Pastor Pan Yongguang, who led a congregation of 64 Chinese Christians—including 32 children—from religious persecution in China to freedom in the United States, presents Rep. Chris Smith, Chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, with a signed picture of his congregation at a Capitol Hill press conference on Wednesday, July 12th.

            Smith worked with Pastor Yongguang and others to help his congregation—dubbed the “Mayflower Church”—flee China in 2019 and travel to South Korea’s Jeju Island and later Thailand in August 2022. As part of his efforts, Smith—the author of the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act—advocated for the churchgoers over the past several years with the governments of Korea and Thailand as they remained in diplomatic limbo and faced possible refoulement to China.

            Earlier this year, Smith helped the Chinese Christians secure religious freedom in the United States when they were unexpectedly detained in Thailand and were at risk of forced repatriation to China due to suspected pressure from agents of the Chinese Communist Party.

###