By Sam Brownback FOX News, September 21, 2026

“A China without religious freedom is a China we cannot accept,” Pastor Ezra Jin told a small group gathered on Capitol Hill shortly after he was freed from a Chinese prison. President Donald Trump had raised Jin’s case with Chinese President Xi Jinping at their May summit. Weeks later, Jin was free.

But why was he in jail in the first place?

He pastored the Zion Church in Beijing, an independent Christian house church outside the control of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).