His daughter called the release a miracle and thanked US leaders, while rights groups warned that many Zion Church members remain detained.<\/p>\n
Hong Kong pastor Ezra Jin, founder of Zion Church, was released from prison and reunited with his family in the United States, according to his daughter Grace Jin Drexel.<\/p>\n
Ezra Jin was among dozens of members detained during the crackdown by authorities late last year.<\/p>\n
Chinese authorities have long viewed Christianity as an alien influence and a threat to their grip on power. Religious practice remains lawful but is tightly regulated and supervised by a government that registers \u201cofficial\u201d churches sanctioned by the state.<\/p>\n
We feel an incredible joy. We thank God for this extraordinary miracle.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Grace Jin Drexel<\/p>\n
The release became possible after U.S. President Donald Trump raised the issue with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a visit to Beijing in May.<\/p>\n
We also thank President Trump and his administration for their extraordinary leadership, that this could not have happened \u201cwithout direct intervention by Xi Jinping.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Grace Jin Drexel<\/p>\n
Jin expressed hope that the release would be \u201ca signal of a positive turn for believers in China and for the relations between our two countries.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drexel expressed hope that Jin\u2019s release would be \u201ca signal of a positive turn for believers in China and for the relations between our two countries.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Grace Jin Drexel<\/p>\n
Human rights advocates welcomed Jin\u2019s return but urged the international community and Chinese authorities to pay attention to the fates of other Zion Church members who remain in custody or face criminal charges because of their faith.<\/p>\n
Although his release will bring the comfort that many supporters\u2019 families and friends need, we cannot forget the leaders and members of Zion Church who remain in custody, as well as other people connected with the church who still face serious criminal charges.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Brian Tronic<\/p>\n
He described his release as \u201ca great victory,\u201d but emphasized that the work continues \u201cuntil every prisoner for faith is free.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Rev. Dr. Bob Fu, president of ChinaAid<\/p>\n
In the view of rights advocates, Jin\u2019s return does not resolve all questions about the fate of other Zion Church members or possible further actions by the international community and the Chinese authorities on releasing those imprisoned on religious charges.<\/p>\n
The return of Ezra Jin marked an important step for his family and supporters, but the prospect of releasing other Zion Church members and future actions by authorities in China remains a focus of careful international monitoring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"His daughter called the release a miracle and thanked US leaders, while rights groups warned that many Zion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":744263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,319657,319656,319658,3,319659,21,19,22,20,25,319660,24,319661],"class_list":["post-744262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-ezra-jin","tag-ezra-jin-zion-church-religious-freedom-china-hong-kong-pastor-us-china-diplomacy","tag-hong-kong-pastor","tag-news","tag-religious-freedom-china","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-us-china-diplomacy","tag-usa","tag-zion-church"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=744262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/744263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}