On 3 July this year, pastor Ezra Jin Mingri was suddenly whisked out of his Chinese jail cell and put on a flight to Los Angeles, where he was reunited with his family after eight years.
His release came as a surprise even to the 56-year-old leader of the prominent underground Zion Church, who had spent almost nine months in a jail cell following a nationwide crackdown on churches Beijing deemed unauthorised. He says Chinese officials told him he was guilty of all charges, but he was allowed to leave.
