CHINESE PASTOR EZRA JIN MINGRI FREED AFTER TRUMP RAISED CASE WITH XI

Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri, leader of the underground Zion Church, has been released from detention in China. Mr Jin arrived in Los Angeles on Saturday and has been reunited with his family, according to rights advocates. His release came less than two months after US president Donald Trump raised his case with Chinese president Xi Jinping during a state visit to Beijing in May. Mr Trump said at the end of that visit that he had personally asked Mr Xi to consider releasing Mr Jin, and that Mr Xi had responded he would give the request serious consideration.

Mr Jin was detained in October alongside 17 other church leaders in what officials described as one of China's largest crackdowns on a single church in decades. The Zion Church operates as an unregistered congregation, defying restrictions from China's officially atheist Communist Party that require believers to worship only in registered churches. Mr Jin's daughter, Grace Jin Drexel, told a congressional committee in November that her father founded Zion Church to enable worship with God as the sole head, as practised by many Christians worldwide. The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, a group of Western lawmakers, confirmed Mr Jin's release and shared a photograph of the pastor with his daughter.

In a statement, Mr Jin's family said the release came "very suddenly" and expressed belief that his freedom "could not have happened without Xi's direct intervention". The family thanked Mr Trump for his efforts and said they hoped the release signalled "a positive turn for people of faith in China and relations between our two nations". The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding Mr Trump's role in the release.