Grace Jin Drexel, daughter of Pastor Ezra Jin, a political prisoner in China, addressed the 18th Annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy on February 18, 2026.
Full Prepared Remarks:
On October 10th, my father, Pastor Ezra Jin, was arrested by the Chinese authorities along with 27 other pastors and church leaders from Zion Church. Eighteen total remain imprisoned today. This crackdown represents one of the largest takedown of an independent Christian congregation in China since the Cultural Revolution—a sweep so brazen it has drawn international condemnation. I urge the Chinese government to release all the Zion Church members immediately and unconditionally.
To understand why my father is in prison, you must understand that leadership in China in recent years has embarked on a systematic campaign to achieve total state control over religious life in China through what the government calls “Sinicization of religion”—officially framed as making religions “more Chinese.”
Let me be clear: “Sinicization” is not about making religion more Chinese. It is repression, plain and simple.
Christians in China have been “Chinese” for generations. We already have Chinese Bibles, sing indigenous hymns, and are led by Chinese pastors. But beginning in 2018, a wave of persecution and crackdown on all religions began under the auspices of Sinicization. It included removing crosses and replacing them with portraits of Xi Jinping, switching out hymns with revolutionary Party songs, rewriting sermons to align with “socialist core values,” and shutting down or even leveling churches. This crackdown has targeted Muslims, especially the Uyghur community in Western China, Buddhists, and other religious groups.
My father founded Zion Church in 2007 with the mission to be faithful to God’s Word and to serve the communities around us. They are not opposed to the Chinese authorities, but have sought to enrich the society. They merely ask to be free from the control of the Chinese Communist Party, a self-identified atheist party, in the sacred decisions of the church. Like faithful Christians everywhere, my father’s church holds firm the position that “thou shall have no other gods before me.”
In 2018, Zion Church became a target specifically because the church leadership refused the government’s demands to install 23 facial recognition cameras inside its sanctuary to track and monitor believers. In response, the police brutally seized the church building and imposed an exit ban on my father, forbidding him from leaving the country.
Yet even repression cannot extinguish faith. My father and his congregation did not give up in the face of these actions. They developed a hybrid online-offline model. And beyond anyone’s wildest imaginations, when COVID hit in 2020 and all gatherings were forced to a halt, Zion Church’s online model allowed our church gatherings to expand nationwide, launching 100 new church meeting spaces in 40 cities across China. The church grew to its largest size ever, often reaching 10,000 people daily. Perhaps that embarrassed the CCP.
Now, a new and more severe wave of persecution is underway, for my father’s church and other churches in China. My father is now in prison because he held firmly to his faith and because he truly loved and cared deeply for the people and served the community out of love, and not control. My father’s church served the vulnerable, gave to the poor, and ministered to broken families.
My father is not a very confrontational person. He is firm in his convictions but is also the gentlest of souls. Unlike the stereotypical image of an Asian father, my father doted on me and my brothers liberally. He would always give me a big hug and greet me dramatically, “Oh my beautiful daughter!” We would often take evening walks as a family, arms linked, and watch Korean singing competitions that often moved us all to tears. I have rarely ever seen him angry or critical of anyone, which often benefited me growing up. He was always patient, always kind, and always giving people grace. And he has an incredible sense of humor and optimism, even in prison.
However, now my father and the seventeen detained leaders of Zion Church are made to sleep without beds on the cold floor. They are subjected to endless interrogation and sleep deprivation as punishment. They do not have access to the doctors’ prescribed medications. Many of them, including my father, have severe health concerns that are growing worse under harsh prison conditions.
I have not seen my beloved father in person in seven years; he was not there to walk me down the aisle at my wedding and we have never danced the father-daughter dance. I now stand before you in my most vulnerable state, 5 months pregnant and traveling across the world to plead for my father’s release. I do so knowing the grim reality that many prisoners of the Chinese government never see their families again.
Since I began advocating for my father and the release of the other detained church leaders, my family has also experienced “transnational repression,” that is, we have been harassed and targeted by the Chinese government abroad in order to sow fear. We have received threatening phone calls and I have been watched and followed in Washington D.C.
I am sometimes fearful—after all, I seek to expose the second most powerful nation in the world. Yet, I believe that we are asked to take courage and speak the truth, and that God who created Heaven and Earth will stand by our side.
Similarly, I urge all of us here today to take courage—to use your voice and influence, in whatever sphere, to speak the names of those detained, my father Pastor Ezra Jin, Pastor Gao Yinjia, Pastor Wang Lin, Pastor Yin Huibin and all the leaders of Zion Church in China. And others as well: Pastor Gao Quanfu of Light of Zion Church, Pastor Wang Yi of Early Rain Covenant Church, etc. Call for the Chinese government to release all Zion Church leaders immediately and unconditionally. Do not accept China’s trampling of human rights and universal freedom with silence. If left unchecked, Beijing’s wave of repression will reverberate around the world, for freedom of religion and human rights as a whole.
As a Christian, I draw strength in knowing that my God is a good God and that even these bleakest moments might be used to serve a greater purpose. As my father wrote in a letter from prison, “God has indeed used His power to uphold us…I believe that God is also testing us during this time, like refining silver—painful but full of love. God will not abandon us.” Our work and prayers are not in vain.
I am so grateful for everyone here today; grateful to the Geneva Summit and all those who worked so hard to make this event happen; thank you to all the leaders of my country and leaders around the world who stand with us. And most of all, thank you to all the countless brave individuals who confront oppression in China and around the world, serving as an example to us all.
18th Annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, U.N. Opening, Tuesday, February 17, 2026
Key Quotes:
“Zion Church became a target because its leadership refused the government’s demands to install 23 facial recognition cameras inside its sanctuary. Yet even repression cannot extinguish faith.”
“ I have not seen my father in seven years. He was not there to walk me down the aisle. I stand before you today 5 months pregnant, pleading for his release — knowing the grim reality that many prisoners of the Chinese government never see their families again.”
