Two Days Before Trump-Xi Summit, Pressure Mounts to Free Political Prisoners Held in China

President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. In the days leading up to it, a bipartisan pressure campaign has formed around one goal: getting Trump to say specific names of Chinese political prisoners out loud to Xi.

The campaign has a data point behind it. Chinese Christian pastor Ezra Jin Mingri was released and reunited with his family in the United States on July 4, 2026, according to a Daily Wire opinion piece written by the daughter of another detainee. Jin's freedom came after Trump raised his case directly with Xi during a May 2026 meeting, according to reporting from Christian Daily, which cited The Associated Press.

The Zion Church cases still open

Jin founded Zion Church, one of China's largest unregistered "house churches," in 2007. Authorities shut down its worship venue in 2018 and forced the congregation into apartments, restaurants, and online meetings across roughly 40 Chinese cities, according to Sean Long, a Zion Church pastor now studying in the U.S., cited by The Associated Press and reported by Christian Daily. China targeted the church again starting in October, arresting 18 members including Jin.

Eight of Jin's fellow pastors remain detained: Wang Lin, Yin Huibin, Wang Cong, Lin Shucheng, Liu Zhenbin, Gao Yingjia, Elder Wang Zhong, and Wu Qiuyu. On Sept. 14, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom formally called on Trump to press for their release at the Sept. 24 summit, according to Christian Daily.

Separately, Ruth Wang, a partner at the VDoor Law Firm that represented Zion Church members, fled China for Taiwan in August after authorities asked to meet with her while she was traveling in Japan, she told The Associated Press. She said Chinese officials have revoked the license of the firm's founder, Zhang Kai, banned him from leaving the country, and suspended other attorneys for six months. Taiwan cannot grant her formal asylum because it lacks a refugee policy for mainland Chinese nationals, according to the AP report.

Democrats name eight more cases

On Sept. 21, a group of Democratic lawmakers, including Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Reps. James R. Walkinshaw of Virginia and Tom Suozzi of New York, sent Trump a letter urging him to raise additional cases, according to the Epoch Times.

The list includes U Min Zin, a U.S. citizen and scholar detained at an airport in Yunnan Province on June 3 after accepting an invitation from a Chinese academic institution. Chinese authorities accused him of espionage and endangering national security. The lawmakers called those allegations "spurious" in their letter, though no independent verification of either side's claims is available in the public record.

Also named were four Uyghurs, including Gulshan Abbas, a 64-year-old retired physician serving a 20-year sentence, along with Ekpar Asat and Ilham Tohti, and three Falun Gong practitioners, Wang Youmei, Xu Na, and Zhao Ying. Xu was sentenced to eight years in January 2022 as one of 11 Falun Gong practitioners convicted for supplying material to The Epoch Times documenting COVID-19's early toll in China. Zhao, in her 80s, is reportedly in critical condition with cancer, heart disease, and diabetes, according to the lawmakers' letter.

Gulshan Abbas's daughter wrote in the Daily Wire that her mother was detained in September 2018, six days after her aunt spoke at the Hudson Institute criticizing Beijing's treatment of Uyghurs. She called it transnational repression aimed at silencing an American citizen's protected speech through the imprisonment of a family member abroad.

A separate coalition, same demand

A group of human rights organizations, in a joint open letter addressed directly to Xi ahead of his visit, urged the Chinese leader to release prisoners of conscience, end transnational repression, and commit to legal reforms before arriving in Washington. The letter warned that without such steps, the visit "will only deepen global public concern" about Beijing's intentions on human rights.

The Epoch Times letter from Democratic lawmakers also warned that planned protests against Xi during his visit could face disruption, monitoring, or physical attacks from Chinese government proxies.

A reasonable caution worth weighing

The argument that naming a prisoner publicly moves Beijing has one confirmed data point in Jin's release. But foreign governments don't always bend to Trump's public statements. Iran's Armed Forces General Staff dismissed Trump's Sept. 22 U.N. General Assembly remarks that Iran is "no longer the bully of the Middle East" as mere domestic political messaging that "will never compensate" for what it called America's setbacks, according to a statement carried by state media and reported by Reuters. That doesn't prove public pressure on China won't work. It does mean one success story is not a guarantee, and Beijing has shown no public commitment to release anyone ahead of Thursday's meeting.

Whether Trump raises any of these names when he sits down with Xi, and whether Beijing responds the way it did with Jin, remains unknown until after the Sept. 24 summit concludes.