Smith, Chris RSS Articles

The Daily Signal article on Smith letter to Sec. Rubio and Pres. Trump'China Hawk Urges Trump and Rubio to Discuss Chinese Prisoner Release in New Letter'

Thu, 24 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

By Pedro Rodriguez
Published September 24, 2026

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China sent a letter to President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday, urging them to discuss with Chinese leader Xi Jinping the release of worshippers and American citizens who remain imprisoned in China.

Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., penned the letter after he held two hearings in late September on the detainees, including media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai, Christian worshippers, Uyghur Muslims activists, Falun Gong, and American citizens detained for minor crimes.

“They are people—sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters—whose families have spent years waiting and pleading for their loved ones to come home,” the letter, exclusively obtained by the Daily Signal, reads. “I respectfully ask that you raise the following cases directly with President Xi and press for their release, including through medical or humanitarian transfer where appropriate.”

President Donald Trump (right) talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during an arrival ceremony on Sept. 23, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

“At this critical moment, I ask that you make the freedom and humanitarian treatment of these individuals a priority in your discussions with Beijing,” the letter adds. “Several of these prisoners face serious medical conditions that warrant immediate consideration for medical or humanitarian release or transfer.”

During the first summit between the second Trump administration and the Chinese Communist Party earlier this year, Trump raised the issue of releasing Pastor Ezra Jin, who was imprisoned for operating a non-state-approved church in China, which eventually led to his release from a Chinese prison.

In his letter to the president and the secretary of state, Smith urged them “to bring that same commitment directly to the table with President Xi.”

Among the prisoners are eight leaders of Zion Church, who were originally imprisoned with Jin, as well as three Light of Zion Church leaders—Pastor Gao Quanfu, Pang Yu, and Tang Bingyi—who are still in confinement after refusing to register their house churches and submit to Communist Party monitoring.

Lai, who has already served six years of his 20-year sentence for running a non-state-sponsored media outlet, now faces serious health concerns and has just received notice that his eldest daughter is undergoing cancer treatment in the United Kingdom.

The two American prisoners detained in China, Dawn Michelle Hunt and Nelson Wells Jr., have been imprisoned for more than a decade, “following procedures that raise serious due process concerns,” the letter adds.

Trump and Xi first met later Wednesday at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, before continuing meetings at the White House.

This article was published on September 24, 2026 and can be found online at: https://www.dailysignal.com/2026/09/24/china-hawk-urges-trump-and-rubio-to-discuss-chinese-prisoner-release-in-new-letter/

The Epoch Times article on Smith hearing'Families Call for Release of Loved Ones in China as Xi Visits US'

Wed, 23 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

By Eva Fu
Published September 23, 2026

WASHINGTON—These are the faces that Beijing doesn’t want the world to see.

They are political prisoners, ranging in age from their early 20s to nearly 80, each held behind bars because their beliefs or speech do not align with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Each of them is a father or a mother, a son or a daughter. In the United States and elsewhere, someone is thinking of them, waiting for the day they will be allowed to go home.

Among those waiting are a mother of an 8-year-old, and a daughter undergoing chemotherapy, wishing to hold her father’s hand.

As the U.S.–China summit looms over Washington, advocates see an opening to make that happen.

One phone call to Beijing from the Oval Office, they argue, and these detainees could walk free.

On Capitol Hill, the plight of the political prisoners has galvanized bipartisan lawmakers ahead of the bilateral talks.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said at a presser that he believes the “release of the hostages” is on the agenda.

Five Democratic lawmakers have also presented the president with the names of 22 prisoners he could bring up with Chinese counterparts.

Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) hosted two hearings this month championing their cause.

“It’s like that could be me. That could be my wife if she lives in China,” he told The Epoch Times.

“We’re all God’s children. If we don’t raise [this cause], who will?”

Butterfly in the Kitchen

On the kitchen counter of her Florida home, Ziba Murat keeps an embroidered image of a swallowtail butterfly.

It’s a small, tangible piece of Gulshan Abbas, Murat’s reticent mother, who’s now in Chinese jail under a 20-year sentence on terrorism-related charges. The United States has deemed those accusations as unfounded.

Ziba Murat holds a photo of her mother, Dr. Gulshan Abbas, at Murat's home in Virginia in 2024.

Ziba Murat keeps a framed image of a butterfly that was cross-stitched by her mother, jailed political prisoner Dr. Gulshan Abbas, in her kitchen.

It was hard for Murat to connect the person she knows so intimately with the reality of life in prison. Abbas, as Murat remembers, smiled quietly at jokes and embroidered for hours with a patience Murat never possessed.

Even after retiring, Abbas continued to go out of her way to help Uyghur patients, getting up early to meet them at the hospital just so they could see the right doctor and have everything they needed, Murat told The Epoch Times.

Murat misses her. She misses her mother’s humming in the kitchen and the wonderful stir-fries she cooked during the months she spent visiting the United States.

When it was time for Abbas to leave in 2016, Murat wanted her to stay.

She remembers her mother telling her: “I have a 10-year-visa. I can come back anytime I want.”

Murat said she had a sinking feeling as she watched her mother disappear through airport security. That was the last time they saw each other in person.

(L–R) Ziba Murat; her mother, Dr. Gulshan Abbas; and her younger sister Zamira Murat during a 2015 visit to the United States by Abbas, in this file photo.

For the next two years, the two talked on the phone every day. Then in 2018, days after Abbas’s sister Rushan made a public speech denouncing the Party’s mass detention of Uyghurs, Abbas became unreachable. It took two years for her family to learn of her imprisonment and sentencing in a secret trial.

Holding her baby daughter, Murat walked around Congress frantically looking for help. Never a news junkie, she became glued to the screen, scanning for the slightest hint of change in U.S.–China policy.

Guilt gnawed at Murat as she wondered what she could have done, thinking about how she was here in the United States living her life while her mother was suffering in a Chinese jail.

Murat still can’t bring herself to tell the truth to her 8-year-old daughter.

When the girl saw a photo of Rushan holding a photo of Abbas, she asked Murat what was going on.

Rushan Abbas, executive director of the Campaign for Uyghurs, holds a photo of her sister, Dr. Gulshan Abbas, during a rally in New York City on March 22, 2021. Dr. Gulshan Abbas, a retired Uyghur medical doctor, was sentenced in a secret trial to 20 years imprisonment for alleged terrorist activities. Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images

Murat responded that her grandmother was “very far away” and that they were asking people to bring her back.

Through all these years, Murat said, the girl hasn’t hugged her grandmother. She knows her grandmother through stories, photographs, and the hope that one day they will finally meet.

“That’s the cruelty of transnational repression,” Murat said at a Sept. 16 event on China’s religious freedom. “It did not harm only one person. It steals birthdays. It steals holidays, ordinary family moments that you can never get back.”

Dr. Gulshan Abbas's image is shown during a congressional hearing by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party titled “The Chinese Communist Party's Ongoing Uyghur Genocide,” in Washington on March 23, 2023.

Ziba Murat with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) during a visit for the State of the Union address in Washington on Feb. 24, 2026.

Ziba Murat with Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), head of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, in Washington in March 2026.

A Card From Jail

Alisa Zhou experienced that cruelty when she was around 7 years old.

It was 2000, one year after the Chinese regime went all out against her faith, Falun Gong.

The meditative practice spread widely by word of mouth in the 1990s, reaching an estimated 70 million practitioners by decade’s end. Then, in 1999, the Chinese leadership ordered a full-fledged eradication campaign. Overnight, the practitioners became outlaws.

