No public sign Trump raised religious freedom with China’s Xi during Washington summit

Leading religious-freedom advocates pressed for the issue to be raised when President Donald Trump hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington, D.C., for a multi-day summit that concluded Sept. 25. There is no public confirmation that Trump raised religious liberty or specific prisoner cases with Xi.

Groups named in public appeals included ChinaAid, the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), Voice of the Martyrs, International Christian Concern, CSW and The Luke Alliance. They urged presidential intervention for several specific concerns:

• Return of passports and release of detained pastors, including John Cao, a permanent U.S. resident with metastatic prostate cancer being held in Changsha. ChinaAid highlighted Cao's health and his personal plea for help.
• Release of imprisoned Zion Church pastors and broader protections for Chinese Christians.
• Calls to press Beijing over human-rights issues affecting Uyghur Muslims.

ChinaAid's founder Bob Fu told Baptist Press on Sept. 28 that the group had not received confirmation that Trump raised Pastor Cao or religious-freedom concerns during the meeting. Fu said the organization remained hopeful the issues were discussed privately and that humanitarian action might follow. ChinaAid pointed to Trump's earlier intervention in securing the release of U.S. citizen and Zion Church senior pastor Ezra Jin Mingri ahead of July 4 as an example of presidential engagement making a difference.

A bipartisan group of senators — including James Lankford (R-OK), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) — signed a joint letter urging the president to press Xi on religious liberty. The ERLC wrote letters on Sept. 9 to President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio asking for advocacy on the release of eight Zion Church pastors and to urge action on Uyghur persecution.

The administration's overview of the summit posted at WhiteHouse.gov outlined topics such as artificial intelligence, trade and diplomacy, and noted China's gift of two pandas to the U.S. That summary did not mention religious freedom or any prisoner-release discussions.

Advocates and some congressional leaders publicly requested that religious-freedom concerns be raised. As of the reporting cited, those groups had not received confirmation that those topics were addressed during the Trump-Xi summit. They continue to press for action, especially in urgent humanitarian cases such as John Cao's.

• Any subsequent humanitarian releases or travel-authority restorations for detained U.S. permanent residents or citizens held in China.