ACTIVISTS have welcomed the release of an influential Chinese house-church pastor, detained since October (News, 27 February), but have questioned China’s motives.

The pastor, Mingri Ezra Jin, also known as Pastor Jin, arrived in Los Angeles last Saturday “after being released directly from detention in China”, the US-based charity ChinaAid reports. It says that Chinese officials informed Pastor Jin that his release resulted from discussions between President Trump and the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, “and was presented as a goodwill gesture coinciding with America’s Independence Day”.

President Trump had said that President Xi was going to “strongly consider the pastor”, after raising his case on state visit to Beijing in May.

Pastor Jin and 17 other senior church members were arrested in a crackdown on urban Chinese house churches. Zion Church, founded by Pastor Jin in 2007, is one of the largest unregistered or independent churches in China.

Pastor Jin’s family, who are based in the US, said in a statement that they thanked God and President Trump, adding: “We hope this is a signal of a positive turn for people of faith in China and relations between our two nations.”

The senior director of the human-rights charity Fortify Rights, Benedict Rogers, told the Church Times: “While [Pastor Jin’s] release is extremely welcome, we should not forget that eight other pastors and leaders of Zion Church in China remain in detention, nor should we forget many other prisoners of conscience, such as [the pro-democracy media owner] Jimmy Lai.”

Mr Rogers said that the release might have been timed to distract attention from the “draconian” Ethnic Unity Law, introduced on 1 July and widely condemned. Amnesty International said that the law established “a national legal framework behind policies that have already devastated the rights of Uyghurs, Tibetans, and other non-Han ethnic groups”.

On Monday, in the House of Lords, the Roman Catholic crossbencher Lord Alton tabled a question asking the Government what steps it was taking to secure access to Tibet for UN experts and independent observers after the introduction of the new law.

Human-rights groups say that the China is using digital surveillance to monitor and control Christians and members of ethnic minorities.