Zhou was too young to make sense of it all, and her father tried to shield her from the hard reality. When her mother, Wang Youmei, vanished suddenly, he told Zhou that she had gone on a business trip far away.

But the persecution found a way to reach Zhou. After her mother’s arrest, Zhou’s best friend, with whom she walked to and from school every day, stopped playing with her. Then her father took her to an unfamiliar place.

Her mother was there. She handed Zhou a bag of snacks and a handwritten card.

One message is etched into her memory: her mother’s wish that her children “grow up healthy and happy.”

The young Zhou cried as she took in the words. Some time later, she grasped that her mother was in jail.

There were a lot more tears during those nights when Zhou was alone. To encourage herself, she wrote down “truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance”—the three core principles of Falun Gong—and hung it on her bedroom wall.

Alisa Zhou holds a photo of her mother, Wang Youmei, in Rockville, Md., on May 6, 2026. Wang was arrested in China in April 2026 for practicing Falun Gong. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

More than two decades later, the same three words keep Zhou going after her mother’s fifth arrest this April.

She had learned about it while driving to Virginia Beach for a weekend retreat. Back at work on Monday, she burst into tears when her boss greeted her with “How was your weekend?”

Zhou is now an American citizen. But despite living in the free world, the persecution follows her like a shadow, she said.

“There’s not a moment where I can shake it off,” she told The Epoch Times. Whenever she trawls the internet for information on China, she’s haunted by revelations of new arrests and deaths.

Maryland accountant Alisa Zhou. Her mother has been detained in China since April over her practice of Falun Gong. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

Believing in truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance poses no threat to anyone, Zhou said, but if the CCP is out to get someone, “there’s no shortage of excuses.” She said she can’t fathom how a state could turn on its own people.

Neither can Smith, the co-chair of the bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China that monitors human rights in the communist country.

“I’ve been in Congress for 46 years. I don’t get it,” he said.

“These [people] are assets to your country. ... This is the salt of the earth—Christian believers, Falun Gong practitioners, the Uyghurs, Tibetan Buddhists. Why would you look to hurt these people?

“Let them thrive, and your nation thrives.”

To Hold a Daughter’s Hand

It’s difficult to know how many political prisoners there are in China. The Chinese regime doesn’t provide such information and asserts that it doesn’t hold them.

A database from human rights nonprofit Dui Hua Foundation, last updated in December 2025, recorded more than 50,000 entries. The Congressional-Executive Commission on China has tracked more than 11,000 cases. Neither comes close to the true number, advocates say.

“It’s millions of people that have to go through that,” Sam Brownback, former ambassador at large for international religious freedom, told The Epoch Times. “These are people that have families like I do, and they’ve just done what they believe is right and stood up for freedom.”

In Hong Kong, the number of political prisoners has also been rising over the six years since Beijing imposed a national security law to crush dissent.

Sam Brownback, former U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, speaks during an event at the Museum of the Bible in Washington on Sept. 16, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

One of the most prominent is Jimmy Lai, founder of one of the largest pro-democracy newspapers in Hong Kong, which folded following a 500-strong police raid in 2021.

His daughter Claire was diagnosed with cancer weeks ago and just started chemotherapy in London.

Lai received the news at the maximum-security prison where he’s serving a 20-year sentence.

At a Sept. 16 hearing highlighting Lai’s case, Claire’s brother Sebastien pleaded for compassionate release so that their father could “sit beside his daughter in her hardest moment” and hold her hand.

“She wants nothing more than to have him with her for this fight,” Sebastien Lai said.

Sebastien Lai Sung-yan, son of jailed Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai, poses for a photo following a news conference in London on Dec. 15, 2025. Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images

Sebastien Lai said he hears about his father’s health declining every single day.

In a report two days before the hearing, the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation found that Hong Kong prison guards have rehearsed Jimmy Lai’s death.

“It’s really scary to hear,” Sebastien Lai said.

The Hong Kong authorities’ actions against his father are a “real disgrace,” he said. “They went through all this kangaroo court show trial and found nothing. His record is unblemished, yet they still keep going.”

The Long Game

Jimmy Lai is one of an estimated 2,000 Hong Kong pro-democracy figures ensnared under the national security law.

Former student leader Joshua Wong is currently awaiting sentencing for “foreign collusion” for lobbying Western lawmakers, and potentially faces life in prison.

For democracy activist Frances Hui, who has a HK$1 million (about $127,000) bounty on her head, the word that comes to mind is “horror.”

Activists Joshua Wong (C) and Ivan Lam (R) board a police van before being taken to court to be sentenced over a 2019 protest that took place outside the city's police headquarters, at a maximum-security correctional facility in Hong Kong on Dec. 2, 2020. Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images

“I knew [Wong] when he was 16; I don’t know if he will ever come out alive, or if I will ever be able to see him,” she told The Epoch Times.

Wong was already serving a four-year, eight-month prison term. Seven months before Wong was due to be released, prosecutors began a second trial.

“They waited until the very end to come up with this charge. It’s just so apparent that they are trying to keep him behind bars for as long as they can,” Hui said.

The two met when they were both teenagers campaigning for Hong Kong’s democratic freedoms. Wong, in Hui’s telling, had a lot of energy, taking interviews even while on hunger strike and physically frail.

“He inspires so many of us,” Hui said, suggesting that the Party authorities are acting out of fear.

“They are afraid that if he gets out next year, he will create something that they can’t control.”

Frances Hui, policy and advocacy coordinator at the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, speaks during a Tiananmen Square massacre candlelight vigil held at the Victims of Communism Memorial in Washington on June 4, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

The regime is playing the long game, she said, betting that over time, the outside world will “forget the prisoners as they slowly go quiet.”

The families of the prisoners fear forgetting, too.

At a recent human rights panel, Uyghur lawyer Rayhan Asat held up a photo of her brother, Ekpar, who was detained upon returning from a 2016 U.S. exchange program.

They had seen each other that March. She was studying at Harvard Law School and expecting to see him at her graduation ceremony in two months. She regrets not taking many videos of them together. After 10 years of separation, it’s now difficult to imagine what he sounds like.

“That’s a very painful thought,” she said.

Rayhan Asat, Atlantic Council senior legal and policy adviser and China lead, and sister of political prisoner Ekpar Asat, speaks in Washington on Sept. 15, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

Hope for a Miracle

The release of Pastor Ezra Jin in July is helping to keep their hopes alive.

After nearly nine months in custody, the Zion Church leader walked onto a plane bound for the United States and was reunited with his family.

Chinese authorities charged him with fraud and illegal business operations—allegations frequently used to prosecute religious activities in China. They told him they could imprison him for 15 years but would be lenient if he pleaded guilty. He refused.

On July 3, he was pulled from prison and sent in an empty train car to the airport. Even after stepping onto the plane, Jin said, he had no idea where he was going. He had no paperwork or visa.

He arrived on July 4—America’s 250th birthday. It felt like a dream. The previous day, he was a prisoner. The following evening, he was sitting by the seaside, watching fireworks with family he hadn’t seen in eight years.

Many had thought it was mission impossible, he said, as he accepted an award in July celebrating his freedom. He thanked Trump and many human rights advocates for their support.

“When we stand together, changes do happen,” he said.

