Key facts
- Pastor Ezra Jin, founder of the underground Zion Church, has been released from prison in China.
- Jin was detained in October and his release occurred weeks after President Donald Trump raised his case with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
- Jin arrived in the U.S. and was reunited with his family.
- The release is seen as a rare instance of China releasing a citizen in response to U.S. lobbying.
Pastor Ezra Jin, founder of the underground Zion Church, has been released from prison in China and has traveled to the U.S., less than two months after his incarceration was raised directly by Donald Trump. Jin was detained in October following overnight raids across China, which Christian groups described as one of the strictest crackdowns on religious activity in the country's modern history. His family expressed joy and gratitude, calling his release a "tremendous miracle" and thanking President Trump and his administration for their intervention. China's foreign ministry has not officially commented on the case. US-based rights group ChinaAid confirmed Jin's arrival in Los Angeles. The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, a group of Western lawmakers, also welcomed the news. Trump had urged Xi to release Jin during direct talks in Beijing in May, and also raised the detention of Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai. Zion Church, founded in 2007, grew into one of China's largest unregistered churches before being officially banned in 2018. Many of its branches have since been shut down, and numerous church leaders have been detained in recent crackdowns.