BY   :  Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor 

The children of two men imprisoned by Chinese authorities, house church leader Pastor Ezra Jin and Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, say they’re counting on President Donald Trump to raise both cases when he meets Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, with Trump’s trip to China beginning this week.

Grace Jin Drexel, daughter of Pastor Ezra Jin, founder of Zion Church, a prominent underground Protestant congregation in Beijing, said on “Fox News Sunday” that Trump told her family he would mention her father’s name ahead of the summit with Xi.

“We received information a couple of days ago that the president has said that he will mention my father’s name ahead of the summit, and that has given us tremendous joy and hope,” she said.

Jin, also known as Jin Mingri, 56, was detained at his home in Beihai, Guangxi Province, in October 2025.

Around the same time, nearly 30 Zion Church leaders and members were arrested or reported missing in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.

The Wall Street Journal reported in March that 18 people, including Jin, were being held at a detention center in Beihai. It remains unclear whether Jin has been formally charged.

The case has drawn further concern after Chinese authorities moved against his legal team.

In March, authorities revoked the license of Zhang Kai, a lawyer involved in the defense; other lawyers connected to the case had their licenses suspended or received verbal warnings from officials.

Grace Jin’s husband, Bill Drexel, said on the same Fox News broadcast that all the lawyers who initially took the case have been pressured off it.

Jin founded Zion Church in 2007 after studying at Fuller Theological Seminary in California. He converted to Christianity after participating in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and became one of the best-known figures in China’s house church movement.

Zion grew into one of China’s largest underground Protestant churches. After authorities raided its Beijing sanctuary and shut it down in 2018, the church moved services online, drawing as many as 10,000 participants on Zoom, YouTube and WeChat.

Jin’s wife has lived in the U.S. since 2018; his three children are American citizens.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called for Jin’s release, as have members of Congress.

Ahead of Trump’s state visit to China at the invitation of President Xi Jinping, Jimmy Lai’s children have also pinned their hopes on the president.

“This is about saving my father’s life. I think that if my father is not freed soon, that he will die in jail,” Sebastien Lai was quoted as saying.

Jimmy Lai, 78, and a British citizen, has been in solitary confinement since his arrest in December 2020. He was found guilty in December 2025 of allegedly colluding with foreign forces under Hong Kong’s controversial national security law, as well as conspiracy to print and distribute seditious publications under a separate colonial-era statute. Sentencing on the second charge is pending.

His legal team has said Lai has been refused independent medical treatment for diabetes and is allowed to leave his cell for only 50 minutes per day.

His daughter, Claire Lai, told those gathered at the 2026 National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, held in March in Washington, D.C., that her father also suffers from heart conditions and infections and is kept in a small, dark cell with no direct access to fresh air or sunlight.

Hong Kong authorities have said Lai has received “adequate and comprehensive” medical care and denied he has been mistreated.

Claire Lai said her father has been denied access to the Eucharist, the sacrament of reconciliation and mass for the majority of his time in custody. Sebastien Lai, who is based in London and has exchanged letters with his father since the imprisonment began, said his father has similarly been denied mass and communion.

Lai founded Hong Kong’s now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper before his arrest.

Recently, more than 100 members of Congress wrote to Trump urging him to raise the case with Xi. A senior diplomatic source with knowledge of Trump’s agenda for the trip told the Telegraph that Lai’s imprisonment is “high on the list” of topics to be discussed.

U.K. officials in Washington have been lobbying their American counterparts for Lai’s release since his detention.

Trump pledged during his 2024 campaign to secure Lai’s freedom.

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