<span class ="kicker">On the eve of Trump-Xi meeting in Washington, D.C.</span>Capitol Hill hearing features heartfelt appeals to Xi Jinping: let these wonderful people go

This press release from Representative Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ) was published on 2026-09-23 and titled "<span class ="kicker">On the eve of Trump-Xi meeting in Washington, D.C.</span>Capitol Hill hearing features".

<span class ="kicker">On the eve of Trump-Xi meeting in Washington, D.C.</span>Capitol Hill hearing features heartfelt appeals to Xi Jinping: let these wonderful people go

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