President Trump is expected to greet Xi Jinping on Thursday at the White House.
To say the U.S. president has a long list of topic choices is an understatement. From trade and tariffs, and China supplying weapons and technology to Iran, to the sovereignty of Taiwan and other U.S. allies in the Pacific, there is a lot to discuss.
Describing the upcoming Trump-Xi meeting, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) told the “Washington Watch” program he wants President Trump to stand up for China’s mistreated churches and their imprisoned pastors.
“This is the time for the United States, I believe, and every freedom-loving country,” Smith stated, “to pivot and say religious freedom matters.”
China's authoritarian government rules its population, estimated to be 1.4 billion citizens, with a bizarre combination of world-leading business, technology, and manufacturing that is performed by citizens who work and live without basic human rights.
Even though the Chinese Constitution describes freedom of speech, the Chinese Communist Party forbids any criticism of the party and its leaders. To maintain compliance, the Ministry of Public Security watches the population with an estimated 700 million surveillance cameras.
In China's churches, the most brutal crackdown in recent memory, which occurred 11 months ago, involved Zion Church. Zion is technically a network of churches, and the arrests across seven provinces include at least 30 pastors and church leaders.
Smith, a devout Catholic, is known for calling out China and its human rights record on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He is also co-chair of the Congressional Executive Committee on China.
Asked about the status of China’s churches, Smith told show host Tony Perkins that church pastors and church members live in a constant state of fear.
Their constant enemy is the Chinese Communist Party, he said, which monitors the churches for any signs of criticism or disloyalty to the State.
“For the slightest perceived infraction, they will then arrest pastors and horribly mistreat them,” Smith said.
“What's the situation there?” Perkins asked. “Is it getting better? Is it getting worse?”
“It is getting far worse,” Smith, pointing to the arrest of Zion Church leaders, advised.
The story of Ezra Jin
The most prominent Zion Church leader is its main pastor, Mingri “Ezra” Jin. After growing into a large congregation of 1,500 in Beijing, Jin crossed the CCP when he refused to install state-owned security cameras at a new church facility in 2018.
After angering the State, Jin moved to the United States with his family that same year. He later returned to China, where he continued his ministry, until he was arrested and imprisoned in 2025.
Jin was sitting in his cell, 2 1/2 months ago, when prison guards came in and whisked him away.
Expecting he was being transferred to another prison, he was instead put on an aircraft and sent back to the United States after 266 days in prison. He landed in Los Angeles on July 4th.
Four months earlier, President Trump had urged Xi to release Jin when the U.S. president visited Xi in Beijing.
Smith told “Washington Watch” a House hearing this week will include Pastor Jin as a witness at the same time Xi will be in Washington, D.C. The motive, he shared, is to urge President Trump to stand up for the other Zion pastors still languishing in a prison cell.
“There's eight of them, and many, many others, who are incarcerated by the Chinese Communist Party because of their faith,” the Congressman said.