Former political prisoner Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri in Washington on Sept. 16, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

This article was published on September 23, 2026 and can be found online at: https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/families-call-for-release-of-loved-ones-in-china-as-xi-visits-us-6092852

On the eve of Trump-Xi meeting in Washington, D.C.Capitol Hill hearing features heartfelt appeals to Xi Jinping: let these wonderful people go

Wed, 23 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

At yesterday’s Capitol Hill hearing chaired by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), lawmakers heard compelling, emotional testimony about the people imprisoned and persecuted by the Chinese government, the families and religious communities working for their freedom, and the retaliation faced by those who speak out on their behalf in China.

“Behind every statistic about political prisoners is a person with hopes and dreams, and a life filled with isolation and pain. Behind every person in a Chinese prison is a family waiting, praying, and hoping that someone will not forget them. And behind many of those families is an entire community that feels threatened and intimidated,” Smith said during his opening remarks.

“Today, we appeal to Xi Jinping to release women and men of conscience and goodness—as a tangible good faith expression of good will, benevolence, respect, and strength. We appeal to Xi Jinping’s heart,” continued Smith, the Co-Chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC).

“We again ask President Trump—who helped Pastor Ezra Jin gain his freedom—to appeal to Xi Jinping to show compassion and courage.”

At the hearing—entitled “The Faces of Repression: Prisoners, Families, and Communities Targeted by the CCP”—members of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) heard from multiple highly anticipated witnesses, including Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri, the founder and pastor of China’s underground Zion Church, who was recently released from Chinese detention after spending more than 260 days in custody.

During the first panel of witnesses, Pastor Jin—accompanied by his daughter and translator, Grace Jin Drexel—testified before Congress for the first time since his long-awaited release in July. Pastor Jin described the persecution, harassment, and intimidation inflicted upon his church and congregants by the Chinese government, explaining that “the government put pressure on the landlords to terminate our leases, police came to stop church activities and demanded that attendees register their ID cards, [and] police came and cut off the water and power of our meeting place.”

Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri and his daughter and translator, Grace Jin Drexel, testify before the CECC at their September 22nd hearing.

Eventually, after years of relentless harassment, the Chinese government “mobilized several hundred police to forcibly shut down the Zion Church sanctuary, and the congregation was scattered,” according to Pastor Jin. Zion Church’s services were then moved to online platforms, such as Zoom, where their number of congregants only grew.

Shortly thereafter, however, Pastor Jin and other church leaders were arrested and detained by Chinese authorities on the bogus charge of “illegal use of the internet.” The charges were later changed to “illegal business operations” and “fraud.”

“During detention, our basic rights were severely restricted. We were not able to have normal correspondence with our families. The only channel for communicating with the outside world was through lawyers,” said Pastor Jin.

“On July 3, without any notice whatsoever, I was taken out of the detention center and brought to Guangzhou Airport, where the prosecutor’s office withdrew the indictment against me, and I was put on a plane bound for the United States,” he continued. “It was only through the U.S. Embassy’s consular officer that I learned this happened because President Trump had specifically requested my release from President Xi Jinping during his visit to China!”

Concluding his testimony, Pastor Jin called upon U.S. Congress to “continue to pay attention to religious persecution and human rights within China,” and he expressed hope that “this meeting between the two heads of state can produce genuine consensus and breakthroughs in improving China’s human rights situation and ending the persecution of religious believers.”

The hearing’s second panel contained other high-profile witnesses, including Nelson Wells Sr., the father of detained American citizen Nelson Wells Jr.; Tim Hunt, the brother of detained American citizen Dawn Michelle Hunt; Rushan Abbas, the sister of detained Chinese political prisoner Dr. Gulshan Abbas and the founder and Executive Director of the Campaign for Uyghurs; and Erping Zhang, a spokesperson for Falun Gong and the Director of Government and Advocacy at the Falun Dafa Information Center.

Nelson Wells Jr., an American citizen from Louisiana, was arrested in China in 2014 and sentenced to 22 years in prison after being duped by a so-called friend into carrying bags allegedly containing narcotics. “For that one mistake—that one betrayal, his life, his wife’s life, his children’s lives, and our lives will never be the same,” said Nelson Wells Sr.

Nelson Wells Sr., the father of detained American citizen Nelson Wells Jr., speaks to lawmakers at the CECC's September 22nd hearing.

Testifying before the Commission, Wells Sr. described his son’s declining health, as well as the abusive treatment he endures while in prison:

“Over the years, Nelson has been targeted as one of the few Americans and the only Black American in the prison, which has exposed him to harsher treatment and sometimes physical attack. He has suffered from debilitating chronic pain, seizures (a Chinese MRI report shows he has brain atrophy), malnutrition, internal issues, dental pain, severe depression and thoughts of self-harm… And now, as of a few weeks ago, we discovered that he has been diagnosed with Hepatitis C—the news of which has devastated Nelson and our family.”

Through tears, Wells Sr. continued, “We need President Donald Trump, our President, a father himself, to personally advocate on Nelson’s behalf to President Xi when the two meet this week. We have come a long way and are at the last mile. We believe that he—and perhaps only he—can bring Nelson, can bring Dawn home.

“When our country asked us to serve, my wife and I did so unreservedly and without hesitation. I even served hardship posts, including during the Gulf War. President Trump, now I am asking for your help—father to father—on behalf of my child. He is a man, but as every parent here knows, he is still my child, and I cannot leave him behind. I am asking you also not to leave him—an American citizen—behind,” he concluded.

Tim Hunt—whose sister, Dawn, an American citizen from Chicago, was also arrested in China in 2014 and sentenced to life imprisonment after being lured into a fraudulent sweepstakes scheme—spoke powerfully and movingly about the hardships his sister and his family have endured since her arrest.

“She has aged dramatically. Her posture is that of someone much older. She is slumped over. She is frail. Her teeth have yellowed and shifted. Her hair is much grayer than it was just two years ago. Those are the things I could see,” said Hunt.

Hunt revealed that in January, Gene Hunt—his and Dawn’s father—sadly passed away at 92 years old, “with his only daughter still in prison.”

Tim Hunt, the brother of detained American citizen Dawn Michelle Hunt, speaks to lawmakers at the CECC's September 22nd hearing.

“Our father died knowing that his little girl was incarcerated. Dawn was not home when he died. She could not be there with him. He could not tell her that he loved her one last time. He could not see her one last time. He could not give her words of encouragement. He could not help her prepare for a life of freedom. And he could not be there for her if she struggled after twelve years of incarceration,” stated Hunt.

Towards the end of his testimony, Hunt urged lawmakers to push for and secure Dawn’s and Nelson’s releases: “Please use your voices. Please ask President Trump to ask President Xi to release Dawn. And please ask for the release of Nelson Wells Jr. as well… I need help for the average American. The two-job American. The three-job American. The American who served his country with honor and pride.”

Rushan Abbas, a prominent Uyghur activist, discussed how her sister, Dr. Gulshan Abbas, was punished by the Chinese government for Rushan’s advocacy in the United States. “I come before you first and foremost as a sister to an innocent woman who has been jailed in China for the past 8 years in retaliation for my advocacy in the U.S. as an Uyghur American,” said Rushan.

“Her imprisonment is a blatant act of transnational repression—an attempt to punish me for speaking the truth and to send a chilling message to Uyghurs everywhere: speak out, and your family will pay the price,” she continued.

“But Beijing’s cruelty did not silence me. It transformed the course of my life. I walked away from my professional career and became a full-time advocate for my people, determined to turn the pain they inflicted on my family into a relentless fight for freedom, justice, and accountability.”

Abbas urged Congress to pass three bills authored and introduced by Rep. Smith—the Transnational Repression Policy Act (HR 4829), the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2025 (HR 1503), and the Uyghur Genocide Accountability and Sanctions Act of 2025 (HR 4830)—which, together, would strengthen the United States’ framework for addressing, preventing, and prosecuting many of China’s human rights abuses.

