When Pastor Ezra Jin appeared at Washington’s Ronald Reagan Institute on Oct. 21, his presence represented a significant, if incomplete, victory for religious freedom. The founder of China’s influential Zion Church had spent nearly nine months in detention before President Donald Trump’s personal intervention with Xi Jinping helped secure his release in July. Yet eight of his fellow church leaders remain imprisoned in China.
Their continued detention illustrates both the possibilities and limitations of American diplomacy with Beijing. Trump demonstrated that direct engagement with Xi can produce tangible results. The more difficult question is whether Washington can translate such individual successes into sustained pressure against the systematic persecution of Christianity in China.
