WASHINGTON: A pastor of a prominent underground church who was detained in China in October has been released, less than two months after US 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 Los Angeles on Saturday (Jul 4), and “is finally reunited with his family”, Frances Hui of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation wrote on X.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.Jin’s case gained attention after Trump, when wrapping up his state visit to Beijing in May, said he raised the issue of the pastor's release with Xi and that the Chinese leader said he would give serious consideration to it.
Jin was detained with 17 other church leaders in October in one of China’s largest crackdowns on a single church in decades, raising worries over Beijing’s escalation in curtailing religious freedom.ChinaAid, a Christian NGO, said on Sunday it welcomed Jin's release. The pastor had been held in detention centres in the southern Chinese city of Beihai since last October. Jin's daughter Grace told Reuters on Sunday that eight members of the Zion Church are still detained in China.