Witnesses Rushan Abbas and Erping Zhang speak at the CECC's hearing, "The Faces of Repression: Prisoners, Families, and Communities Targeted by the CCP."

Erping Zhang, a spokesperson and advocate for Falun Gong—a spiritual practice in the Buddhist tradition that has been the subject of decades-long persecution and repression at the hands of the CCP—echoed Abbas’ recommendations and urged the United States to continue speaking up for Falun Gong practitioners.

“The Party has tried all means to bankrupt us, to silence us, and to delegitimize us… What it has done to Falun Gong is one of the most comprehensive demonstrations available of how the Party behaves when it believes it is threatened,” said Zhang.

“It is therefore one of the best available predictors of how it will behave toward the United States which the CCP regards as its ultimate adversary. We believe that Falun Gong matters, more than ever, to China, to the United States, and to the world, and thus hope the CCP’s repression of our community can receive the attention it deserves,” he concluded.

Throughout the hearing, Rep. Smith and various witnesses raised the importance of his bipartisan Nelson Wells Jr. and Dawn Michelle Hunt Unjustly Detained in Communist China Act (HR 5491), which would mandate a coordinated U.S. government response to the unjust imprisonment of American citizens in China—and the use of family members as hostages to silence or punish American citizens critical of the CCP.

“The bill would strengthen the government’s ability to identify Americans unjustly detained in China, coordinate their cases, engage with their families, pursue humanitarian releases and prisoner transfers, and identify additional tools for holding responsible Chinese officials accountable,” said Smith.

“Because when an American is unjustly detained, that person’s family should not have to navigate the Chinese Communist Party’s system alone.”

###

The Epoch Times article on Smith hearing'"Bring Them Home": Americans Push to Free Loved Ones Jailed in China'

Wed, 23 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

By Eva Fu
Published September 23, 2026

WASHINGTON—With the U.S.–China summit approaching, Americans who have loved ones detained in China are pleading with President Donald Trump not to forget them.

One of them is 20-year U.S. Army veteran Nelson Wells, whose son, Nelson Wells Jr., has been in Chinese prison for 12 years on charges that the family says are dubious.

At a hearing held by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China on Sept. 22, Wells appealed to the U.S. president “father to father.”

Weeks ago, his son was diagnosed with hepatitis C. He is set to be released in 2041. But with Wells Jr.’s deteriorating health, including chronic pain, high blood pressure, diabetes, and seizures, Wells said he’s not sure whether his son could last that long.

Campaign for Uyghurs executive director Rushan Abbas; Falun Gong spokesperson Erping Zhang; and Nelson Wells and Tim Hunt, father and brother of detained U.S. citizens Nelson Wells Jr. and Dawn Michelle Hunt, respectively, testify at a hearing by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China about Chinese religious prisoners, on Capitol Hill in Washington on Sept. 22, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

“He’s sick. His family has suffered. There’s no justice in allowing him to die in prison,” Wells said.

He said Wells Jr.’s daughter, now 12, “has never seen her father outside photographs” and prays at night “for someone who can bring him home.”

Trump can be that someone, he said.

Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), who hosted the hearing, agreed that the United States cannot look away.

Freeing political prisoners needs to be on the U.S.–China summit agenda, he told The Epoch Times.

“It has to be—period,” he said.

The congressman said he hopes the president can convey “a sense of urgency and compassion” for “these suffering individuals.”

Congressional-Executive Commission on China Chairman Chris Smith (R-N.J.) speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on Sept. 22, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

Seated next to Wells at the witness table was Tim Hunt, whose sister, Dawn Michelle Hunt, like Wells’s son, was arrested in China in 2014 for alleged drug smuggling. Both families deny the accusations.

While visiting his sister in July, Hunt said, he didn’t recognize the sibling he had last seen two years ago.

“She has aged dramatically. Her posture is that of someone much older. She is slumped over,” he said. He noticed how her teeth had yellowed and shifted, and how her hair had grayed.

When they met, he said, she kept asking when she would be freed, and he couldn’t give her an answer.

In January, their father passed away at age 92.

“He lived a long life before he died, with his only daughter still in prison,” Hunt said, tears rolling down his face. “He could not see her one last time.”

Wells put his arm around Hunt while wiping off his own tears.

His deepest hope is to “bring them home alive, and bring them home this year,” Wells said.

Nelson Wells testifies at a hearing by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China about Chinese religious prisoners, on Capitol Hill in Washington on Sept. 22, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

‘Can’t Delay It Further’

More than 200 Americans are currently detained in China, according to the Dui Hua Foundation, a human rights group focused on the country.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has also heavily suppressed religious and ethnic minority groups, such as Uyghurs, Christians, and practitioners of the spiritual practice Falun Gong, subjecting them to arbitrary arrests, harsh sentences, and other forms of abuse.

Those imprisoned include many who have families in America.

Rushan Abbas, executive director at Campaign for Uyghurs, described the case of her sister, Gulshan Abbas, as an example of the CCP’s transnational repression.

Rushan Abbas, executive director of Campaign for Uyghurs, testifies at a hearing by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China about Chinese religious prisoners, on Capitol Hill in Washington on Sept. 22, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

Gulshan Abbas disappeared days after Rushan Abbas spoke in public about the mass detention and torture of Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang region. The former was sentenced to 20 years in prison in a secret trial.

“Behind every statistic is a human being, a family torn apart, and a voice the CCP is trying to silence,” Rushan Abbas said.

Erping Zhang, a spokesperson for Falun Gong, noted the case of Alisa Zhou, a Maryland accountant in the audience whose mother has been detained in China since April.

Her mother’s arrest followed months of covert Chinese police surveillance of two Falun Gong study groups, Zhang noted in his written testimony.

Erping Zhang, a spokesperson for Falun Gong, testifies at a hearing by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China about Chinese religious prisoners, on Capitol Hill in Washington on Sept. 22, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

American Grace Chen, who’s in the U.S. Army, was a teenager when the Chinese authorities arrested her parents in 2020. Only after their release in 2025 did Chen learn about the “horrors” that her father experienced, Zhang said at the hearing. Chen’s father was denied sleep, scalded with hot water, and forced to drink urine, according to Zhang.

Her parents are still in China.

Trump in July helped Pastor Ezra Jin of Beijing’s Zion Church gain his freedom. Jin also testified at the hearing, with his daughter, Grace Jin Drexel, as the translator.

Former political prisoner Ezra Jin Mingri, pastor of the Zion Church of Beijing, and his daughter, Grace Jin Drexel, speak during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on Sept. 22, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

He said later in an interview that he considers the upcoming meeting between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to be the best shot to raise the political prisoners’ case.

“We can’t delay it further,” Jin said. He added that he hopes the freedom he enjoys can soon extend to many others who still don’t have it—including eight church fellows arrested at the same time as him in October 2025 and two Light of Zion Church leaders, Gao Quanfu and his wife, Pang Yu.

Wells has about 10 minutes of call time with his jailed son each month. He has saved this month’s allotment for after the summit, hoping to deliver some good news, he told The Epoch Times.

Hunt said he is cautiously hopeful. Speaking slowly at the hearing, he told the audience that if his sister and Wells’s son can’t come home at the same time, he hopes that Wells’s son gets the priority.

“He still has a mother and a father that are alive. He still has that family that can support him. He needs that,” Hunt said.

