The Chinese police officers hurried the pastor out of the jail cell where he’d been held for 266 days. They hustled him into a van, then onto a train — where he sat surrounded by about two dozen officers, many with cameras trained on him.

中国警官催促这位牧师离开他被关押了266天的牢房。他们把他押进一辆面包车，随后又带上一列火车——在车上，他被二十多名警察包围着，许多人的摄像头都对着他。

The pastor, Jin Mingri, who founded one of China’s most prominent underground churches, wondered aloud if he was being transferred to a secret prison. An officer laughed and told him to think more positively.

这位名为金明日的牧师创办了中国最著名的地下教会之一，他大声询问自己是否正被转移到一间秘密监狱。一名警官笑了起来，叫他想得乐观一点。

Hours later, Mr. Jin, who also goes by Ezra, had been escorted onto a flight. As the plane started to move, the man sitting next to him turned to introduce himself. He was an American government official, he said.

几个小时后，又名“以斯拉”(Ezra)的金明日被押上一架航班。当飞机开始移动时，坐在他身旁的人转过身来做自我介绍。他说自己是一名美国政府官员。

Mr. Jin was free.

金明日自由了。

Mr. Jin’s sudden release from Chinese jail on July 3, brokered after a personal appeal by President Trump to the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, was a rare concession from Beijing. It reflects how, in Mr. Xi’s authoritarian system, the fate of such high-profile detainees or prisoners — like Mr. Jin, or the imprisoned Hong Kong pro-democracy dissident Jimmy Lai — can depend less on the courts than on intervention at the highest levels.

金明日于7月3日突然从中国监狱获释，这是在特朗普总统向中国领导人习近平提出个人呼吁后斡旋达成的，是北京方面的罕见让步。这反映出，在习近平的威权体制下，金明日或是香港亲民主派异见人士黎智英这类备受瞩目的被扣押或监禁人员的命运与其说取决于法院，不如说是取决于最高层的干预。

The pastor was rounded up last October in China’s biggest church crackdown in nearly a decade, alongside many of his fellow church leaders. Mr. Trump raised Mr. Jin’s case to Mr. Xi during his visit to Beijing in May, but it had not been clear in the weeks that followed that Mr. Xi, who has tightened controls on society, and on religion in particular, would agree to his release.

这位牧师于去年10月在中国近十年来最大规模的教会镇压行动中被围捕，与其同时被抓的还有其他一些教会领袖。特朗普在5月访问北京期间向习近平提到此案，但在接下来的几周里，习近平是否会同意释放他一直并不明确，习近平近年来收紧了对社会、尤其是对宗教的控制。

特朗普5月访问了北京。他说他向中国领导人习近平提到了金明日的案子。

In an interview with The New York Times, his first since he was arrested in October last year, Mr. Jin recounted the circumstances that led to his detention and eventual release.

金明日接受《纽约时报》采访，讲述了他被拘留及最终获释的经过，这是他去年10月被捕以来首次接受采访。

A Rare Release of a Political Prisoner

政治犯的罕见获释

When Mr. Jin’s flight landed in Los Angeles, his wife and children were waiting. He had not seen them in nearly a decade.

金明日的航班降落在洛杉矶时，他的妻子和孩子们已经在那里等候。他已经近十年没有见到他们了。

“Twenty-four hours earlier I was in such a harsh jail environment, with no idea what the future held, expecting around a 15-year sentence,” Mr. Jin told The Times.

“24小时前，我还处在极其恶劣的监狱环境中，对未来一无所知，可能面临大约15年的刑期，”金明日告诉时报。

“Suddenly, I was free,” he said. “And the fact that I could reunite with my family — my heart was just filled with indescribable emotion.”

“突然间，我自由了，”他说。“能够与家人团聚——我内心充盈着难以言表的激动。”

China has generally resisted American appeals to release political prisoners, treating such cases as a matter of sovereignty. When it has granted releases, it has usually done so only on the condition that detainees confess to guilt, or are on medical parole, or are swapped for Chinese nationals held in the United States.

