Hong Kong
A pastor who based one of China’s most outstanding underground churches has been launched from jail and reunited with his family in the United States, his daughter informed NCS.
Ezra Jin, the founder of Zion Church, was amongst dozens of members caught up in a sweeping crackdown by Chinese authorities late final yr.
Chinese authorities have lengthy seen Christianity as an unwelcome overseas affect and a risk to authorities management. Religious observe is authorized however tightly managed and surveilled by the federal government, which registers “official” state-sanctioned churches.
Jin’s launch got here after US President Donald Trump raised his case with Chinese chief Xi Jinping throughout a go to to Beijing in May.
“We are feeling so overwhelmed with joy. We thank God for this tremendous miracle,” his daughter Grace Jin Drexel stated in a family assertion to NCS.
“We also thank President Trump and his administration for their tremendous leadership,” she stated, saying this might not have occurred “without the direct intervention from Chairman Xi Jinping.”
Drexel stated they hoped Jin’s launch could be “a signal of a positive turn for people of faith in China and relations between our two nations.”
NCS has contacted the Chinese Foreign Ministry, in addition to the White House and US State Department, for remark.
Jin based Zion Church in Beijing in 2007. But as a crackdown on unregistered churches intensified in 2018, he and his family moved to the US, hoping to appease the Chinese authorities.
While his family stayed behind in the US, Jin returned to China as authorities continued to harass church members. He was later barred from leaving the nation.
His daughter beforehand stated they misplaced contact with Jin in October final yr, triggering calls from Drexel, a staffer in the US Senate, for the Trump administration to assist safe her father’s launch.
Human rights teams welcomed Jin’s return however known as on the Trump administration to do extra, whereas urging Chinese authorities to launch different church members in detention.
“While his release will bring much-needed comfort to his family, friends, and many supporters, we cannot forget the leaders and members of Zion Church who remain detained, and others associated with the church who still face serious criminal charges,” stated Brian Tronic, director of Freedom House’s Free Them All: The Fred Hiatt Program to Free Political Prisoners.
Rev. Dr. Bob Fu, president of ChinaAssist, an advocacy group selling spiritual freedom in China, known as Jin’s launch “a tremendous victory,” however stated work remained “until every prisoner of faith is free.”
“We respectfully call on President Trump and his Administration to continue making religious freedom and the release of all prisoners of faith a top priority in every engagement with Beijing,” he stated.