Wells, listening, quietly wiped away tears.

This article was published on September 23, 2026 and can be found online at: https://www.theepochtimes.com/china/bring-them-home-americans-push-to-free-loved-ones-jailed-in-china-6093830

The Epoch Times article on Smith hearing'Congress Warned About Beijing's Repression on US Soil'

Wed, 23 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

By Eva Fu
Published September 23, 2026

WASHINGTON—The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) sweeping repression targeting one faith group is creating a challenge to the United States and allowing Beijing to expand its toolbox to persecute other communities, a Falun Gong spokesperson testified to Congress.

Erping Zhang described a wide spectrum of Beijing-linked tactics targeting the spiritual community, playing out in America—including assault, anonymous violent threats, spying, disinformation, and frivolous lawsuits.

The tactics can be used against “any group the CCP decides is a problem,” Zhang told the Congressional-Executive Commission on China on Sept. 22.

“The regime’s actions undermine the basic rights of Americans and the rule of law,” he said in his written testimony.

Erping Zhang, Falun Gong spokesperson, testifies at a hearing held by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China about Chinese religious prisoners, on Capitol Hill on Sept. 22, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

“The impact of this activity reaches far beyond our own community, creating a playbook of tactics that the regime can use against other targets while undermining U.S. democracy, freedom, and sovereignty.”

Zhang pointed to a June report by the Falun Dafa Information Center, which identified more than 600 cases of transnational repression incidents across 30 states.

Falun Gong practitioners have faced these threats for simply practicing their faith in the United States, Zhang said.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a meditation practice with spiritual teachings based on the core tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. In the 1990s, 70 million to 100 million people began practicing, with many crediting Falun Gong for uplifting their physical and mental well-being. In 1999, the Chinese communist regime marked it for eradication.

Organizations monitoring the persecution have verified thousands of deaths, which they say represent a drop in the ocean.

Between March and April, nearly 800 practitioners in China reported experiencing harassment, arrest, or house raids, according to Minghui.org, a clearinghouse for such information. The oldest of them was 94.

Since 1999, Falun Gong practitioners have been “detained by the millions, tortured, sexually abused, forced into producing goods that reached American shelves, subjected to forced organ harvesting,” Zhang said. “That apparatus was later turned onto the Uyghurs.”

Several Chinese officials hit with U.S. sanctions for repressing Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang region have a history of persecuting Falun Gong, an Epoch Times review of their records found.

Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), who chaired the congressional hearing, noted that the repression doesn’t end at the prison gate.

To see “spiritual disciplines like Falun Gong suffer so horribly in China underscores that we have to do more, not less,” he said.

Congressional-Executive Commission on China Chairman Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) at a hearing on Capitol Hill on Sept. 22, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

Be it Falun Gong practitioners, Christians, or Uyghurs, Smith said, “they are the best citizens imaginable.”

“Very often, they have a code of conduct that’s written on their hearts,” he told The Epoch Times. “Why wouldn’t you want more of that? I don’t get it.”

Beyond China, the Falun Gong community has become a top target for the regime’s “unrestricted war” against religious freedom, Zhang said in his written testimony.

In 2023, the Department of Justice charged two Chinese agents for trying to bribe an IRS official to act on a fake whistleblower complaint against Shen Yun Performing Arts, a New York-based arts company founded by Falun Gong practitioners. John Chen, one of the alleged agents acting under Chinese authorities’ orders, stated his goal was to help the regime “topple” Falun Gong, according to court documents. Both Chen and the other Chinese national pleaded guilty.

Since March 2024, more than 300 anonymous death threats and bomb threats linked to Chinese individuals have been sent, targeting Falun Gong and Shen Yun, as well as lawmakers supportive of Falun Gong, and several civil institutions, according to Falun Dafa Information Center.

The center also counted dozens of cases in which individuals impersonated Falun Gong practitioners to make fake threats.

In late January, foreign influence research group Graphika flagged a cluster of websites linked to Chinese companies that push Beijing’s propaganda overseas while masquerading as legitimate Western media, corroborating an Epoch Times report finding similar operations on X.

Zhang said Falun Gong has long served as a target of Beijing’s repression tactics.

“The Party has tried all means to bankrupt us, to silence us, and to delegitimize us,” Zhang said in his testimony. “What it has done to Falun Gong is one of the most comprehensive demonstrations available of how the Party behaves when it believes it is threatened.”

This article was published on September 24, 2026 and can be found online at: https://www.theepochtimes.com/china/congress-warned-about-beijings-repression-on-us-soil-6094119?lgs=1

The Washington Times Op-Ed by Rep. Smith'A presidential appeal to release unjustly detained U.S. citizens'

Tue, 22 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

By Rep. Christopher H. Smith - Tuesday, September 22, 2026

Political prisoner in China Jimmy Lai illustration by Linas Garsys / The Washington Times

OPINION:

President Trump and General Secretary Xi Jinping will meet in Washington this week with trade, technology, Taiwan and Iran on a crowded agenda.

These critical, wide-ranging disputes require intense focus and attention but are unlikely to be resolved in a single day. Yet, the summit can produce one immediate result: bringing home Americans unjustly detained in China and political prisoners such as Jimmy Lai, whose time behind bars must come to an end.

Mr. Xi should leave the U.S. knowing four names by heart: Nelson Wells Jr., Dawn Michelle Hunt, Youlin Chen and Min Zin.

Mr. Trump already understands why detention cases require leader-level diplomacy. In May, Mr. Trump personally raised the case of Mr. Lai, the 78-year-old Hong Kong publisher nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, who is serving a 20-year sentence for his peaceful advocacy. We hope the president will raise Mr. Lai again. Only Mr. Xi can approve a release of that political significance. Only Mr. Xi can do the same for Americans whose cases have already become U.S. priorities.

Mr. Wells and Ms. Hunt have spent more than 12 years behind bars. Mr. Wells is a Louisiana-born father of three. Ms. Hunt is a Chicago artist. They were prosecuted in a judicial system controlled by the Communist Party. Testimony at hearings I have chaired has documented failures of evidence, legal defense and due process in these cases.

Mr. Wells was first sentenced to life; his sentence was later reduced to 22 years, which could keep him imprisoned until 2041. Ms. Hunt received a death sentence with a two-year reprieve, which was later commuted to life. Their health is now deteriorating.

Mr. Wells’ family reports seizures, diabetes and high blood pressure. He also has endured physical attacks in prison.

Ms. Hunt needs blood transfusions, has experienced sexual abuse and mistreatment while in prison, and has severe, untreated medical problems, including tumors in her uterus and ovaries. Her father died this year without seeing her come home.

The administration has already asked China to release Mr. Wells and Ms. Hunt on humanitarian grounds. Family advocates say Chinese officials have indicated Beijing is prepared to consider release if the request comes from a sufficiently senior level. More than a year of diplomatic work has therefore brought these cases to the point where only political intervention can move them. That leaves the essential appeal for the summit: to make these requests directly to Mr. Xi.

After all, the final decision is Mr. Xi’s. Beijing can choose clemency, medical parole, commutation or transfer, but no Chinese judge, foreign minister or Politburo member can authorize the release of two Americans sought by the U.S. president without approval from the top. That is how authority works in China’s autocratic system.

The president was recently asked by a reporter about Mr. Wells and Ms. Hunt. He had their names repeated and said he would speak with Mr. Xi about many matters.

Thank you, Mr. President. These names are worth repeating until Mr. Xi no longer needs the reminder. This is not for rhetorical effect. It is to ensure that imprisonment remains a top U.S. concern and an irritant in bilateral relations until they are home.