中国普遍抵制美国要求释放政治犯的呼吁，将此类案件视为主权事务。通常也只有在被拘押者承认有罪、保外就医，或者与在美国被扣押的中国公民进行交换的条件下才会释放。

Mr. Jin, 57, said that he had not been forced to sign any statements and that Chinese officials had not warned him away from future attempts to contact his friends or congregation.

现年57岁的金明日表示，他并未被强迫签署任何声明，中国官员也没有警告他不得在日后尝试联系他的朋友或会众。

“It may be because everybody knows President Xi personally made the decision,” Mr. Jin said. “Otherwise, this wouldn’t be possible.”

“这可能是因为，大家都知道是习近平主席亲自做出的决定，”金明日说。“否则，这是不可能的。”

Mr. Jin and his wife are Chinese nationals, but his children are American citizens. He said he did not know whether the United States and China had struck a deal to secure his freedom. Neither the Chinese government nor the White House has commented on the release. Mr. Trump, while leaving China on Air Force One, had said that Mr. Xi had told him he would “strongly consider the pastor.”

金明日和他的妻子是中国公民，但他的孩子们是美国公民。他说他不知道中美两国是否达成了确保他自由的协议。中国政府和白宫均未对此次释放发表评论。特朗普在乘坐“空军一号”离开中国时曾表示，习近平告诉他会“慎重考虑这位牧师”。

Eight of his fellow church leaders are still in jail.

他的八名教会同工仍被关在监狱里。

The Nationwide Raid on Zion Church

对锡安教会的全面搜捕

Mr. Jin’s ordeal began in October, when dozens of police officers burst into his home in Beihai, a city in southwestern China, while he was eating dinner.

金明日的磨难十于10月，数十名警官闯入了他位于中国东南部城市北海的家中，当时他正在吃晚餐。

They accused him of the crime of “illegally using information networks.” That was a reference to the online activities of Mr. Jin’s church, Zion. The government had shut down its physical space in Beijing in 2018.

他们指控他犯有“非法利用信息网络”罪。这是指他所在的锡安教会的网络活动。政府已于2018年关停了其在北京的实体空间。

2018年被当局正式查封的北京锡安教会。锡安是中国最著名的地下教会之一。

Zion members had been expecting a crackdown. For months, officers had been disrupting gatherings across the country. The day before Mr. Jin’s arrest, he had heard that another Zion pastor, Franklin Wang Lin, had been arrested at the airport while trying to fly to Hong Kong.

锡安教会成员早已预料到会遭到镇压。几个月来，警官们一直在扰乱全国各地的集会。金明日被捕的前一天，他听说另一位锡安教会的牧师王林(Franklin Wang Lin)在尝试飞往香港时于机场被捕。

The Chinese constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but in reality, the ruling Communist Party requires religious groups to register with the government and submit to strict political controls. By some estimates, there are tens of millions of unregistered Christians in China who worship in secret.

中国宪法保障宗教信仰自由，但在现实中，执政的共产党要求宗教团体向政府登记并接受严格的政治控制。据某些估计，中国有数千万未经登记的基督徒在秘密进行礼拜活动。

Two dozen other Zion church members were also detained around the same time, though some were later released.

大约在同一时间，另有二十多名锡安教会成员被拘留，不过其中一些人后来获释。

“We always knew something could happen,” Mr. Jin said. He thought: “What was meant to come, has come.”

“我们心里一直明白可能会发生些什么，”金明日说。他当时想：“该来的总归还是来了。”

Pressured While in Detention

拘押期间被施压

Mr. Jin was taken to a detention center, where he shared a roughly 1,000-square-foot room with between two and three dozen other detainees, who all slept on one giant platform bed. There were no panes in the windows, so the cell was freezing in the winter and sweltering in the summer, he said.

