Recently BBC News on-line reported the following:
Chinese underground church figure Jin Mingri freed from
prison
BBC - Harry Sekulich
5th July 2026
Underground church leader Jin Mingri has been released from
prison in China and has travelled to the US, less than two months after his
incarceration was raised directly by Donald Trump.
The pastor and founder of the Zion Church had been imprisoned following overnight raids across China in October, described by Christian groups as one of the strictest crackdowns on religious activity in the country's modern history.
The Chinese government tightly controls religion and officially promotes atheism.
Jin's family thanked supporters in a statement, adding: "We truly witnessed a miracle and we are feeling so overwhelmed with joy". The Chinese foreign ministry has not officially commented on his case.
The family thanked the US president and the Trump administration "for their tremendous leadership", and said they knew "this could not have happened without the direct intervention from [Chinese President] Xi Jinping".
"We hope this is a signal of a positive turn for people of faith in China and relations between our two nations."
US-based rights group ChinaAid, which monitors relgious (sic) persecution, confirmed Jin, also known as Ezra Jin, had arrived in Los Angeles in the US following his release.
Its founder Bob Fu welcomed his release, while noting that "countless" religious practitioners, including eight belonging to the Zion Church, remained incarcerated in China.
The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, a group of Western lawmakers that includes dozens of UK MPs, said it was "overjoyed" with the news.
Trump had urged Xi to release Jin during direct talks between the two while in Beijing for a state visit in May.
"He said he's gonna strongly consider the pastor," the US president said afterward.
Trump also raised the detention of pro-democracy Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, who was sentenced earlier this year to 20 years in prison for colluding with foreign forces under the city's controversial national security law.
Jin started the Zion Church in 2007 with just 20 people. It grew into one of China's largest unregistered churches, with a network of some 10,000 people in 40 cities across the country.
It was officially banned by the Chinese Communist Party in 2018 after resisting government pressure to install security cameras at its property in Beijing.
Many of its branch congregations across the country have since been investigated and shut down.
Christians have long been pressured to join only state-sanctioned churches that are led by government-approved pastors and toe the party line.
Thirty church leaders were reported to have been detained in overnight raids last October.
This was followed by a similar crackdown against another church in January, in which nine people were detained.
Translation:
中國地下教會領袖金明日獲釋
中國地下教會領袖金明日在被特朗普直接提出其監禁問題不到兩個月後，已獲釋並前往美國。
中國政府嚴格控制宗教，官方提倡無神論。
金明日的家人在聲明中感謝支持者，並表示：「我們親眼見證了一個奇蹟，我們感到無比喜悅。」中國外交部尚未就此案發表官方評論。
金明日的家人感謝美國總統和特朗普政府“卓越的領導力”，並表示他們知道“如果沒有（中國國家主席）習近平的直接幹預，這一切不可能發生”。
“我們希望這能成為中國宗教人士以及兩國關係出現積極轉變的信號。”
總部位於美國的維權組織「對華援助協會」（ChinaAid）證實，金牧師（又名Ezra Jin）獲釋後已抵達美國洛杉磯。該組織一直關注宗教迫害問題。
其創辦人Bob Fu對金牧師的獲釋表示歡迎，同時指出，包括八名錫安教會成員在內的「無數」宗教人士仍被關押在中國。
包括有數十名英國議員的一個由西方議員團體組成的「對華跨議會聯盟」表示，他們對這一消息感到「欣喜若狂」。
今年五月，特朗普在對北京進行國事訪問期間，曾與習近平直接會談，敦促習近平釋放金牧師。
美國總統事後表示:「他說他會認真考慮這位牧師的釋放」。
特朗普也提到了香港親民主媒體大亨黎智英被拘留一事。黎智英今年稍早因違反香港備受爭議的國安法，被控勾結外國勢力，被判處20年監禁。
金於2007年創立了錫安教會，當時只有20位信徒。後來，它發展成為中國最大的未註冊教會之一，在全國40個城市擁有約1萬名信徒。
2018年，錫安教會因拒絕政府要求其在北京的建築物安裝監視器而被中國共產黨正式取締。
此後，該教會在全國各地的許多分支機構都遭到調查並關閉。
長期以來，基督徒一直被迫加入由政府認可的牧師領導、並遵循黨路線的官方認可的教會。
據報道，去年10月，30名教會領袖在夜間突撃搜查中被拘留。
隨後在1月份，另一間教會也遭到類似的鎮壓，九人被拘留。
So, in China, an
underground church
leader has been released from prison and has travelled to the US, less than two
months after his incarceration was raised directly by Donald Trump. I am
wondering what has Trump promised to Xi for this “favor”. Recently, there are
signs that the US is lifting “restriction” on some officials in Hong Kong.
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