Tragically, Mr. Chen and Mr. Zin now require the same attention. Mr. Chen, a Boston-area seismologist who worked on U.S.-funded research, has been held since November 2024 after Chinese authorities stopped him at Beijing’s airport as he tried to return from a family visit. He was accused of “espionage” and has been held without charge.

Mr. Zin, a respected scholar of Burma-China relations, was invited to an academic gathering by Chinese hosts and detained upon arrival. He also faces a bogus espionage accusation. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has designated both men as “wrongfully detained” and promised to use State Department resources to secure their release.

There may be U.S. officials and pundits who object to using presidential time to raise these cases, but their objections would not be persuasive here. Raising these cases does not require trading away a tariff concession, a technology restriction or a security interest to secure the release of a U.S. citizen. Mr. Wells and Ms. Hunt are already the subjects of a humanitarian request; Mr. Chen and Mr. Zin are formally designated wrongful detention cases by our State Department. Presidential attention simply takes existing U.S. policy to the level where a decision can be made.

The release of unjustly detained U.S. citizens is a tangible result of a meeting that every American understands and will celebrate.

• Rep. Chris Smith serves residents of New Jersey’s 4th Congressional District. Mr. Smith serves as a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and as chairman of its Africa subcommittee, which has oversight of the continent and U.S. legislative authority over Africa, as well as important State Department bureaus and programs.

This article appeared in The Washington Times' print edition on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, and can also be found online at https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/sep/21/presidential-appeal-release-unjustly-detained-us-citizens/

Opening statement of Co-Chairman Smith at CECC hearingThe Faces of Repression: Prisoners, Families, and Communities Targeted by the CCP

Tue, 22 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

The following are excerpts of Co-Chairman Chris Smith’s (R-NJ) opening statement at the Congressional-Executive Commission on China’s (CECC) September 22^nd hearing, entitled “The Faces of Repression: Prisoners, Families, and Communities Targeted by the CCP”:

Behind every statistic about political prisoners is a person with hopes and dreams, and a life filled with isolation and pain. Behind every person in a Chinese prison is a family waiting, praying, and hoping that someone will not forget them. And behind many of those families is an entire community that feels threatened and intimidated.

Perhaps, that is what the Chinese Communist Party wants. It wants the prisoner isolated. It wants the family frightened. And it wants everyone watching to conclude that speaking out is either futile or simply too costly.

But today, we are here to say: we will not look away. The real cost is failing to speak out. Silence is not an option. Today, we appeal to Xi Jinping to release women and men of conscience and goodness—as a tangible good faith expression of good will, benevolence, respect, and strength. We appeal to Xi Jinping’s heart.

We again ask President Trump—who helped Pastor Ezra Jin gain his freedom—to appeal to Xi Jinping to show compassion and courage.

Pastor Jin founded Beijing Zion Church, which grew to a congregation of approximately 1,500 people before Chinese authorities forcibly shut down its sanctuary in 2018. Even after the physical church was closed, the congregation continued to meet, worship, teach, and evangelize across China. By 2025, Zion Church had nearly 100 meeting points in 40 cities.

The response from the Chinese Communist Party was a nationwide crackdown. In October 2025, authorities carried out arrests in 11 cities, taking approximately 30 pastors and church leaders into custody. Eighteen were ultimately criminally detained. Pastor Jin was one of them. His amazing daughter, Grace, came before this Commission and told us what his imprisonment meant for him and their family.

Both Congress and the President listened and acted. The House passed my resolution, H.Res. 1259, asking the President to help secure Pastor Jin’s release during engagement with Xi Jinping. President Trump personally pushed for Pastor Jin’s freedom, and he was released and reunited with his family this summer. That is something worth celebrating.

Pastor Jin himself has said that he believes the direct intervention of President Trump with President Xi was instrumental in securing his freedom. And he returned to America after eight months apart from his family. But Pastor Jin’s freedom also reminds us of the people who are still behind bars. Eight of his Zion Church colleagues remain detained.

And according to our Commission, their families have raised concerns about extreme temperatures, malnutrition, inadequate medical care, and mistreatment in detention. Even the lawyers attempting to defend them have faced pressure.

We also must remember Americans who remain imprisoned in China. Nelson Wells, Sr. has been here before, almost two years to the day. On September 18^th, 2024, he testified at the CECC hearing, “Bringing Home Americans Detained in China,” I chaired about his son, Nelson Wells Jr., who has now spent more than a decade imprisoned in China.

Nelson Jr. was arrested in 2014 after traveling to China for medical treatment. He was initially sentenced to life imprisonment; that sentence was later reduced to 22 years, leaving him incarcerated until 2041. His family has also reported serious and debilitating medical problems.

Mr. Wells’ testimony was heartbreaking. He told us about the call that changed his family’s life—the call telling them that their son had been arrested in China. And he told us about the deterioration of Nelson’s health. His father and mother have spent years trying to bring their son home.

The tragedy of Dawn Michelle Hunt’s imprisonment has also taken a devastating toll on her family. After more than 12 years without his daughter, Dawn’s father, Gene Hunt, passed away on January 25, 2026, without ever seeing her come home.

Her brother, Tim Hunt, is with us today and has continued the fight their father began, promising to do everything he can to bring Dawn back to her family. Dawn is reportedly in declining health, making the family’s plea for her humanitarian release all the more urgent.

Gene’s greatest wish was to see his daughter free; his family now carries that hope forward and asks that Dawn be given the opportunity to come home. That is why I introduced HR 5491—the Nelson Wells Jr. and Dawn Michelle Hunt Unjustly Detained in Communist China Act. The legislation recognizes that we need more than expressions of concern—we need a coordinated American response.

The bill would strengthen the government’s ability to identify Americans unjustly detained in China, coordinate their cases, engage with their families, pursue humanitarian releases and prisoner transfers, and identify additional tools for holding responsible Chinese officials accountable. Because when an American is unjustly detained, that person’s family should not have to navigate the Chinese Communist Party’s system alone.

And this repression is not limited to Christians, Americans, or any one community. Last week, our Commission heard a compelling appeal from Jimmy Lai’s son, Sebastien. Both Sebastien and his sister, Claire, are asking that their heroic father be freed.

Gulshan Abbas is a retired Uyghur doctor, who was detained in Xinjiang and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Her detention came just days after her sister, Rushan Abbas—who will testify today—spoke publicly here in Washington about the persecution of Uyghurs. Gulshan’s case is an example of transnational repression because of the obvious connection between her detention and her sister’s advocacy in the United States.

We must also remember the Falun Gong practitioners, who have endured decades of persecution. Falun Gong was banned by the Chinese government in 1999, and practitioners who refuse to renounce their beliefs have faced imprisonment, forced organ harvesting, and other forms of repression. The Commission’s 2025 annual report identified 485 Falun Gong practitioners among cases of active detention.

But once again, the repression does not necessarily end at the prison gate. Falun Gong practitioners living here in the United States have reported surveillance, harassment, threats, physical assaults, property damage, and reprisals against relatives in China. The Justice Department has also prosecuted individuals for acting as agents of the People’s Republic of China in efforts targeting Falun Gong practitioners in the United States.

Today’s hearing is a heartfelt appeal to Xi Jinping.

Let these wonderful people go.

