A US religious freedom watchdog is calling on President Donald Trump to press Chinese President Xi Jinping over Christians and other religious prisoners when the two leaders meet later this month.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent bipartisan federal body, has urged President Trump to use the planned summit with President Xi on 24 September to call for the release of people detained over their beliefs and to challenge wider restrictions on religious freedom in China.
The intervention comes two months after Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri, founder of the unregistered Beijing Zion Church, was released from detention and allowed to travel to the United States.
Pastor Jin had been detained in October 2025 alongside dozens of other Zion Church leaders and members during a nationwide crackdown on unregistered evangelical house churches. USCIRF says his release in July followed direct intervention from the White House.
However, eight Zion Church leaders remain detained: pastors Wang Lin, Yin Huibin, Wang Cong, Lin Shucheng, Liu Zhenbin and Gao Yingjia, along with Elder Wang Zhong and Wu Qiuyu.
USCIRF chair Asif Mahmood said President Trump had previously raised religious prisoners with the Chinese leader and urged him to do so again.
He said speaking up would send a “clear and consistent signal” that religious freedom remained a US priority and that Washington expected the Chinese authorities to respect people's right to practise their faith.
USCIRF vice-chair CeCe Heil said Pastor Jin's release demonstrated that intervention at the highest political level could make a difference.
The commission is asking President Trump to raise several individual cases: including Hong Kong media entrepreneur and Catholic convert Jimmy Lai; and Pastor Gao Quanfu and his wife Pang Yu.
USCIRF has additionally urged President Trump to ask Chinese authorities to provide US lawful permanent resident Pastor John Cao with a passport, allowing him to travel to America for medical treatment and to be reunited with his family.
Its 2026 annual report recommended that the US State Department redesignate China as a “Country of Particular Concern” for what the commission describes as systematic and ongoing violations of religious freedom.
The commission says China's policy of the “sinicisation of religion” has increased state control over religious communities, including Protestant house churches, Catholics, Uyghur Muslims and Tibetan Buddhists. Chinese authorities say religious affairs must operate in accordance with Chinese law and have defended state regulation of religion.
