Chinese Underground Church Leader Released From Prison, Reunites With Family In US

by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Chief International Correspondent

BEIJING/LOS ANGELES (Worthy News) – Chinese underground church leader Ezra Jin Mingri has been released from prison in China and reunited with his family in the United States, less than two months after his incarceration was raised directly by U.S. President Donald J. Trump, Worthy News learned Sunday.

Jin, 57, is the founder and senior pastor of Beijing’s independent Protestant evangelical Zion Church. Founded in 2007, it became one of China’s most influential urban house churches before authorities shut its main Beijing campus in 2018. Church supporters say it has since continued through smaller fellowships and online gatherings.

He was detained in October in the southern city of Beihai, along with 17 other church leaders, in what was described as one of the communist government’s largest crackdowns on a single house church in decades, raising fresh concerns over worsening religious freedom in China.

The pastor arrived in Los Angeles and “is finally reunited with his family,” Frances Hui of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation wrote on the social media platform X.

Jin was reunited with his wife, Anna Liu, and other family members after years of separation. His family said his release came unexpectedly quickly and thanked Trump, adding they believed it “could not have happened without President Xi’s direct intervention.”

TRUMP RAISED CASE

“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 comment.

However, Jin’s case gained international attention after Trump, while returning from a state visit to Beijing in May, disclosed that he had personally raised with Chinese President Xi Jinping the detentions of both the pastor and imprisoned Hong Kong activist Jimmy Lai.

“He said he’s gonna strongly consider the pastor,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. However, Trump added that Xi indicated Lai’s case “would be a tough one.”

The 78-year-old Lai, the former publisher of the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in February.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM CONCERNS

U.S.-based Christian advocacy organization ChinaAid, which closely monitors religious persecution in China, confirmed that Jin had arrived safely in Los Angeles following his release.

ChinaAid founder Bob Fu welcomed the pastor’s release but stressed that “countless” Christians and other religious believers remain imprisoned across China, including eight members of Zion Church.

Human rights advocates echoed that concern.

“At least eight members of Zion Church remain detained in China,” Maya Wang of Human Rights Watch wrote on X. “They should all be freed.”

Zion Church is among China’s largest independent Protestant evangelical house churches and has refused to join the government-controlled Protestant church system. Evangelical Christians argue that Jesus Christ—not the state—is the head of the Church and that believers should remain free to worship according to Biblical teaching rather than under government control.

CHRISTIANS FACE PRESSURE

China is home to an estimated 100 million to 130 million Christians, according to Christian researchers and advocacy groups, making it one of the world’s largest Christian populations despite decades of restrictions.

The country ranks among the world’s worst persecutors of Christians, placing 15th on the latest Open Doors World Watch List of the 50 countries where it says Christians face the most severe persecution.

Chinese authorities insist that all religious groups must operate under state supervision.

However, Bible-believing Christians argue that churches should remain free from state control so they can worship and minister according to Biblical teaching.

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