{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415866", "On the eve of Trump-Xi meeting in Washington, D.C.Capitol Hill hearing features heartfelt appeals to Xi Jinping: let these wonderful people go", "2026-09-23", "2026", "2026-09", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "At yesterday\u2019s 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.\n\n\u201cBehind 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,\u201d Smith said during his opening remarks.\n\n\u201cToday, we appeal to Xi Jinping to release women and men of conscience and goodness\u2014as a tangible good faith expression of good will, benevolence, respect, and strength. We appeal to Xi Jinping\u2019s heart,\u201d continued Smith, the Co-Chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC).\n\n\u201cWe again ask President Trump\u2014who helped Pastor Ezra Jin gain his freedom\u2014to appeal to Xi Jinping to show compassion and courage.\u201d\n\nAt the hearing\u2014entitled \u201cThe Faces of Repression: Prisoners, Families, and Communities Targeted by the CCP\u201d\u2014members 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\u2019s underground Zion Church, who was recently released from Chinese detention after spending more than 260 days in custody.\n\nDuring the first panel of witnesses, Pastor Jin\u2014accompanied by his daughter and translator, Grace Jin Drexel\u2014testified 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 \u201cthe 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.\u201d\n\nPastor Ezra Jin Mingri and his daughter and translator, Grace Jin Drexel, testify before the CECC at their September 22nd hearing.\n\nEventually, after years of relentless harassment, the Chinese government \u201cmobilized several hundred police to forcibly shut down the Zion Church sanctuary, and the congregation was scattered,\u201d according to Pastor Jin. Zion Church\u2019s services were then moved to online platforms, such as Zoom, where their number of congregants only grew.\n\nShortly thereafter, however, Pastor Jin and other church leaders were arrested and detained by Chinese authorities on the bogus charge of \u201cillegal use of the internet.\u201d The charges were later changed to \u201cillegal business operations\u201d and \u201cfraud.\u201d\n\n\u201cDuring 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,\u201d said Pastor Jin.\n\n\u201cOn July 3, without any notice whatsoever, I was taken out of the detention center and brought to Guangzhou Airport, where the prosecutor\u2019s office withdrew the indictment against me, and I was put on a plane bound for the United States,\u201d he continued. \u201cIt was only through the U.S. Embassy\u2019s consular officer that I learned this happened because President Trump had specifically requested my release from President Xi Jinping during his visit to China!\u201d\n\nConcluding his testimony, Pastor Jin called upon U.S. Congress to \u201ccontinue to pay attention to religious persecution and human rights within China,\u201d and he expressed hope that \u201cthis meeting between the two heads of state can produce genuine consensus and breakthroughs in improving China\u2019s human rights situation and ending the persecution of religious believers.\u201d\n\nThe hearing\u2019s 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.\n\nNelson 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. \u201cFor that one mistake\u2014that one betrayal, his life, his wife\u2019s life, his children\u2019s lives, and our lives will never be the same,\u201d said Nelson Wells Sr.\n\nNelson Wells Sr., the father of detained American citizen Nelson Wells Jr., speaks to lawmakers at the CECC's September 22nd hearing.\n\nTestifying before the Commission, Wells Sr. described his son\u2019s declining health, as well as the abusive treatment he endures while in prison:\n\n\u201cOver the years, Nelson has been targeted as one of the few Americans and the only Black American in the prison, which has exposed him to harsher treatment and sometimes physical attack. He has suffered from debilitating chronic pain, seizures (a Chinese MRI report shows he has brain atrophy), malnutrition, internal issues, dental pain, severe depression and thoughts of self-harm\u2026 And now, as of a few weeks ago, we discovered that he has been diagnosed with Hepatitis C\u2014the news of which has devastated Nelson and our family.\u201d\n\nThrough tears, Wells Sr. continued, \u201cWe need President Donald Trump, our President, a father himself, to personally advocate on Nelson\u2019s behalf to President Xi when the two meet this week. We have come a long way and are at the last mile. We believe that he\u2014and perhaps only he\u2014can bring Nelson, can bring Dawn home.\n\n\u201cWhen our country asked us to serve, my wife and I did so unreservedly and without hesitation. I even served hardship posts, including during the Gulf War. President Trump, now I am asking for your help\u2014father to father\u2014on behalf of my child. He is a man, but as every parent here knows, he is still my child, and I cannot leave him behind. I am asking you also not to leave him\u2014an American citizen\u2014behind,\u201d he concluded.