US Must Demand CCP Release Jailed Pastor, Advocates Say

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A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers, human-rights advocates, and family members of detained Beijing pastor Ezra Jin Mingri called on Friday for his immediate release, urging the White House to make his case a precondition for next week’s planned U.S.–China meetings at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

Hudson senior fellow Olivia Enos opened the event by declaring that the pastor and his Beijing Zion Church colleagues “committed no crimes” but were “exercising their right to religious freedom.”

She said Jin, detained on Oct 10 by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on a charge of “illegal dissemination of information online,” faces sentencing soon, making “the time between now and the start of the APEC meetings absolutely critical.”

Enos noted that Jin’s wife and three children—including daughter Grace Jin Drexel, a U.S. citizen—live in America.

“This makes his case a priority case for the U.S. government,” she said, urging the administration to condition diplomatic engagement with Beijing on the release of Jin and other prisoners of conscience.

She listed five recommended steps: continued public calls by senior officials; conditioning future talks on political-prisoner releases; congressional adoption of Jin’s case; designation as a religious prisoner of conscience by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF); and creation of a State Department office dedicated to political-prisoner advocacy.

USCIRF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Piero Tozzi, a senior staffer for Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, read a message from Smith condemning the mass arrests of Zion Church leaders.

“I was sickened, but not surprised,” Smith wrote.

He pledged continued congressional advocacy and prayer for “Pastor Jin and the faithful of Zion Church, unjustly held in Chinese detention.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said he had introduced a bipartisan Senate resolution “calling for Pastor Jin’s immediate release.” He vowed the United States “will use every tool—diplomatic and economic—to hold Chinese Communist officials accountable,” asserting that “you cannot extinguish faith by force.”

Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) praised Grace Drexel’s courage and said Congress would “continue to advocate for freedom.”

Rep. Young Kim (R-Calif.) called Jin “a man of peace ... whose only so-called crime is leading one of China’s largest house churches.”

Drawing on her own upbringing in post-war South Korea, Kim said, “Faith is stronger than fear.”

And Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) urged President Donald Trump to raise Jin’s case “forcefully” at next week’s meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and to “restate U.S. policy that we are committed to the freedom and rights of every individual.”

Grace Drexel said her father founded Zion Church in 2007 and grew it to 1,500 weekly worshipers before authorities shut it down in 2018. Despite the closure, she said, the congregation “has grown to become a national church ... reaching up to 10,000 people daily.”

A short video she played showed Zion’s community work—including blood drives and holiday events—before police sealed its Beijing site.

“These are the people who are being imprisoned for their faith,” she said.

Enos observed that the crackdown mirrored China’s 2018 campaign against other large unregistered congregations such as Early Rain Covenant Church. She said Jin was “incredibly brave ... to continue leading after that first shutdown.”

Bill Drexel, Jin’s son-in-law and a Hudson research fellow, traced the pattern of repression to the CCP’s fear of independent social networks.

A signal from either Trump or Vice President J.D. Vance would “go a very long way,” he said, noting that the crackdown has endangered families inside and outside China.

“We had an incident in 2021, I believe, where Grace’s father was drugged by some state operatives. Thankfully, a seminarian was able to step in, but we don’t know what would have happened otherwise,” he recounted.

Henry Song of the One Korea Network urged mobilization of Korean and Korean-American churches, noting Jin’s Korean-Chinese heritage.

Grace Drexel appealed to congregations in South Korea—host of the upcoming APEC summit—to “rise up in prayer,” while Bill Drexel called religious freedom “a global church issue” that should unite believers in the Global South.

Hudson scholar Thomas J. Duesterberg suggested engaging Catholic, Buddhist, and other faith leaders.

Enos said “the CCP views religion of any sort as a threat” and welcomed broader interfaith cooperation.

Grace Drexel likened China’s control of religion to “Pharaoh ... or Rome,” saying true churches must let “Christ be the head alone.”

The Drexels also revealed that Chinese police had already harassed Grace’s mother with a call impersonating a U.S. official—an example of Beijing’s “transnational repression.”

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