China: Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri released, fragile signal for the underground church

After several months of detention, the pastor of the Zion Church in Beijing is released. An isolated gesture that does not change the line of religious control imposed by Xi Jinping.

The Fact

On July 6, 2026, Catholic News Agency reports that Chinese authorities have released Protestant pastor Ezra Jin Mingri, former senior pastor of Zion Church in Beijing, one of the most important unregistered assemblies in the capital. His detention was part of the wave of repression against "illegal religious activity sites" following the 2018 regulation on religious affairs. No details were provided about the conditions of his release or any potential accompanying restrictions.

Our Analysis

The gesture concerns a Protestant pastor, but it is not indifferent to Chinese Catholics. Since the 2018 provisional Vatican-China agreement, regularly renewed, the so-called "underground" Catholic Church remains under tension: legitimate bishops marginalized in favor of appointments approved by Beijing, priests periodically arrested, communities monitored. According to Open Doors (2026 World Watch List), China ranks 15th globally among countries where Christianity is persecuted. Aid to the Church in Need documents the same findings in its report on religious freedom. An isolated release, as welcome as it may be, does not reverse the logic of control by the Chinese Communist Party over all religious life. The signal sent can be as much a communication concession as a structural easing: nothing allows, for now, to decide.

To Reflect On

Let us pray for pastor Ezra Jin and his family. Let us pray especially for the clandestine Chinese Catholic bishops, whose names are less known, and whose release would depend on much more than a communiqué. "I was in prison and you came to visit me" (Mt 25:36). The persecuted Church is one Church, Catholic and Protestant combined before the wall of the cells.