金明日被带到了一个看守所，在那里他与二三十名其他被拘押者合住一间大约100平方米的房间，所有人都在一张巨大的通铺上睡觉。他说，窗户上没有玻璃，所以牢房里冬天严寒，夏天酷热。

During the day, the detainees were required to sit on benches, raising their hands if they wanted to stand. Many detainees developed constipation or sores from being unable to move, he said.

他说，在白天，在押人员被要求坐在板凳上，如果想站起来必须举手。许多人因无法活动而患上了便秘或褥疮。

Officials repeatedly pressured Mr. Jin to plead guilty, he said. Mr. Jin admitted to some of the facts the officers laid out: that he had established a church, continued gathering with members after the church was shut down, and held meetings online. But those acts were not illegal, he told them.

金明日说，官员们屡次施压要求他认罪。他承认了警官们列出的一部分事实：他建立了教会，在教会关停后继续与成员聚会，并在网络上举行会议。但他告诉他们，这些行为并不违法。

The officers said that if he continued refusing, he might draw harsher punishments for his fellow church members, Mr. Jin said. The government revoked the legal credentials of his lawyers, so he had to find new lawyers three times.

金明日说，警官们声称如果他继续拒绝认罪，可能会使他的教会同工遭受更严厉的惩罚。政府撤销了他的律师的法律执业资格，因此他不得不三次重新寻找新律师。

Officials also tried to persuade him by saying he could be reunited with his family sooner. Mr. Jin’s family had moved to the United States in 2018 as pressure grew on Zion, but Mr. Jin chose to stay in China with the church.

官员们还试图通过表示他可以更快地与家人团聚来劝说他。随着对锡安教会的压力增加，金明日的家人于2018年搬到了美国，但他选择留在中国陪伴教会。

金明日31岁的女儿格蕾丝·金·德雷克塞尔去年在华盛顿手持家人的照片。她一直在敦促美国官员呼吁释放她的父亲。

“Of course I desperately wanted to reunite with my family, but you can’t use that to tempt me,” Mr. Jin said. “If I’m guilty, sentence me. If I’m innocent, release me.”

“我当然极度渴望与我的家人团聚，但你不能用这个来引诱我，”金明日说。“如果我有罪，就判我的刑。如果我是无辜的，就释放我。”

A Sliver of Hope

一丝希望

Mr. Jin said he prayed consistently and fasted every Thursday and Friday but sometimes felt despondent. He has diabetes but was given only oral medication, not the insulin he usually took, he said. He was not allowed to write letters.

金明日说他坚持祷告，并在每周四和周五禁食，但有时也会感到绝望。他患有糖尿病，但他说只得到了口服药物，而不是他平时注射的胰岛素。他不被允许写信。

It was through his lawyers that he learned his family in the United States had been lobbying the Trump administration for help. After about a month in detention, he was granted access to a Bible — usually not allowed in Chinese jails — after pressure by his lawyers and the American government.

他通过律师得知，他在美国的家人一直在游说特朗普政府提供帮助。被拘押约一个月后，在律师和美国政府的压力下，他获准使用一本圣经——这在中国监狱里通常是不允许的。

When Mr. Trump met with Mr. Xi in May, Mr. Jin heard about it from a report on China’s state broadcaster, which sometimes played in the jail. But it was not until several weeks later, during a visit by his lawyers, that he learned that Mr. Trump had brought up his case.

特朗普5月与习近平会面时，金明日从中国国家广播电视台的报道中得知这一消息的，监狱里有时会播放该台的内容。但直到几个星期后，在他的律师探视期间，他才了解到特朗普提到了他的案子。

He didn’t dare get too excited. At best, he might be transferred to house arrest, he thought.

他不敢太兴奋。他想，充其量自己可能会被转为监视居住。

“The U.S. government hasn’t had much success asking for people over the past 20 years, especially during the Xi era,” Mr. Jin said. “The Chinese government is too strong now.”

