When President Donald Trump sits down with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the coming weeks, the world will be watching for deals on trade, Taiwan and global security. I will be watching for something much more personal: whether my father will finally be able to come home.
My father, Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri, is the founder of Zion Church in China. The church had humble beginnings – it began in 2007 with just 20 people. But my father’s passion and faith helped the church grow, which made it a target of the Chinese authorities.
Over the years, dozens of church staff members have been detained or harassed by the Chinese authorities. In 2018, the church was officially banned and all church property confiscated after church leadership refused government demands to install surveillance cameras to monitor its congregation.
Trusting in God’s sovereignty while at the same time not wanting to bring further pressure on the congregation, my father shifted the church to a hybrid model, giving online sermons and building a network of satellite locations throughout the country. Within just a few years, Zion Church was reaching 10,000 people in 40 cities, making it one of China’s largest “house churches.”
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Last October, my father and nearly 30 other Zion Church pastors and members were detained in what has been called “the most extensive crackdown against the faith in decades” Eighteen of them, including my father, remain detained, facing charges of “illegally utilizing information networks” – that is, sharing biblical teachings online.
The detained church leaders have no contact with the outside world, except for their lawyers, and even that may not last – Chinese authorities are doing everything they can do to force the lawyers off the case. Lead defense lawyer Zhang Kai, who was representing my father, had his law license revoked in January, and six other lawyers working on the case have been given six-month suspensions. The others have been harassed, intimidated and threatened.
Of particular concern, my father has health issues that are likely not being adequately treated. He has severe type 2 diabetes that has, in the past, required hospitalization. He needs ongoing, specialized medical care. But China has a documented history of denying political prisoners necessary medical care; in fact, when my father was initially detained, my grandmother tried to bring him his prescribed diabetes medication but was turned away.
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My father is no criminal. Rather, he is a person of faith who has embodied compassion, kindness and caring for the needy – values drawn from both Christian teachings and Chinese culture. In 2008, house churches, including Zion Church, were often the first to provide aid to those suffering after the earthquake in Sichuan. Zion Church ministers to broken marriages and depressed children and provides food to the poor. Until its space was confiscated in 2018, the church also hosted blood drives each year.
Although my father and my family have suffered greatly, this case is not just about the suffering of one person or one family. It poses a direct challenge to American values. This country traces its origins to individuals fleeing religious persecution. Freedom of religion is central to who we are; it is enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and was recently acknowledged in the Trump administration’s National Security Strategy.
In just a few weeks, Trump will rededicate this country as “One n ation under God.” But the Chinese Community Party’s escalating attack on China’s Christian community – as well as its persecution of Muslims, Tibetan and Chinese Buddhists, Taoists and others – is a direct challenge to this oldest and most sacred American value.
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Recognizing this, Ambassador Sam Brownback has described China’s crackdown on the Christian community a “national security imperative” because, in his words, “if the world’s largest authoritarian state can eradicate religious freedom without consequences, it undermines the authority of America’s founding values and global leadership.” We cannot let this challenge go unanswered.
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Through repeated acts of transnational repression, Chinese authorities have even sought to punish my family here in the United States for speaking about my father’s detention. Soon after we began speaking publicly, my mother received a threatening phone call from someone impersonating a U.S. federal agent, who tried to pressure her to return to China under false pretenses.
Later, the tires on her car were slashed in the middle of the night. I have personally been surveilled while attending meetings in Washington, D.C., and my husband has been the target of Chinese state-backed hacking attempts.
Xi has said that he hopes that 2026 will be a year in which China and the U.S. “advance toward mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation.” But that is impossible while China imprisons the relatives of U.S. citizens for practicing their faith, attacks the religious freedom that America was founded on and extends its repression into our borders to silence dissent.
In about two months, I will give birth to my third child. My other two children have never met their grandfather in person because Chinese authorities have restricted my father from leaving China under an exit ban since 2018. It is my fervent prayer that my father will be here in June to hold the newest member of our family. Please, President Trump, stand up for my father, stand up for religious freedom and stand for American values – bring my father home.
