On the Eve of the "Trump-Xi Meeting," Religious Groups Call for Attention to Religious Freedom in China

Ahead of the visit of Xi Jinping to the United States and his meeting with Trump, multiple religious groups in Washington held an event at the Museum of the Bible, calling on the U.S. government to place China's religious freedom, human rights abuses, and individual cases such as Jimmy Lai high on the agenda of the summit, and demanding the release of detained religious figures.

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Here at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, just as Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to visit Washington next week to meet with U.S. President Trump. On Thursday, representatives of multiple religious groups in Washington shared their experiences and demands at an event here. The organizers stated that choosing to hold this event prior to Xi Jinping's visit to the U.S. is intended to bring China's religious freedom and persecution issues onto the agenda of the summit, and to urge Trump to demand the release of individuals imprisoned for exercising their religious beliefs and freedom of speech when he meets with Xi Jinping.

I really hope that these religious freedom issues can start to be raised universally, because the Chinese Communist Party is extremely repressive toward all religious groups, and this is completely unacceptable to those of us who love freedom. At the same time, however, China is one of our largest trading partners, and the funds we use to trade with China are subsequently used to finance domestic oppression within China. Brownback said that Trump is one of the few U.S. presidents to openly take a tough stance against China, and if the Chinese government does not stop its persecution of people of faith, U.S.-China economic relations may face even greater pressure.

Pastor Jin Mingri, who was detained by the Chinese government for 266 days, was released just before the U.S. Independence Day this year. In fact, it was the last time President Trump and President Xi Jinping met, and because of that summit, I gained my freedom. I hope that this time when Chairman Xi comes to the United States to meet with President Trump, more people will be released. I still have eight co-workers there, as well as leaders like Pastor Gao Quanpu and Pastor Wang Yi, and many other Chinese house church leaders who are still in prison. I hope they can be released.

An attendee said that he was imprisoned in China for five years for practicing Falun Gong, during which he was forced into manual labor. As a leader of the Western world, he should seize this opportunity to curb the rise of the human rights-violating CCP as soon as possible. This is very important, perhaps it is the last chance, and this is a matter of great urgency. I very much hope that at the summit, the human rights issue can be elevated to a higher priority than economic, political, and other issues.

Hong Kong activist Frances Hui focused her attention on Hong Kong media figure Jimmy Lai. We very much hope that Jimmy Lai's case can be brought up again, and not just brought up, but actively prioritized so that he can be rescued, because we all know that Jimmy Lai's situation is currently very concerning. Attendees hope that President Trump will place these individual cases alongside the broader religious freedom and human rights issues on the diplomatic agenda during the summit.