###

OSV News article on Smith hearing'Ezra Jin Mingri, lawmakers call on Trump to push Xi to free prisoners of conscience'

Tue, 22 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

By Kate Scanlon
Published September 22, 2026 at 5:03 PM

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Ezra Jin Mingri, founder and pastor of an underground church in China and a former prisoner of conscience in that country, called for the release of other individuals imprisoned for their religious beliefs Sept. 22 at a hearing by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

With his daughter Grace Jin Drexel acting as translator, Jin said in remarks at the hearing that “reuniting with my family after eight years apart and watching the fireworks together on America’s 250th Independence Day felt like a dream.”

“Even as I rejoice and enjoy such freedom and joy with my family, I cannot stop thinking and worrying about my eight fellow church leaders who remain in prison,” he said.

Jin was released from imprisonment and reunited with his family in the U.S. shortly before Independence Day. President Donald Trump previously sought his release during a May summit with China’s President Xi Jinping.

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington March 10, 2021. (OSV News photo/Ken Cedeno, Pool via Reuters)

Ezra Jin Mingri, founder and pastor of an underground church in China and a prisoner of conscience in that country until his release, is pictured in a 2018 file photo in Beijing. Mingri arrived in Los Angeles July 3, 2026, after he was released from imprisonment and reunited with his family in the U.S. shortly before Independence Day, U.S. officials said. (OSV News photo/Thomas Peter, Reuters)

Ezra Jin Mingri calls for release of pastors

As Trump prepared to host Xi for a state visit in Washington, advocates have urged him to again push for the release of additional prisoners of conscience and political prisoners of interest to the U.S., including Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong’s prominent Catholic and pro-democracy campaigner. Lai remains in prison, where he is serving a 20-year sentence.

“I sincerely hope that the members of Congress will continue to pay attention to religious persecution and human rights within China,” Jin said. “I hope that this meeting between the two heads of state can produce genuine consensus and a breakthrough in improving China’s human rights situation and ending the persecution of religious believers.”

In 2018, Jin, the founder of Zion Church, and his family moved to the U.S. amid pressure on the church from Chinese officials. But Jin later returned and was prohibited from leaving China. He was among dozens of members imprisoned in a crackdown by Chinese authorities on his church in October 2025. Some other members of his religious community remain imprisoned.

Jin stressed that if he, as the “main leader of our church,” was released, then it should “also be the case that my coworkers, those other leaders of my church, should also be released without any guilt.” He also called for the release of other Christian pastors held in China.

Hong Kong protesters hold East Turkestan Uyghur flags at a rally in support of Xinjiang Uyghurs’ human rights, in Hong Kong Dec. 22, 2019. (OSV News photo/Lucy Nicholson, Reuters)

Catholic lawmakers speak out

At the hearing, two Catholic lawmakers, Reps. Chris Smith, R-N.J., co-chair of the CECC, and Jim McGovern, D-Mass., one of the commissioners, called for the release of those who were “unjustly detained” by the Chinese government, including Lai.

Smith called on Trump to raise the issue of the release of these prisoners “eyeball to eyeball” with Xi during their meeting.

“This summit is a golden opportunity for the president to speak out and to do so boldly,” Smith said.

Smith said at the hearing that behind every such prisoner there “is a family waiting, praying, and hoping that someone will not forget them, and behind many of those families is an entire community that feels threatened and far too intimidated.”

“Perhaps that is what the Chinese Communist Party wants,” he said. “It wants the prisoner isolated. It wants the family frightened, and it wants everyone watching to conclude that speaking out is either futile or simply too costly. But today we are here to say we will not look away. The real cost is failing to speak out. Silence is not an option.”

U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Chinese President Xi at the start of their bilateral meeting at the G20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019. Trump and Xi are scheduled to meet on Sept. 24, 2026, at the White House in Washington. (OSV News photo/Kevin Lamarque, Reuters)

‘A clear and unified message’ for Trump

McGovern said, “We convene with a clear and unified message to President Trump: advocate for the release of prisoners of conscience in China.”

“Pastor Jin is proof that this goal is achievable,” he said. “We sincerely hope for more releases.”

McGovern also urged Trump not to “abandon human rights in our foreign policy.”

“I have always believed that if this country, the United States of America, stands for anything, we need to stand out loud and foursquare for human rights,” he said.

This article was published on September 22, 2026 and can be found online at: https://www.osvnews.com/ezra-jin-mingri-lawmakers-call-on-trump-to-push-xi-to-free-prisoners-of-conscience/

The Washington Stand article featuring Smith's commentary'Advocates, Lawmakers Press Trump to Uphold Prisoners of Faith, Conscience during Xi Visit'

Tue, 22 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

By Dan Hart
Published September 22, 2026

With President Trump set to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday as part of a state visit to Washington, human rights advocates and lawmakers are urging the commander in chief to champion the cause of Christians and other citizens who are imprisoned in China simply for practicing their faith or for advocating for freedom.

A large-scale crackdown on non-government approved churches is being carried out by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over the past year. Last October, almost two dozen pastors and other workers from a single church called Zion Church were arrested, including founder and head pastor Ezra Jin. But in July, the power of personal advocacy was put on display as Xi’s communist regime released Jin following a personal appeal to Xi from Trump in May for Jin’s release.

Now, human rights advocates such as Voice of the Martyrs’ Todd Nettleton are highlighting the plight of other imprisoned pastors such as John Cao. As detailed by Family Research Council’s Bob Fu, Cao “spent seven years in a Chinese prison for conducting humanitarian work along the China-Myanmar border,” but even two years after completing his sentence, he is still being prevented from reuniting with his family in the U.S. by the CCP. Others are urging Trump to fulfill a promise to secure the freedom of Jimmy Lai, a Hong Kong media mogul and champion of democracy.

As Fu catalogs, the list of the wrongfully imprisoned in China goes on and on: Gao Zhisheng, a human rights lawyer; Dr. Wang Bingzhang, a leader of the overseas Chinese democracy movement who was kidnapped by CCP agents in Vietnam; Zhang Zhan, a citizen journalist who exposed the truth about COVID-19. Then there are the eight pastors and members of Ezra Jin’s Zion Church who remain imprisoned, as well as Elder Li Yingqiang, Pastor Yang Rongli of Golden Lampstand Church, and Pastor Wang Yi of Early Rain Covenant Church. These Christians are imprisoned simply for refusing to surrender the authority of their churches to the Communist Party, Fu notes.

Lawmakers like Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), who serves as co-chair of the Congressional Executive Commission on China, say that advocating on behalf of Christians and other prisoners of conscience is especially important now as persecution by the CCP “is getting far worse.”

“[T]he reason why Ezra Jin’s church got targeted [is because] they refused to allow surveillance cameras into their churches,” he pointed out during “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” Monday. “It’s one of those things where the Communist Party is ubiquitous, they want to be everywhere. And for the slightest perceived infraction, they will then arrest pastors and horribly mistreat them. So this is the time for the United States, I believe, and every freedom loving country to pivot and say, ‘Religious freedom matters.’ Human rights are at the core of our relationship and should be with a dictatorship like China. Raise it and make it stick. Link it to other things, including trade.”

Smith went on to emphasize that for Christians, advocating for those in prison is a direct command from God.

“Our Lord said, ‘did you visit me when I was in prison’ in Matthew 25? ‘How about when you had the opportunity? Did you try to get me out of prison?’” he underscored. “I’ve met so many wonderful pastors and people over the years, including in the Soviet Union going back to 1981. My first trip there was in ’82 on behalf of religious freedom. … Ronald Reagan always raised religious freedom. He always had a list of people that he was asking — in this case, the Russian or Soviet leadership — to allow to go free. And we need to persist and tell this dictatorship, ‘This is a priority. [If] you want other things, [if] you want more trade, … well, this is the linchpin. This opens up the door.”

