CSW welcomes release of Zion Church pastor

CSW welcomes the release of Ezra Jin Mingri, the senior pastor of Zion Church, on 4 July after almost nine months in arbitrary detention in Beihai, in China’s Guangxi Province.

Pastor Jin was among a group of 28 Zion Church leaders that were detained in a crackdown by the authorities in raids in 11 cities across China that began on 10 October 2025. On 18 November Pastor Jin and 17 others were formally arrested on charges of ‘illegally using information networks’.

On 18 June 2026, nine of the detainees were released on bail pending trial. The following day, the church’s acting senior pastor, Sean Long Fei, Reportado that the remaining nine detainees, including Pastor Jin, had been or were about to be transferred to the procuratorate to face prosecution, with the charges against them reportedly having been changed to ‘illegal business operations’ and ‘fraud’.

However on 4 July Pastor Jin was released from detention and transported to the United States. According to ChinaAid, a Christian human rights organisation, Chinese officials reportedly informed the pastor that his release resulted from discussions between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, and was presented as a goodwill gesture coinciding with America’s Independence Day.

CSW’s Founder President Mervyn Thomas said: ‘CSW welcomes the release of Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri and we are pleased to hear that he has been reunited with his family. We emphasise however that he and the other leaders of Zion Church are innocent of the charges levelled against them, and we remain concerned for the plight of those still in prison and on bail. We call for their immediate and unconditional release, and for that of all other religious leaders and adherents who are currently imprisoned in China in relation to the peaceful exercise of their fundamental human rights, including Pastor Wang Yi of Early Rain Covenant Church and Christian human rights defender Zhang Zhan.’

Note to Editors:

1. Zion Church, which is estimated to serve at least 5,000 members, is one of the largest unregistered churches in China, and has faced hostility from the authorities for several years. In September 2018 officials in Beijing shut down the church’s main building after it refused to install 24 closed-circuit cameras.