“在过去20年里，特别是在习近平时代，美国政府在要人方面的成功并不多，”金明日说。“中国政府现在太强大了。”

特朗普与习近平在北京会面几个月后，中国释放了金明日牧师。

But around noon on July 3, officers abruptly escorted Mr. Jin from his cell. They brought him to the international airport in Guangzhou, about 300 miles away.

但在7月3日中午左右，警官们突然将金明日押送出了他的牢房。他们把他带到了480多公里外的广州的国际机场。

That was when Mr. Jin began to hope.

这时金明日觉得有希望了。

He was taken to a conference room in the airport. There, officials set up a national emblem. Then the chief prosecutor on his case, who had also traveled from Beihai, formally addressed Mr. Jin, saying that the authorities had “conclusive evidence” of his crime.

他被带到了机场的一个会议室里。在那里，官员们悬挂起了国徽。随后，同样从北海赶来的该案首席检察官正式对他发表讲话，称办案机关掌握了他犯罪的“确凿证据”。

However, the prosecutor continued, they had decided not to indict him.

然而，这名检察官接着说，他们决定不起诉他。

When Mr. Jin pointed out that the argument didn’t make sense, the prosecutor said she couldn’t say more, he said.

当金明日指出这种逻辑说不通时，这名检察官表示她不便多说。

A Long-Awaited Reunion

久违的团聚

When Mr. Jin stepped off the airplane, he saw that his youngest son, who had been 10 years old when they last met, was now taller than him. He had missed the wedding of his oldest child, Grace Jin Drexel, who was now a mother of three. She was carrying her youngest, just one month old, whom she had named Ezra in her father’s honor.

金明日走下飞机时，他看到自己最小的儿子——上次见面时只有10岁——现在已经比他还要高了。他错过了长女格蕾丝·金·德雷克塞尔的婚礼，她现在已经是三个孩子的母亲。她怀里抱着的最小的孩子只有一个月大，为了纪念父亲，她给他取名为“Ezra”。

“Holding the children, that was the happiest moment of my life,” he said.

“抱着孩子们，那是我一生中最幸福的时刻，”他说。

Still, the moment was tinged by grief, too. Ms. Jin Drexel said she almost didn’t recognize her father at first, because he had lost more than 30 pounds. His hair had also been shaved in jail.

尽管如此，那个时刻也夹杂着悲伤。金·德雷克塞尔说，起初她差点没认出父亲，因为他瘦了30多磅。他的头发也在监狱里被剃光了。

On the Fourth of July, the family ate In-N-Out burgers and watched fireworks from their hotel room in Los Angeles.

在7月4日美国独立日那天，一家人在洛杉矶的酒店房间里吃了In-N-Out汉堡，还看了烟花。

Mr. Jin is now living near Washington, the district, with his daughter. He says his emotions can swing rapidly from joy to sorrow, and he has slept little.

金明日现在正与他的女儿一起生活在华盛顿附近。他说自己的情绪波动很大，一会儿高兴一会儿悲伤，而且他睡得很少。

He has been busy lobbying American officials to continue working for the freedom of the eight other Zion leaders, and for religious and human rights in China more broadly. He was considering passing the church’s leadership onto a younger generation.

他一直积极游说美国官员，希望他们继续为其他八名锡安教会领袖的自由而努力，并为更广泛的中国宗教和人权呼吁。他正在考虑将教会的领导权移交给年轻一代。

He said he wanted to emphasize that he was thankful that China had freed him, and hoped it would do so again with others, including Mr. Lai, in Hong Kong.

他说他想强调，他感谢中国释放了他，并希望中国能对其他人（包括香港的黎智英）再次这样做。

“I hope people don’t think ‘We succeeded’ and forget the others,” Mr. Jin said.

“我希望人们不要认为‘我们成功了’就忘记了其他人，”金明日说。

“We must go all out and speak out. That’s what my family did, and look at the result.”

“我们必须全力以赴，发声呼吁。我的家人就是这么做的，这是有效果的。”