China Frees Underground Pastor Detained Since October 2025 After Trump’s Intervention
China has released the founder of an underground church who has been detained since October 2025, his church and family confirmed to the newsmen on Sunday, after the United States President, Donald Trump raised his case with counterpart Xi Jinping. Ezra Jin is the founder of Zion Church, one of China’s unregistered churches that some Christians choose to worship at instead of state-sanctioned ones regulated by the government. Jin, also known by his Chinese name Mingri, was detained along with other church members on October 10, 2025 on “suspicion of the illegal use of information networks”. Trump raised the clergy’s case when he visited Xi in May, and had said the Chinese President would “strongly consider” releasing him. On Saturday, rights group ChinaAid said in a statement that Jin had arrived in Los Angeles after being released from detention in China. The pastor was told by Chinese officials that his release “resulted from discussions between the U.S. President, Donald J. Trump an...