WASHINGTON D.C. — Religious freedom advocates, scholars, and lawmakers are calling on U.S. President Donald Trump to raise China’s transnational repression activities directly with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping when the two are scheduled to meet on Sept. 24.

The appeals come amid growing concern over efforts attributed to Beijing to intimidate, surveil, pressure, or otherwise target critics and religious communities outside China.

At a Sept. 16 event held at Washington’s Museum of the Bible titled: “CCP Oppression in America and China,” speakers representing Uyghurs, Christians, Falun Gong practitioners, and other marginalized communities described the pressures they face beyond China’s borders. The event was organized by the Religious Freedom Institute and the International Religious Freedom Summit.

U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) headquarters building (Image: David Ake/Getty Images)

Trump and Xi are expected to meet in Washington for talks spanning trade, Taiwan, AI, and other areas of U.S.-China competition. The two leaders first met in Beijing in May following a six year hiatus.

Concerns over repression on US soil

Steve Lance, Washington bureau chief for NTD Television, argued that Beijing has increasingly relied on intermediaries and existing U.S. institutions to target Falun Gong practitioners and organizations associated with the spiritual practice. “America’s legal mechanisms are being used as tools of foreign repression,” Lance said.

Steve Lance, executive producer of the award-winning documentary ‘Unbroken: The Untold Story of Shen Yun’ and Washington bureau chief for the English-language New Tang Dynasty Television (NTD), speaks at the event in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 16, 2026. (Image: Li Chen/The Epoch Times)

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He pointed to the federal prosecution of John Chen and Lin Feng, two California residents who pleaded guilty in 2024 to acting as unregistered agents of the Chinese government and bribing a purported IRS official.

According to the Justice Department, Chen and Feng worked at the direction of the PRC government to manipulate the IRS whistleblower program in an effort to strip the tax-exempt status of the Shen Yun Performing Arts Center, which is operated by Falun Gong practitioners. The supposed IRS official they attempted to bribe was an undercover law enforcement officer.

In a recorded call cited by prosecutors, Chen said the goal was to “toppl[e] . . . the Falun Gong.” The Justice Department said the operation was directed and funded by the Chinese government.

Lance argued that such tactics are particularly difficult to confront when they appear to originate from private individuals or ordinary legal disputes. “Through manipulation of normal processes, a foreign government can impose costs, cause delays and inflict reputational damage that it could not lawfully carry out here directly,” he said.

Pressure extending into academia

Fenggang Yang, a sociology professor at Purdue University, said he has also experienced pressure connected to his research on religion and China. “Since we published that statement, I began to lose my freedom,” Yang said, referring to a 2014 religious-freedom declaration issued after a Purdue conference.

Fenggang Yang, a sociology professor at Purdue University and founding director of the Center on Religion and the Global East, speaks at the ‘CCP Oppression in America and China’ event in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 16, 2026. (Image: Li Chen/The Epoch Times)

He said his books were subsequently removed from shelves in China and his Chinese-language academic work disappeared from databases. Yang also described a more recent incident involving a U.S.-based academic conference, saying organizers were asked after a visit to China to remove his name from the program. “This was a conference on American soil,” he said. “I think this really is an escalation — transnational repression has entered academia.”

Uyghur American advocate Ziba Murat also spoke about her mother, retired physician Gulshan Abbas, who disappeared in Xinjiang in September 2018. Murat said her mother vanished six days after Murat’s aunt publicly discussed the persecution of Uyghurs at the Hudson Institute in Washington.

Uyghur American human rights advocate Ziba Murat attends the ‘CCP Oppression in America and China’ event Washington, D.C., on Sept. 16, 2026. (Image: Li Chen/The Epoch Times)

Abbas was later revealed to have been sentenced to 20 years in prison following a secret trial. Her case has previously been documented by the U.S. State Department and human rights organizations. Her family has maintained that her detention was retaliation for relatives’ advocacy abroad.

Families targeted and separated

Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) told The Epoch Times that Chinese-linked bot accounts and online influence operations targeting Falun Gong practitioners and groups associated with Tibet, Hong Kong, and Taiwan should be treated as a national-security concern. “This is a national security issue,” Ricketts said, adding, “When President Trump meets with Xi Jinping, this also needs to be one of the issues he discusses.”

US Sen. Pete Ricketts attends an event at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 15, 2026. (Image: Li Chen/The Epoch Times)

Former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback made a similar appeal. “We respectfully request that President Trump raise the issue of religious freedom at his upcoming summit with Chairman Xi,” Brownback said, adding that “if the CCP’s persecution of people of faith does not stop, we should revoke China’s permanent normal trade relations status with the United States.”

Brownback, a longtime critic of Beijing’s treatment of religious groups, also took part in a May 12 Hudson Institute event titled: “China’s Persecution: Assault on All Faiths,” where he and other speakers highlighted abuses affecting Uyghurs, Tibetan Buddhists, Christians, Falun Gong practitioners, and other faith communities, while urging a stronger U.S. response to uphold religious rights.

Former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback spoke at the ‘CCP Oppression in America and China’ event in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 16, 2026. (Image: Li Chen/The Epoch Times)

Nina Shea, director of the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute, argued that Washington must recognize alleged pressure campaigns inside the United States as more than isolated incidents. “The U.S. government must recognize the fact that these are not isolated incidents, but deliberate actions launched by the CCP against American citizens and residents on U.S. soil, aimed at suppressing our freedoms protected by the First Amendment,” Shea told The Epoch Times.

She added, “President Trump must condemn this [transnational repression] when he meets with CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping.”

Nina Shea, Director of the Center for Religious Freedom and a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, attended the ‘CCP Oppression in America and China’ event Washington, D.C. on Sept. 16, 2026. (Image: Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times)

Nina Shea also pointed to the case of Pastor Ezra Jin, founder of Beijing’s Zion Church, who was detained during a nationwide crackdown on unregistered Christian congregations in 2025. Jin was released in July 2026 after President Trump raised his case directly with Xi during their May summit, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Shea said Jin’s family reported receiving threats in the United States and that the tires of a vehicle parked at their home were slashed.

Original article