\n\nTim Hunt\u2014whose sister, Dawn, an American citizen from Chicago, was also arrested in China in 2014 and sentenced to life imprisonment after being lured into a fraudulent sweepstakes scheme\u2014spoke powerfully and movingly about the hardships his sister and his family have endured since her arrest.\n\n\u201cShe has aged dramatically. Her posture is that of someone much older. She is slumped over. She is frail. Her teeth have yellowed and shifted. Her hair is much grayer than it was just two years ago. Those are the things I could see,\u201d said Hunt.\n\nHunt revealed that in January, Gene Hunt\u2014his and Dawn\u2019s father\u2014sadly passed away at 92 years old, \u201cwith his only daughter still in prison.\u201d\n\nTim Hunt, the brother of detained American citizen Dawn Michelle Hunt, speaks to lawmakers at the CECC's September 22nd hearing.\n\n\u201cOur father died knowing that his little girl was incarcerated. Dawn was not home when he died. She could not be there with him. He could not tell her that he loved her one last time. He could not see her one last time. He could not give her words of encouragement. He could not help her prepare for a life of freedom. And he could not be there for her if she struggled after twelve years of incarceration,\u201d stated Hunt.\n\nTowards the end of his testimony, Hunt urged lawmakers to push for and secure Dawn\u2019s and Nelson\u2019s releases: \u201cPlease use your voices. Please ask President Trump to ask President Xi to release Dawn. And please ask for the release of Nelson Wells Jr. as well\u2026 I need help for the average American. The two-job American. The three-job American. The American who served his country with honor and pride.\u201d\n\nRushan Abbas, a prominent Uyghur activist, discussed how her sister, Dr. Gulshan Abbas, was punished by the Chinese government for Rushan\u2019s advocacy in the United States. \u201cI come before you first and foremost as a sister to an innocent woman who has been jailed in China for the past 8 years in retaliation for my advocacy in the U.S. as an Uyghur American,\u201d said Rushan.\n\n\u201cHer imprisonment is a blatant act of transnational repression\u2014an attempt to punish me for speaking the truth and to send a chilling message to Uyghurs everywhere: speak out, and your family will pay the price,\u201d she continued.\n\n\u201cBut Beijing\u2019s cruelty did not silence me. It transformed the course of my life. I walked away from my professional career and became a full-time advocate for my people, determined to turn the pain they inflicted on my family into a relentless fight for freedom, justice, and accountability.\u201d\n\nAbbas urged Congress to pass three bills authored and introduced by Rep. Smith\u2014the Transnational Repression Policy Act (HR 4829), the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2025 (HR 1503), and the Uyghur Genocide Accountability and Sanctions Act of 2025 (HR 4830)\u2014which, together, would strengthen the United States\u2019 framework for addressing, preventing, and prosecuting many of China\u2019s human rights abuses.\n\nWitnesses Rushan Abbas and Erping Zhang speak at the CECC's hearing, \"The Faces of Repression: Prisoners, Families, and Communities Targeted by the CCP.\"\n\nErping Zhang, a spokesperson and advocate for Falun Gong\u2014a spiritual practice in the Buddhist tradition that has been the subject of decades-long persecution and repression at the hands of the CCP\u2014echoed Abbas\u2019 recommendations and urged the United States to continue speaking up for Falun Gong practitioners.\n\n\u201cThe Party has tried all means to bankrupt us, to silence us, and to delegitimize us\u2026 What it has done to Falun Gong is one of the most comprehensive demonstrations available of how the Party behaves when it believes it is threatened,\u201d said Zhang.\n\n\u201cIt is therefore one of the best available predictors of how it will behave toward the United States which the CCP regards as its ultimate adversary. We believe that Falun Gong matters, more than ever, to China, to the United States, and to the world, and thus hope the CCP\u2019s repression of our community can receive the attention it deserves,\u201d he concluded.\n\nThroughout the hearing, Rep. Smith and various witnesses raised the importance of his bipartisan Nelson Wells Jr. and Dawn Michelle Hunt Unjustly Detained in Communist China Act (HR 5491), which would mandate a coordinated U.S. government response to the unjust imprisonment of American citizens in China\u2014and the use of family members as hostages to silence or punish American citizens critical of the CCP.\n\n\u201cThe bill would strengthen the government\u2019s ability to identify Americans unjustly detained in China, coordinate their cases, engage with their families, pursue humanitarian releases and prisoner transfers, and identify additional tools for holding responsible Chinese officials accountable,\u201d said Smith.\n\n\u201cBecause when an American is unjustly detained, that person\u2019s family should not have to navigate the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s system alone.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-09-24T09:44:48Z", "2026-09-24T09:45:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415866"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8719100151211023, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}