TRUMP SEEKS CHRISTIANS’ RELEASE. Just before Xi Jinping rose to power in 2012, the Christian faith grew to about 100 million adherents. New converts joined house churches which operated with unofficial tolerance if they stayed underground. Then an intensified crackdown began, not only on the house churches but their landlords. The government put state-approved churches under surveillance and forced Communist ideology on their theology.
Surveillance has increased over house churches too, during Xi’s 14-year reign. So have harsh prison sentences on nonconformist activists, attorneys and business leaders. But Pastor Ezra Jin, who founded Zion Church in 2007 became a case in point.
After Chinese authorities raided Zion’s Beijing sanctuary and shut it down in 2018, it went online. Then it attracted up to 10,000 participants on social media. Even before the pandemic two years later, it set a pattern for churches that locked down then.
From shutdown to prison to freedom
But in October 2025, authorities detained Pastor Jin at his home in Guangxi Province. About the same time, reports came of almost 30 Zion leaders and members being arrested or missing. Then more reports came of lawyers for their case being warned or having their licenses suspended or revoked.
Last week in China, President Trump brought up Pastor Jin’s case to President Xi. He also advocated for the release of Christian businessman Jimmy Lai. Lai, 78, has lived in solitary confinement since 2020, and has been denied communion. In 2025, a court sentenced him to 20 years in prison for alleged collusion with foreign forces. According to his daughter Claire Lai, he suffers from diabetes, heart conditions and infections. But they keep him in a constricted dark cell lacking access to fresh air.
So pray that God will not only open the way for Jin and Lai to gain their release. But that He will also open cracks in the Chinese system of oppression through which many other Christians will find freedom.
PRAY WITH US about Trump Seeks Christians’ Release. Father God, we exalt You as Lord over heaven and earth and China too. Help us to extend our hearts over a distance which You consider no distance at all. And to lift up our brothers and sisters under heavy persecution there. Consider how human technology has increased surveillance and oppression over 100 million of Your people there. For we call on Your Holy Spirit to overwhelm and break Communist control. For where the Spirit of the Lord dwells, there is freedom.
So we proclaim freedom to the captives Jimmy Lai, Pastor Jin and all Zion Church members. Let them arise and shine with Your light to show China how much greater You are. Let them speak the name of Jesus more and more freely so we may hear of more salvations and deliverances. And let there be a groundswell of support for Your people so they emerge from the underground. And answer their prayers to turn China from communism into a Christian-friendly nation. So that other nations will celebrate freedom from their godless influence too. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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