{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415869", "The Daily Signal exclusive article on Smith letter to Sec. Rubio and Pres. Trump'China Hawk Urges Trump and Rubio to Discuss Chinese Prisoner Release in New Letter'", "2026-09-24", "2026", "2026-09", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Pedro Rodriguez\n\nPublished September 24, 2026\n\nFIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL\u2014The chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China sent a letter to President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday, urging them to discuss with Chinese leader Xi Jinping the release of worshippers and American citizens who remain imprisoned in China.\n\nRep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., penned the letter after he held two hearings in late September on the detainees, including media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai, Christian worshippers, Uyghur Muslims activists, Falun Gong, and American citizens detained for minor crimes.\n\n\u201cThey are people\u2014sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters\u2014whose families have spent years waiting and pleading for their loved ones to come home,\u201d the letter, exclusively obtained by the Daily Signal, reads. \u201cI respectfully ask that you raise the following cases directly with President Xi and press for their release, including through medical or humanitarian transfer where appropriate.\u201d\n\nPresident Donald Trump (right) talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during an arrival ceremony on Sept. 23, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)\n\n\u201cAt this critical moment, I ask that you make the freedom and humanitarian treatment of these individuals a priority in your discussions with Beijing,\u201d the letter adds. \u201cSeveral of these prisoners face serious medical conditions that warrant immediate consideration for medical or humanitarian release or transfer.\u201d\n\nDuring the first summit between the second Trump administration and the Chinese Communist Party earlier this year, Trump raised the issue of releasing Pastor Ezra Jin, who was imprisoned for operating a non-state-approved church in China, which eventually led to his release from a Chinese prison.\n\nIn his letter to the president and the secretary of state, Smith urged them \u201cto bring that same commitment directly to the table with President Xi.\u201d\n\nAmong the prisoners are eight leaders of Zion Church, who were originally imprisoned with Jin, as well as three Light of Zion Church leaders\u2014Pastor Gao Quanfu, Pang Yu, and Tang Bingyi\u2014who are still in confinement after refusing to register their house churches and submit to Communist Party monitoring.\n\nLai, who has already served six years of his 20-year sentence for running a non-state-sponsored media outlet, now faces serious health concerns and has just received notice that his eldest daughter is undergoing cancer treatment in the United Kingdom.\n\nThe two American prisoners detained in China, Dawn Michelle Hunt and Nelson Wells Jr., have been imprisoned for more than a decade, \u201cfollowing procedures that raise serious due process concerns,\u201d the letter adds.", 1, "2026-09-25T10:04:52Z", "2026-09-26T09:44:55Z"]], "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=415869"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.727538950741291, "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"}