A pastor of a prominent underground church who was detained in China in October has been released, less than two months after U.S. President Donald Trump brought up his case when meeting Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, his family and rights advocates said Saturday.
News
Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri arrived in Los Angeles and “is finally reunited with his family,” Frances Hui of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation wrote on X.
He and 17 other leaders of the underground Zion Church were detained in October in one of China’s largest crackdowns on a single church in decades, raising worries over an escalation in the government’s curtailing of religious freedom.
A family statement said Jin’s release happened very quickly. It thanked Trump and said they know the release could not have happened without Xi’s direct intervention.
Details
“We hope this is a signal of a positive turn for people of faith in China and relations between our two nations,” the statement said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Jin’s case gained attention after Trump, on the way home from a state visit to Beijing in May, said he raised with Xi the detentions of both the pastor and that of imprisoned Hong Kong activist Jimmy Lai.
Analysis
“He said he’s gonna strongly consider the pastor,” Trump told reporters on his flight. But, he said, Xi told him that Lai’s case “would be a tough one.”
The 78-year-old Lai, a former clothing magnate and publisher of a Hong Kong tabloid critical of Beijing, received a 20-year sentence in February.
Activists welcomed Jin’s release but also remembered other church leaders still being held.
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