Chinese authorities had arrested the house-church pastor at his home in southern China, and detained him for preaching the gospel. He was released less than two months after President Donald Trump raised his case with Xi Jinping in Beijing and reunited with his family in America. Christians around the world rightly called it a miracle.
It was also a reminder of the job description. God sent His Son “to proclaim liberty to the captives and… to set at liberty those who are oppressed.” (Luke 4:18) On September 24, President Trump and Xi Jinping meet at the White House. While trade and AI will likely dominate the briefings, political prisoners should not be an afterthought.
Pastor Jin’s release showed that when the president puts a name on the table, Beijing can move. The question now is whether we will ask Trump to put more names on that table—including people who are not Christian. This is an opportunity for President Trump to build on his legacy of setting political prisoners free.
My friend Ziba Murat has spent eight years fighting for her mother, Dr. Gulshan Abbas, a Uyghur physician. Abbas was seized in Urumqi six days after her sister—an American citizen—spoke in Washington about the Uyghur genocide.
Abbas committed no crime. She was sentenced to 20 years on fabricated charges. Her detention is a clear case of transnational repression designed to curb free speech in America.
That kind of intimidation by a foreign actor should enrage any American who values our First Amendment rights. Abbas has 24 American citizen relatives who want her home. Freeing her would do more than reunite a family.
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