded the church to worship freely, with God as the sole head of the congregation. Following the initial 2018 crackdown, Jin had brought his family to the U.S. for safety but eventually chose to return to China.
