President Donald Trump’s relationship with Chinese leader Xi Jinping paid dividends this week as an imprisoned underground church pastor was released two months after the president personally lobbied for his freedom.
The pastor, Ezra Jin Mingri is the founder of Beijing’s Zion Church and was one of 18 church leaders arrested in what an NBC News report described as “China’s largest crackdowns on a single religious congregation in decades.”
The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China was one of many groups and individuals announcing the good news on X as Jin arrived in Los Angeles on Independence Day and was reunited with his family.
“We are overjoyed that Pastor Ezra Jin has been released from prison,” it said, also posting a picture from previous years of the minister with his daughter, Grace Jin Drexel, who is now a national security analyst with the U.S. Senate Republican Policy Commission.
She also fought for his freedom.
Jin’s case came to the forefront after President Trump, on the way home from a state visit to Beijing in May, said he discussed with Xi the imprisonment of the pastor as well as that of Hong Kong activist Jimmy Lai.
“He said he’s gonna strongly consider the pastor,” Trump told reporters on his flight, while also saying the release of Lai would be much more difficult, the New York Post reported.
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Lai, 78, is the founder of Hong Kong’s now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily.
“He is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted on charges including conspiring with foreign forces and publishing seditious material,” NBC reported.
Jin’s case sparked condemnation by Western governments and human rights organizations that have accused Beijing of using national security laws to persecute dissenters.
The pastor’s family praised the Trump administration “for their tremendous leadership,” NBC and other outlets reported. Members believe it could not have happened without the direct intervention from Xi.
“We hope this is a signal of a positive turn for people of faith in China and relations between our two nations,” the family said in a statement.
President Donald J. Trump bids farewell to President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China, Friday, May 15, 2026, at Zhongnanhai in Beijing, China. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)
“My 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,” Jin’s daughter told a congressional committee in November.
In 2018, Jin migrated his family to the U.S. after communist Chinese authorities targeted Zion Church. He decided to go back despite the persecution.
His daughter said late last year that she had not seen her father in six years.
Maya Wang of Human Rights Watch said the advocacy for freedom in China continues and more needs to be done.
“At least 8 members of Zion Church remain detained in China,” Wang wrote on X. “They should all be freed.”
Breitbart News contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.