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Jin Mingri’s family issued a statement expressing profound relief at his freedom after months in custody. The family said they truly witnessed a miracle and are feeling so overwhelmed with joy. They credited direct intervention by Chinese President Xi Jinping alongside advocacy from the Trump administration, according to BBC News reporting on the case. The statement described the development as a potential signal of improving conditions for people of faith in China and better bilateral relations with the United States.
ChinaAid confirmed that Jin Mingri reached Los Angeles following his release from prison. The US-based rights group founder Bob Fu welcomed the development while stressing that countless other religious practitioners stay behind bars. ChinaAid figures show eight additional members of the Zion Church network remain incarcerated. Human Rights Watch documented the initial October 2025 raids that targeted nearly 30 pastors and church staff across seven cities including Beijing and Shanghai.
The crackdown followed China’s issuance of a new Online Code of Conduct for Religious Professionals in September 2025 that prohibits circulation of unauthorized religious content on the internet. Jin Mingri faced charges of illegal use of information networks for his online sermons, a crime that Reuters reports can carry up to three years in prison. He and other leaders were held at the Beihai City No 2 Detention Center in Guangxi province after the overnight operations that rights organizations described as one of the most severe actions against urban house churches in decades.
Jin Mingri founded the Zion Church in 2007 with an initial group of 20 believers. The unregistered network expanded into one of the country’s largest unofficial Protestant congregations with a reported following of some 10,000 people across 40 cities before authorities banned it in 2018. Reuters and Human Rights Watch accounts note the church’s refusal to install government surveillance cameras at its Beijing premises triggered intensified official harassment including forced closures of branch congregations and a travel ban that had kept Jin from visiting his American-citizen children.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom lists Jin Mingri among documented prisoners of conscience detained for religious activity in China, a country the commission has repeatedly designated for particularly severe violations. The US State Department called for the release of the Zion Church leaders shortly after the 2025 detentions. A Senate resolution passed in November 2025 demanded that Chinese authorities free Pastor Jin Mingri and others swept up in the raids.
President Donald Trump raised Jin Mingri’s case directly with President Xi Jinping during talks in May 2026 and later stated that Xi appeared to be giving the matter serious consideration. The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, which includes dozens of UK lawmakers, said it was overjoyed by news of the release. Jin Mingri’s daughter Grace Jin had previously urged US lawmakers to press for his unconditional freedom during congressional testimony on international religious freedom.
