The recent release of a prominent church pastor, Ezra Jin Mingri, was hailed as a diplomatic win for the Trump administration after President Trump directly asked Xi Jinping, China’s ruthless president, for his release after nine months in detainment.
Pastor Mingril, who was arrested for overseeing a huge underground church called Zion Church, was released July 3 and flown to safety in the U.S. on Independence Day as a goodwill gesture.
Interviewed by The New York Times after being flown to the U.S., Mingril said he had been behind bars 266 days as part of a 15-year sentence. He described being pulled out his cell and put in a van, then boarding a train, assuming all along he was being sent to a secret prison to serve the remainder of his sentence.
Todd Nettleton, of Voice of the Martyrs, said the church pastor’s arrest late last year included the mass arrest of other church leaders, about 30 in all, in an attempt to clamp down on the illegal church activity.
At least eight Zion Church members remain imprisoned after their pastor’s release three weeks ago.
“They had the opportunity to leave China,” Nettleton recalls, “and they decided, ‘No, we're going to stay here. If it is God's will for us to suffer, we will suffer.’”
It’s unfortunately easy to suffer as a political prisoner in China, where the Chinese Communist Party is notorious for monitoring and punishing its population for “anti-state” activities that could foment unrest and rebellion.
Rather that act shocked at being arrested, Nettleton says China’s Christians have read their Bibles, so they’re not surprised to be punished for their faith like the first century Christian believers.
“They don't see persecution as some weird thing that only happens occasionally. They see it as, well, this is what happens when you follow Jesus,” Nettleton advises.
