Underground church leader Jin Mingri released from prison in China and has traveled to the United States, less than two months after Donald Trump directly raised his imprisonment.

The pastor and founder of the Zion Church had been jailed following nighttime raids across China in October, described by Christian groups as one of the strictest crackdowns on religious activity in the country’s modern history.

The Chinese government strictly controls religion and officially promotes atheism.

Jin’s family thanked his fans in a statement, adding: “We truly witnessed a miracle and were so overwhelmed with joy.” The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not officially commented on his case.

The family thanked the US president and the Trump administration “for their tremendous leadership” and said they knew “this could not have happened without the direct intervention of [Chinese President] Xi Jinping.”

“We hope this signals a positive turn for people of faith in China and relations between our two nations.”

The US-based human rights group ChinaAid, which monitors religious persecution, confirmed that Jin, also known as Ezra Jin, had arrived in Los Angeles, US, following his release.

Its founder, Bob Fu, celebrated its release, noting that “countless” religious practitioners, including eight members of the Church of Zion, remained imprisoned in China.

The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, a group of Western lawmakers that includes dozens of UK MPs, said it was “delighted” by the news.

Trump had urged Xi to release Jin during direct talks between the two while they were in Beijing for a state visit in May.

“He said he was going to seriously consider the pastor,” the US president later said.

Trump also raised the detention of pro-democracy Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai, who was sentenced earlier this year to 20 years in prison for colluding with foreign forces under the city’s controversial national security law.

Jin founded Zion Church in 2007 with only 20 people. It grew to become one of the largest unregistered churches in China, with a network of about 10,000 people in 40 cities across the country.

He was officially banned by the Chinese Communist Party in 2018 after resisting government pressure to install security cameras on his property in Beijing.

Since then, many of its branch congregations across the country have been investigated and closed.

Christians have long been pressured to join only state-sanctioned churches, led by government-sanctioned pastors, and toe the party line.

Thirty religious leaders were reportedly detained in nighttime raids last October.

This was followed by a similar crackdown on another church in January, in which nine people were detained.