Trump should press Xi on China’s persecution of believers at home and abroad

"A China without religious freedom is a China we cannot accept," Pastor Ezra Jin told a small group gathered on Capitol Hill shortly after he was freed from a Chinese prison.

President Donald Trump had raised Jin’s case with Chinese President Xi Jinping at their May summit.

Weeks later, Jin was free.

But why was he in jail in the first place? He pastored the Zion Church in Beijing, an independent Christian house church outside the control of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

PASTOR FREED FROM CHINESE PRISON AFTER TRUMP RAISED HIS CASE WITH XI JINPING Any and all religious groups in China must come under the control of the CCP or be subject to harassment, arrest, closure or worse.

Forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners has been well documented.

Falun Gong is a Chinese spiritual movement that the CCP particularly singles out for harsh treatment.

Ten Chinese Catholic bishops — 10 — are currently in some form of detention in China for refusing to toe the CCP line.

Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong was recently convicted of failing to properly register a charity fund.

He is 94 years old and has been a respected leader in Hong Kong for decades, but not anymore in Xi’s China.

Zen does not support the secret deal between the Chinese government and the Vatican over the appointment of Catholic bishops in China.

THE CCP’S NEW ‘UNITY’ LAW TURNS CHINA’S REPRESSION INTO A GLOBAL THREAT The Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the second-highest spiritual authority in Tibetan Buddhism, was abducted by the Chinese government 31 years ago.

His current location is still unknown.

Details differ, but the underlying pattern is the same.