Smith further stressed how critical the stakes are for those caught in the CCP’s brutal prison system. “If you’re arrested in China, political or religious prisoner, you’re almost always going to be tortured, and I mean horribly tortured. I had a number of hearings on what the Chinese government actually does to people, and you can’t even repeat some of it [because] it is so, so horrific. And that leaves scars on that individual, the likes of which we can’t even fathom. So I would ask all of us to be praying.”

Smith, who serves as a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and as co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, recalled what Wei Jingsheng, a father of China’s democracy movement, once told him about how powerful the West’s advocacy efforts are for those in China’s prisons.

“[H]e told me something I will never forget. He said, ‘When you Americans and the West kowtow and try to be all nicey-nice with these dictators, they beat us more in prison.’ He said, ‘When you are tough, when you are well-founded in your knowledge about what’s going on, and you’re able to present a case and do so right from the heart, but also filled with facts, they beat us less and it effectuates the freedom of people from these gulags.’ So it’s it works. But we have to be serious. … [Secretary of State] Marco Rubio, who used to chair the China Commission … he knows this like the back of his hand. He should be raising it.”

Smith additionally detailed how decades of pro-China trade policies by the U.S. has undercut America’s ability to effectively fight against the CCP’s human rights abuses.

“[I]n 2005 [and] 2006 … Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo were conveying all of this technology to the Chinese Communist Party to surveil their own people to limit what can be searched on a Google search engine, for example, in China,” he explained. “… [O]ur technology has seriously enabled their public security police, their military, their command and control, and then the entirety of their weapons systems to be state of the art. I fault our Big Business for that. … Bill Clinton was the worst of all when it came to conveying all of that. [He] lost China on human rights for the purposes of trade, and that means technology transfers that have dual use that are military. We gave them the store, and we wonder why we’re now worried about a potential conflict vis à vis Taiwan and beyond.”

The congressman also pointed out that the measures that the U.S. has taken to combat illicitly-made Chinese goods ending up in the U.S. have not been effective, which has further hampered human rights.

“Bill Clinton had a memorandum of understanding on enforcement of the Smoot-Hawley Act [which says] we can’t import gulag-made goods. And it wasn’t worth the paper it was printed [on]. I went over to China and I said to our people in our embassy, ‘How do you enforce this? You can’t get to the factories where they’re making these things. There’s no on-site inspection. They don’t allow unfettered access.’ … So all these things are being produced by forced labor, including child labor [and it] ends up in our department stores.”

“That’s something as consumers, we need to take into consideration when we buy products,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins contended.

This article was published on September 22, 2026 and can be found online at: https://washingtonstand.com/article/advocates-lawmakers-press-trump-to-uphold-prisoners-of-faith-conscience-during-xi-visit

The Washington Times article featuring Smith's commentary'Republican Rep. Chris Smith urges Trump to confront Xi about Americans jailed in China'

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

By Kerry Picket
Published Monday, September 21, 2026

With as many as 300 Americans detained in China, where some are subjected to sexual abuse and torture, Rep. Chris Smith is demanding that President Trump make their release a centerpiece of his upcoming summit with China’s President Xi Jinping.

The New Jersey Republican, who co-chairs the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, warned that quiet, piecemeal diplomacy has only emboldened Beijing to keep taking American hostages.

Mr. Smith, who has been chairing hearings with witnesses testifying about people imprisoned and persecuted by the Chinese government, told The Washington Times that China “only recognizes strength.”

China’s President Xi Jinping, right, and U.S. President Donald Trump visit the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, May 14, 2026. (Brendan Smialowski/Pool Photo via AP, File)

He cited his 1994 meeting with Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng, who warned that Western pleading is held in contempt by the Chinese Communist Party.

“They only recognize one thing, and that is strength. I met with [Wei Jingsheng] in 1994 when he was released briefly in Beijing,” Mr. Smith said.

“They rearrested him. … We worked really hard to make sure he got out, because they were going to kill him. When we, the West, and especially the United States, in any way kowtow … they hold that in contempt.”

Mr. Smith said, “That’s why we have to be firm. Very civil, but very firm. Our hope is that the president will have a very well-defined list … to effectuate the release of these individuals.”

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been advocating for all American citizens unlawfully or wrongfully detained in China.

Among the people detained or imprisoned by China, the most well-known include Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai; Uyghur economics professor Ilham Tohti; American think tank scholar Min Zin; American businessman Kai Li; Americans Dawn Michelle Hunt, Nelson Wells Jr., and John Chen; Chinese journalist Dong Yuyu; and the Zion 8 — eight pastors and co-workers of Beijing Zion Church.

A senior official told The Washington Times that Mr. Trump raises the issue of Americans and others detained in China every time he has met with Mr. Xi. “If I had to guess, he will be consistent again this time,” the official said.

Mr. Smith is also calling on the Trump administration to elevate China’s travel advisory to Level 4, the most severe, saying the current rating of Level 2 dangerously understates the risk, which includes exit bans and arbitrary criminal charges, to American businesspeople and travelers.

“If you go there even as a businessman or woman, and your interlocutors and your business associates over there don’t like what you’re doing, good luck,” Mr. Smith said. “They bring charges, you’re in prison, and you won’t get out anytime soon. … Once accused, you’re convicted. There’s no due process.”

“If you’re in a Chinese prison camp, you’re going to be tortured,” Mr. Smith said. “Some of the most horrific tortures on the face of the earth against women — many of them are sexual. I chaired the hearing on [Dawn] Hunt and with [Nelson] Wells [Jr.], with the family members. And I have to tell you, it was heartbreaking,” Mr. Smith said.

“The sexual abuse that is being visited upon them, the racial prejudice that is being further exacerbating their situation in prison,” he said.

Mr. Smith co-authored legislation known as the Nelson Wells/Dawn Michelle Hunt bill, introduced after a congressional hearing held two years ago, which would establish a formal “cases of concern” framework, require State Department engagement with families, and create an action plan for detained Americans.

However, the Foreign Affairs Committee pulled the bill from markup early last year, stalling legislative progress.

The legislation requires the Secretary of State to develop a diplomatic plan of action within 60 days of enactment to secure detainees’ release, including “a determination on expanded use of the International Prison Transfer Program.

The bill also calls for an explanation of why allied nations without a prisoner transfer treaty with China have nonetheless used China’s own Law of International Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters to get their citizens transferred/released.

The State Department has so far declined, and Mr. Smith says the agency’s legal interpretation holds that humanitarian prisoner transfers cannot occur without an extradition treaty with China, a position the New Jersey Republican disputes, noting France and other countries have achieved such transfers.

The Washington Times reached out to the State Department for comment.

Mr. Smith said the Trump administration has several legislative tools to deploy to gain leverage over China when the country engages in what has been called hostage diplomacy against the U.S.

This includes the Global Magnitsky Act sanctions, visa bans, and relinking Most Favored Nation trade status to human rights progress.

Mr. Smith criticized previous administrations, particularly the Clinton administration, for delinking human rights from trade in May 1994, calling it a damaging precedent of capitulation.

“When Bill Clinton delinked human rights on May 26, 1994 — human rights from most favored nation status from trade, he sold out the Chinese people like nobody else has ever sold out a group of people.”

The Washington Times reached out to Mr. Clinton’s office for comment.

This article was published on September 21, 2026 and can be found online at: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/sep/21/republican-rep-chris-smith-urges-trump-confront-xi-americans-jailed/