President Donald Trump has pledged to raise the release of Pastor Jin Mingri (金明日), known in English as Ezra Jin, with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to Beijing beginning May 13. The pastor's family in Washington, D.C. is praying for a miracle.
A Rally at the White House on the Eve of the Beijing Visit
Speaking to reporters at the White House on May 11, President Trump said that during his May 13–15 visit to Beijing, he would press for the release of Hong Kong democracy advocate Jimmy Lai together with Pastor Jin.
Following a rally that day in front of the White House by the families of Chinese political prisoners, Jin's daughter Grace Jin Drexel, a U.S. Senate staffer, said:
My father, Pastor Ezra Jin, has been detained for more than 200 days today. With this trip, this upcoming summit, we hope and pray that my father will be able to rejoin his family members in the U.S. as soon as possible. We are praying for a miracle. ── Grace Jin Drexel
The Founding of Zion Church
Jin is the founder of Zion Church (锡安教会), one of the largest underground churches in China. A student in Beijing at the time of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, he encountered Christianity in its aftermath. After serving for more than a decade in the government-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Movement, Jin founded Zion Church in 2007. The church grew into a network spanning more than forty cities, reaching approximately ten thousand people nationwide.
A church that does not place God as its ultimate leader is not a church that glorifies God. The state church, in its very system, is saying that the party has to come before God. ── Pastor Jin Mingri
A Bond Formed Under Surveillance
Grace held U.S. citizenship but lived in Beijing with her family. During the 2018 crackdown by Chinese authorities, the entire family was placed under an exit ban, leaving Grace, a U.S. citizen, unable to leave China.
Her husband, Bill Drexel, was an American graduate student in 2018 researching the Chinese government's surveillance of religious minorities when he attended a Zion Church service and met Grace. As they spoke, he came to understand that Grace was a target of the government.
In January 2020, Chinese authorities suddenly allowed Grace to leave. The reason remains unknown to the family. She moved to the United States, married Bill, and now lives in Washington, D.C. with their two children. Pastor Jin was never permitted to leave China and could not attend his daughter's wedding or meet his two grandchildren.
2018: The First Shutdown
The turning point came in early 2018, when revised "Regulations on Religious Affairs" made all religious activities outside government-sanctioned channels effectively illegal. Zion Church's worship space was shut down that year after Pastor Jin refused to allow facial recognition cameras to be installed inside the sanctuary.
2021: The Drugging at Dinner
In 2021, Pastor Jin had returned to Beijing when government officials invited him to dinner. He told his seminary students beforehand: "If I don't check back in in an hour, come and get me."
We later found out that the government officials drugged him at that dinner. When the seminarians came to look for him, he was slurring his words, very distraught, visibly disoriented. We have no idea what they were planning to do with him in that state.
Grace Jin Drexel said. The family has feared for Pastor Jin's safety ever since.
October 10, 2025: Nationwide Coordinated Raids
On October 10, 2025, Chinese authorities detained approximately thirty Christian leaders in coordinated raids across multiple cities. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called the operation "the largest nationwide crackdown in over four decades against a Christian house church in China." Eighteen people, including Pastor Jin, remain in custody, facing charges including subversion of state power and "illegal dissemination of information online."
On the morning of October 10, I woke up to a text from my dad about the arrest of another pastor, Pastor Wang Lin. Shortly after, my mom called saying she had not been able to reach my dad or anyone around him for many hours. Zion Church has a pastor in the U.S. who led a Zoom call with all the church leaders in China. In real time, we heard people say, "I have the police right outside my door right now," and then they just quit Zoom, and that person disappeared. ── Grace Jin Drexel
Harsh Conditions in Detention
The family has learned of Pastor Jin's situation in fragments through his lawyers. Jin has severe diabetes, but Chinese authorities have not permitted him to take his own medication. According to family testimony, he sleeps on a cold concrete bench in his cell, without a blanket or access to a Bible. Lead defense lawyer Zhang Kai had his law license revoked in January, and six other lawyers handling the case were given six-month suspensions.
Senator Cruz described Jin's treatment: "He is kept in terrible conditions, freezing cold, with snow and rain in his prison cell. He doesn't have a blanket. They are targeting specifically Christians for persecution."
Surveillance That Reaches Across the Pacific
Pastor Jin's family has testified that, even while living in the United States, they have been subjected to transnational surveillance and intimidation by the Chinese government.
A week after the family began speaking out publicly, Drexel's mother received a threatening phone call from someone impersonating a U.S. federal agent, falsely claiming she was under investigation for money laundering and pressuring her to return to China.
Months later, her tires were slashed while the car was parked inside her garage. Drexel herself has been followed and watched in Washington, D.C.
Senator Cruz, addressing this pattern, said: "China has a long pattern of abusing, in particular, the rights of Chinese Americans in the United States. The Department of Justice, the FBI, we need to be fighting back.”
A Global Call for Release
Pastor Jin's case is only one example of the broader religious crackdown in China. According to the 2025 USCIRF Annual Report, of more than 2,300 individuals detained or imprisoned worldwide for their faith, China holds the highest number at 810.
In the U.S. Senate, Senator Cruz and Senator Chris Coons (D-Delaware) passed a bipartisan resolution calling for the pastor's release. Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement of condemnation immediately after the arrests.
More than 200 days of detention without trial. A cell with no medication, no blanket, no Bible. A defense lawyer stripped of his license. A family separated from a U.S. citizen daughter and her two grandchildren. The substance of the charge is that Pastor Jin shared biblical teaching online, an act that should be protected as a fundamental right.
The reality is China imprisons a lot of people for unconscionable reasons. We are fully aware that the likelihood of getting Grace's dad out, or any of those with him, is extremely low. It would be a miracle. We believe in a God of miracles, so we are hoping for that actively. ── Bill Drexel
It's not just about my dad's story. It's about the story of so many of these Christians who have been suffering for their faith for all these years. I'm asking for a miracle for my dad to be out of prison.── Grace Jin Drexel
The time remaining before President Trump meets with President Xi is short.
The world must look this reality in the eye, and the day must come, as soon as possible, when Pastor Jin and all those detained with him are immediately released.
Sources
Primary Source
Trump's Statement on Beijing Summit
Grace Jin Drexel's Op-Ed and Testimony
October 2025 Crackdown Coverage
Background on Zion Church
Policy Analysis