Pastor freed from prison in China weeks after Trump requested his release

FILE - Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri speaks during an interview at the Zion Church in Beijing, China, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. Ng Han Guan/AP hide caption

WASHINGTON — A pastor of a prominent underground church who was detained in China in October has been released, less than two months after U.S. President Donald Trump brought up his case when meeting Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, his family and rights advocates said Saturday.

Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri arrived in Los Angeles and "is finally reunited with his family," Frances Hui of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation wrote on X.

He and 17 other leaders of the underground Zion Church were detained in October in one of China's largest crackdowns on a single church in decades, raising worries over an escalation in the government's curtailing of religious freedom.

A family statement said Jin's release happened very quickly. It thanked Trump and said they know the release could not have happened without Xi's direct intervention.

"We hope this is a signal of a positive turn for people of faith in China and relations between our two nations," the statement said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Jin's case gained attention after Trump, on the way home from a state visit to Beijing in May, said he raised with Xi the detentions of both the pastor and that of imprisoned Hong Kong activist Jimmy Lai.

"He said he's gonna strongly consider the pastor," Trump told reporters on his flight. But, he said, Xi told him that Lai's case "would be a tough one."

The 78-year-old Lai, a former clothing magnate and publisher of a Hong Kong tabloid critical of Beijing, received a 20-year sentence in February.

Activists welcomed Jin's release but also remembered other church leaders still being held.

"At least 8 members of Zion Church remain detained in China," Maya Wang from Human Rights Watch wrote on X. "They should all be freed."

The Zion Church is among the largest underground or house churches in China that are unregistered with authorities. They defy a requirement that believers worship only in registered congregations.

The ruling Communist Party, which is officially atheist, views organized religion as a potential threat to its hold on power. Under Xi, Chinese authorities have pushed to "Sinicize" religion by demanding loyalty to the party.

"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," his daughter Grace Jin Drexel, who lives in the United States, told a congressional committee in November.

Jin brought his family to the U.S. after authorities targeted Zion Church in 2018 but decided to go back despite the risks. His daughter said last fall that she hadn't seen her father in six years.