Hong Kong —
A pastor who founded one of China’s most prominent underground churches has been released and reunited with his family in the United States, his daughter told CNN.
Zion Church founder Ezra Jin was among dozens of members caught up in a sweeping crackdown by Chinese authorities late last year.
Chinese authorities have long viewed Christianity as an unwelcome foreign influence and a threat to government control. Religious practices are legal but strictly controlled and monitored by the government, which registers “official” state-sanctioned churches.
Jin’s release came after US President Donald Trump raised his case with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a visit to Beijing in May.
“We are overwhelmed with joy and thank God for this amazing miracle,” his daughter Grace Ginn Drexel told CNN in a family statement.
“We also thank President Trump and his administration for their great leadership,” she said, noting that this could not have happened “without President Xi Jinping’s direct intervention.”
Drexel said he hoped Jin’s release would be a “sign of a positive direction for people of faith in China and for bilateral relations.”
CNN has reached out to China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the White House and the US State Department for comment.
Jin founded Zion Church in Beijing in 2007. However, in 2018, as crackdowns on unregistered churches intensified, he and his family immigrated to the United States to appease Chinese authorities.
Jin’s family remained in the United States, but authorities continued to harass church members, so he returned to China. He was then banned from leaving the country.
The daughter previously said she lost contact with Jin last October, prompting Drexel, the U.S. Senate staffer, to ask the Trump administration for help securing her father’s release.
Human rights groups welcomed Jin’s return but called on the Trump administration to do more, and called on Chinese authorities to release other detained church members.
“While his release will bring much-needed solace to his family, friends, and many supporters, we cannot forget the Zion Church leaders and members who remain in custody and those associated with the church who still face serious criminal charges,” said Brian Tronick, director of Freedom House’s Free Them All: The Fred Hiatt Program to Free Political Prisoners.
The Rev. Bob Fu, president of ChinaAid, an advocacy group promoting religious freedom in China, called Jin’s release a “tremendous victory” but said the work would continue “until all prisoners of faith are freed.”
“We respectfully ask President Trump and his administration to continue to make religious freedom and the release of all prisoners of faith a top priority in all engagement with the Chinese government.”
