China frees Zion Church pastor Jin Mingri after Trump appeal
Jin Mingri, the founder of Beijing’s Zion Church and a prominent figure in China’s unregistered Protestant movement, has been released from detention and arrived in Los Angeles on July 4, according to family members and rights groups. Jin was detained in October 2025 in the southern city of Beihai and, along with other church leaders, accused of “illegally using information networks” — a charge often applied to congregations that refuse to worship in state-sanctioned settings.
Jin’s family credited Trump’s direct intervention , saying he raised the case with Xi Jinping during a visit to Beijing in May, after which Trump said the Chinese leader was “seriously considering” a release. The timing suggests Beijing used the pastor’s freedom as a low-cost goodwill gesture within the broader US-China relationship, rather than a shift in its treatment of unregistered churches.
That distinction matters: Zion Church was one of roughly a dozen large “house churches” targeted in a crackdown that swept up 18 of its leaders, at least eight of whom reportedly remain in custody. Founded in 2007, Zion had grown into one of the country’s largest congregations operating outside the state-approved system before authorities moved against it.