Politics
Pastor released from China prison weeks after Trump calls for release :: WRAL.com
WASHINGTON (AP) — A pastor of a major underground church who was arrested in China in October has been released, less than two months after U.S. President Donald Trump raised his case during his meeting with Chinese Leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, his family and rights advocates said Saturday.
Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri has 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 arrested in October in one of the largest crackdowns on a church in China in decades, sparking concerns about an escalation of restrictions on religious freedom by the government.
A statement from the family said Jin’s release happened very quickly. He thanked Trump and said he knew the release could not have happened without Xi’s direct intervention.
“We hope that this signals a positive turning point for believers in China and for relations between our two nations,” the statement said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Jin’s case attracted attention after Trump, returning from a state visit to Beijing in May, said he raised with Xi the pastor’s detentions and that of imprisoned Hong Kong activist Jimmy Lai.
“He said he was going to seriously consider the pastor,” Trump told reporters aboard his flight. But, he added, Xi told him Lai’s case “would be difficult.”
Lai, 78, a former clothing magnate and publisher of a Hong Kong tabloid critical of Beijing, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in February.
Activists welcomed Jin’s release, but also remembered that other religious leaders remained detained.
“At least 8 Zion Church members remain detained in China,” Maya Wang of Human Rights Watch wrote on X. “They should all be released. »
Zion Church is among the largest underground or house churches in China not registered with the authorities. They defy the requirement that believers worship only in registered congregations.
The ruling Communist Party, officially atheist, views organized religion as a potential threat to its hold on power. Under Xi, Chinese authorities have pushed to “Sinicize” religion by demanding loyalty to the party.
“My father founded Zion in order to worship freely in a church that put God as the sole head of our church, like many faithful Christians around the world,” his daughter Grace Jin Drexel, who lives in the United States, told a congressional committee in November.
Jin brought his family to the United States after authorities targeted Zion Church in 2018, but decided to return despite the risks. His daughter said last fall that she hadn’t seen her father in six years.
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Moritsugu reported from Beijing. Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.
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