As President Trump gets ready to meet with China’s President Xi Jinping on Wednesday night, the families and supporters of numerous imprisoned Christians are fervently hoping he will discuss their situations with the Chinese leader.
Gao Pu, a Chinese Christian who applied for asylum after arriving in the U.S. for school in 2007, shared troubling details about the dire circumstances his elderly parents are enduring.
Communication is difficult; Gao must go through their constantly changing legal representation. Yet, he has still managed to gather information about the suffering faced by his parents and other prisoners.
“Their treatment is simply inhumane and brutal. It’s almost animalistic,” he conveyed in an interview.
He explained that inmates often share small cells with 20 others, forced to undertake the Sisyphean task of cleaning dirt while receiving protein only once a week. Rather than receiving showers, they’re hosed down bi-monthly, and other inmates are compelled to physically assault anyone attempting to clean themselves or maintain basic hygiene.
Gao’s voice trembled as he recounted the news of his 70-year-old father’s beating, expressing how deeply distressing it is to consider what his parents are enduring.
He referred to his 69-year-old mother as “innocent and pure-hearted,” emphasizing how her imprisonment is deteriorating both her mental health and physical condition. Despite suffering from high blood pressure, chest pain, significant bruising, and a weakened left leg, she’s made to stand without respite for hours each day.
Both of Gao’s parents, Pastor Gao Quanfu and Pang Yu, who previously thrived in the entertainment industry, sacrificed their successful careers— Quanfu as a notable musician and film/TV producer, and Yu as a former actress and TV anchor— to pursue their Christian faith.
After becoming a pastor and a pastor’s wife, they were arrested last year under the guise of “using superstition to undermine the implementation of the law,” charges later switched to fraud. Gao believes these accusations serve as a convenient cover for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to justify a decade-long imprisonment over accepted donations.
Yet, they are not alone in this plight.
Alongside Quanfu and Yu, another pastor from the Light of Zion Church, Tang Bingyi, remains imprisoned. Moreover, eight other leaders from the Zion Church, several Catholic bishops, and numerous other Christian leaders are also confined.
Gao acknowledges that while the summit might primarily focus on issues like AI and access to rare earth minerals, some matters should remain untouchable for a nation founded on certain core values.
His hope is that during the meeting, the names of his parents and other political and religious prisoners will be acknowledged.
“Every ordinary family wonders if these high-level meetings can have meaningful outcomes for their lives,” Gao remarked. “All I can do is pray.”
Gao’s father isn’t the first person to gain freedom thanks to Trump’s influence on China regarding imprisoned Christians.
“I believe that perhaps God placed the president in this role for a purpose,” Gao stated, “and we are in a prime position to facilitate change.”
Defending persecuted Christians has become a signature focus of Trump’s second term; he even diverged from his prepared speech at the UN General Assembly to highlight the organization’s hypocrisy in failing to advocate for persecuted Christians globally.
Gao mentioned Pastor Ezra Jin, the leader of the Zion Church, who was released just two months after Trump spoke of him during his previous visit to Beijing.
During a hearing by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, Jin noted that his faith journey began following the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989, and he founded his church in 2007 after ministerial training in the U.S.
Shortly after, his church faced intense persecution, with landlords pressured to end leases and police demanding ID registrations while cutting off essential services to meeting places.
Despite adversity, the church grew to 1,500 members by 2018, when the CCP ramped up its surveillance, deploying 24 cameras at their sanctuary and hundreds of police to shut it down.
Though the government scattered the congregation, the efforts only led to further evangelism; by 2025, COVID-era Zoom services enabled nearly 100 meeting spaces across 40 cities.
In October, around 30 pastors were arrested.
While some, including Jin, were released, eight are still detained on various charges related to their online Christian gatherings.
“This is an egregious insult and a cruel attack on the Christian faith,” Jin remarked during discussions.
He attributed his release directly to Trump’s advocacy with Xi, noting that a prompt letter from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, along with a statement from 33 congressional members, helped ensure he wasn’t mistreated during detention.
Beijing was aware that Washington was monitoring Jin’s case.
“I genuinely hope that Congress will continuously spotlight religious persecution and human rights concerns in China,” Jin expressed. “I hope this meeting can lead to real progress in alleviating human rights abuses and ending the persecution of people of faith.”
During the hearing, Rep. Chris Smith, the commission’s co-chair, urged Trump to encourage Xi Jinping to exhibit compassion and courage, similar to what he did for Jin.
Not only are smaller house churches subjected to oppression; even the great global institution of the Catholic Church faces similar fates.
Jason Jones, founder of the Vulnerable People Project, which campaigns for the release of imprisoned Catholic leaders, explained that Trump is uniquely positioned to advocate for these prisoners and challenge the Vatican’s agreement with Beijing.
“The administration should realize that American Catholics, alongside the global Christian community, stand united in this effort,” Jones commented. “Their suffering is our suffering; if they are not free, then none of us are.”
Requests for Trump to intervene are coming from abroad too.
This week, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham also urged Trump to mention the case of Jimmy Lai during their discussions.
Lai, a prominent Christian and media figure, was sentenced this year on sedition charges in Hong Kong and could face 20 years behind bars.
Sam Brownback, a former U.S. ambassador-at-large, requested that Lai’s case, among others, be addressed during Trump’s visit, despite recognizing that the summit will majorly center on non-human rights topics. He believes calling out these human rights violations could help the world understand what’s occurring and highlight the flaws in China’s overarching system.
Having just published a book focusing on various religious minorities facing oppression in China, Brownback mentioned how the Communist regime aims to suppress any faith that might rival the authority of the state.
This is why the government targets religious leaders, forcibly sterilizes and “reeducates” certain groups, including Uyghur Muslims, and imposes restrictive measures on Tibetan Buddhists—such as the mysterious disappearance of the six-year-old Panchen Lama in 1995 and their current efforts to choose the next Dalai Lama as a state-controlled figure.
As Gao joins Smith, Brownback, Jin, Burnham, and countless others in hoping that even the mention of these prisoners’ names will resonate with the president, he believes there’s a way anyone can contribute meaningfully.
“For Christians here, we genuinely need your prayers,” Gao implored. “We require our parents’ names and our church’s name in your thoughts, every day, every Sunday. We need prayers.”
Despite the challenges, he finds solace in faith, telling the Caller, “What seems impossible for humans is entirely possible for God.”
