{"id":1031,"date":"2026-07-05T06:19:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T06:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/?p=1031"},"modified":"2026-07-05T06:19:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T06:19:11","slug":"pastor-freed-from-prison-in-china-weeks-after-trump-requested-his-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/?p=1031","title":{"rendered":"Pastor freed from prison in China weeks after Trump requested his release"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"prism-article-body\">\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \"><span class=\"oyrPY qlwaB AGxeB  \">WASHINGTON &#8212; <\/span>A pastor of a prominent underground church who was <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/china-church-crackdown-christianity-pastor-c9c1538bea51ad72759ba5ab8b46af01\">detained in China in October<\/a> 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, according to rights advocates.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri, of the underground Zion Church, arrived in Los Angeles on Saturday, and \u201cis finally reunited with his family,\u201d Frances Hui of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation wrote on X. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, a group of Western lawmakers, also reported his release and shared a photo of the pastor with his daughter, Grace Jin Drexel, both smiling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Jin\u2019s case gained attention after Trump, when wrapping up his state visit to Beijing in May, said he <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/china-trump-detainees-ezra-jin-jimmy-lai-29d069645e077108d1ecc9bce04f1139\">raised the issue<\/a> of the pastor&#8217;s release with Xi and that the Chinese leader said he would give serious consideration to it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">A statement from the family said the release happened very suddenly. It thanked Trump and said they know the release could not have happened without Xi&#8217;s direct intervention.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cWe hope this is a signal of a positive turn for people of faith in China and relations between our two nations,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \"><a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-china-christian-leaders-detained-nigeria-babd324066dfee9d9c3065675f9f8c01\">Jin was detained<\/a> with 17 other church leaders in October in one of China\u2019s largest crackdowns on a single church in decades, raising worries over Beijing\u2019s escalation in curtailing religious freedom.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The Zion Church is among the largest churches that are unregistered with the Chinese authorities, defying restrictions from the officially atheist Communist Party requiring believers to worship only in registered congregations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cMy father started Zion in order to worship freely in a church that put God as the sole head of our church, like many faithful Christians everywhere,\u201d his daughter Grace Jin Drexel, who lives in the United States, told a congressional committee in November.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">___<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">Ken Moritsugu in Beijing contributed to this report. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.com\/US\/wireStory\/pastor-freed-prison-china-weeks-after-trump-requested-134490114\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON &#8212; 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, according to rights advocates. Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri, of the underground Zion Church, arrived in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}