06/07/2026

MONDAY | JULY 6, 2026

6

China frees jailed pastor

o Ezra Jin arrives in LA

BEIJING: China has released the founder of an underground church who has been detained since October, his church and family confirmed to AFP yesterday, after US President Donald Trump raised his case with counterpart Xi Jinping. Ezra Jin is the founder of Zion Church, one of China’s unregistered churches that some Christians choose to worship at instead of state sanctioned ones regulated by the government. Jin, also known by his Chinese name Mingri, was detained along with other church members on Oct 10 on “suspicion of the illegal use of information networks”. Trump raised his case when he visited Xi in May, and had said the Chinese president would “strongly consider” releasing him. On Saturday, rights group ChinaAid said in a statement that Jin had arrived in Los Angeles after being released from detention in China. The pastor was told by Chinese officials that his release “resulted from discussions between US President Donald J Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, and was presented as a goodwill gesture coinciding with America’s Independence Day”, the statement said. “We thank God for this tremendous miracle,” Jin’s daughter Grace said in a statement. “We hope this is a signal of a positive turn for people of faith in China and relations between our two nations.” Her statement thanked Trump and his administration “for their tremendous leadership”. AFP has contacted China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment. China’s ruling Communist Party has historically regarded organised

Super typhoon nears US Pacific islands Guam residents install metal barricades on a restaurant. – AFPPIC

WASHINGTON: People in Guam and the Northern Marianas moved to emergency evacuation centres and made last-minute preparations yesterday, hours before a “super typhoon” was projected to bulldoze through the US Pacific territories. Super Typhoon Bavi was forecast to roar westwards over the area from early today with winds of 260 kph, equivalent to a category 5 hurricane, and gusts of up to 315 kph. The National Weather Service called the typhoon“very dangerous”, warning of “tropical storm force” winds from yesterday afternoon and “catastrophic” damage near the system’s centre later. “Significant flooding from torrential rains and coastal inundation are expected,” the NWS said, with projected waves of up to 10.7m, the height of a 10-storey building, creating “extremely dangerous” conditions at sea. Pinky Cubacub, 55, said as she boarded up the windows of her eatery in Guam that she had lined up on Saturday to buy US$500 (RM2,035) worth of plywood at a lumber store. She said: “I cannot afford to lose

so many days. It hurts. Because I just started, whatever we’re making right now is just for rent, utilities, and my people, and supplies. I don’t even pay myself yet.” Call centre employee Arabella Paulino, 48, said: “My girls were saying to me it’s scary. But it will be okay.” “My house is concrete, so the worst that can happen is a window could blow in,” she said. Derma Soaladaob said she was going to a hotel. “I have a concrete house but with the noise and the wind, it’s scary,” said the 51-year-old, who drives a school bus for the US military. Tourist Miku Sakurai, 25, was supposed to fly back to Tokyo with her friends yesterday but their flight was cancelled because of the weather. “We will stay in the hotel when the storm comes. I am scared,” she said as heavy rain began to fall. The Northern Marianas in the western Pacific has a population of around 40,000, and nearby Guam, a separate US territory, although both are part of the Marianas archipelago, about 170,000. – AFP

Jin released as a goodwill gesture, say Chinese officials. – REUTERSFILEPIC

still being held, according to the church. Zion Church was founded in 2007 in Beijing. It grew to 1,500 members before shuttering in 2018 under pressure from Chinese authorities. The church maintained an online presence that flourished during the 2020 lockdown, amassing a following across 40 Chinese cities. Jin’s family relocated abroad after 2018 but he returned to China to be with the church, afterwards facing a travel ban. He has not seen most of his family, including two young sons, for more than seven years, his daughter told AFP last year.

religion with suspicion, and under Xi, has tightened scrutiny of unofficial groups. Authorities have been cracking down on unregistered churches in recent months. In June, an Early Rain Covenant Church service in southwestern Sichuan province was raided and two leaders detained. That followed the detention in January of several other leading members of Early Rain. The same week, Yayang church in eastern Zhejiang province was scaffolded and had its cross removed, AFP reporters saw. Eight of the Zion Church members detained in October are

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