Pastor freed from Chinese prison after Trump raised his case with Xi Jinping
The pastor of a prominent underground church in China who was imprisoned by Chinese authorities last year has been released and reunited with his family in the U.S., according to reports.
Ezra Jin, founder of Zion Church, was one of nearly 30 Zion Church pastors and staff members detained in October during one of China’s largest crackdowns on evangelical churches in decades, according to the nonprofit advocacy group Luke Alliance.
Jin was released from detention and arrived in Los Angeles on Friday, ChinaAid reported. According to the Christian human rights organization, Chinese authorities told Jin he was being released due to negotiations between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
During a high-profile state visit to Beijing in May, Trump raised Jin’s case directly with the Chinese leader. On his flight back to the U.S., Trump told reporters that Xi promised to "strongly consider" the pastor's release.
"We are feeling so overwhelmed with joy. We thank God for this tremendous miracle," his daughter Grace Jin Drexel said in a family statement to CNN.
"We also thank President Trump and his administration for their tremendous leadership," she said, adding that this would not have been possible "without the direct intervention from Chairman Xi Jinping."
The family had been separated for nearly a decade, after Drexel's mother and brothers fled China in 2018 after authorities shut down Zion Church’s physical sanctuary in Beijing. Drexel previously told Fox News Digital her father felt called to stay behind in China. She had not seen him in person since 2020.
Drexel also said that the family hoped Jin’s release would be "a signal of a positive turn for people of faith in China and relations between our two nations."
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Jin’s case drew international outcry, with advocacy groups like ChinaAid calling the church arrests "politically motivated."
The organization said the arrests marked "a dramatic escalation in the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) war on religious freedom."
"These pastors and co-workers are being treated as criminals simply because they faithfully shepherded a large, legally unregistered church that refused to submit to CCP control and surveillance," ChinaAid said in a November statement calling for their release and international pressure.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio denounced the detentions of the Zion Church members in October and asked the Chinese government to release them.
Ahead of his travels to Beijing in May, Trump vowed to raise Jin's case directly with Xi.
"I’ll bring it up," Trump told The Hill reporter Julia Manchester when asked whether he planned to press Xi about the detained pastor.
"As he has said publicly, President Trump raised Pastor Jin’s detention directly with Xi Jinping," a U.S. official told Fox News Digital. "He will always champion religious freedom around the world. He brought up Jimmy Lai’s case as he said he would."
ChinaAid celebrated the pastor's release in a press statement and thanked the Trump administration for its efforts to secure Jin's release.
"We rejoice with Pastor Ezra Jin, his family, and the global Body of Christ on this remarkable Independence Day miracle," Rev. Dr. Bob Fu, Founder and President of ChinaAid, said in a statement. "We thank Almighty God for hearing the prayers of His people. We are deeply grateful to President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and all U.S. officials who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to secure Pastor Jin’s freedom. Their unwavering commitment demonstrates that principled leadership and persistent diplomacy can make a life-saving difference."
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Fu noted that while Jin was released, eight other Zion Church pastors and members, along with practitioners from other religions, remain "unjustly imprisoned by the Chinese Communist Party."
"We respectfully call on President Trump and his Administration to continue making religious freedom and the release of all prisoners of faith a top priority in every engagement with Beijing," Fu added. "True progress in U.S.-China relations must include freedom for those imprisoned simply because they choose to believe."
Fox News' Ashley Carnahan and Efrat Lachter contributed to this report.
