Senators Urge Trump to Secure Release of Political Prisoners in China During Summit With Xi

Frank FangUpdated 3 hours Ago2 Mins read2 Views

A bipartisan group of senators is calling on President Donald Trump to make the release of prisoners of conscience a priority in his upcoming summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Sens. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) sent a letter to Trump on Sept. 22, urging him to build on his success in securing the release of Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri, the leader of a prominent underground church in China, following his previous meeting with Xi in China in May.

“The United States should continue to promote international religious freedom,” the lawmakers said.

“We request that you continue keeping those persecuted for their faith in China, including ethnic and religious minority groups such as Tibetan Buddhists, Christians, Uyghur Muslims, and Falun Gong practitioners, top of mind in conversations with President Xi.”

Trump is

scheduled

to welcome Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, at Joint Base Andrews just outside Washington on Sept. 23. The two leaders are set to hold a summit on Sept. 24 and Sept. 25.

Jin, the head of Zion Church,

reunited

with his family in the United States in early July. He had been

detained

at his home in October 2025 as part of a broader operation by Chinese authorities targeting the church.

On Sept. 22, Jin recounted his detention and release during a hearing hosted by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC).

According to his written testimony, he said he and other fellow church leaders were barred from having “normal correspondence” with their families, while the lawyers representing them faced various forms of persecution, including intimidation, revoked licenses, and pressure on their law firms to shut down or suspend operations.

“Even as I enjoy such freedom and joy with my family, I still cannot stop thinking of and worrying about my eight co-workers who remain imprisoned,” Jin said.

The eight Zion Church pastors and co-workers are among those the lawmakers urged Trump to ask Xi to release.

The lawmakers also urged Trump to raise the cases of Pastor Gao Quanfu, his wife, Pang Yu, and Pastor Tang Bingyi. Gao and Tang are pastors of Light of Zion Church in Xi’an, the capital of Shaanxi Province.

Gao was arrested in May 2025 and accused of “using superstition to undermine law enforcement.” Four months later, Pang was arrested on fraud allegations.

The couple’s son, Gao Pu, previously

told

The Epoch Times that his parents’ attorney had told him to “be prepared for a long fight.”

Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Tim Scott (R-S.C.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) co-signed the letter.

Zhang Erping, spokesperson for the Falun Dafa Information Center, also testified at the CECC hearing. In his written testimony, he urged U.S. officials to raise the cases of three detained Falun Gong practitioners in China—Xu Na,

Wang Youmei

, and Zhou Deyong—during meetings with Xi and senior Chinese officials and press for their release.

Zhou, a geological engineer and father of a Florida resident, was handed an

eight-year jail term

in April 2023 for his faith.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a meditative practice based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance that enjoyed widespread popularity in China in the 1990s, reaching more than 70 million practitioners by the decade’s end.

In July 1999, the ruling Chinese Communist Party, fearing that Falun Gong’s popularity threatened the regime’s power, launched a brutal campaign to eradicate the practice. Since then, many have suffered arbitrary detention, forced labor, torture, and even death from

forced organ harvesting