The House passed a resolution May 13 calling on President Donald Trump to prioritize the release of prominent detainees held by the People’s Republic of China, including devout Catholic publisher Jimmy Lai. The vote comes just ahead of Trump’s meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during the President’s May 14-15 visit to China.
H.R. 1259 passed the House by a vote of 414-0. The measure was introduced May 7 by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., co-chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.
The House adopted H.Res. 1259 by a vote of 414-0. https://t.co/TFUQZ5prta
— House Press Gallery (@HouseDailyPress) May 13, 2026
The resolution names five detainees it says were “unfairly punished” by the Chinese Communist Party for their religious beliefs or pro-democracy activities: Christian pastors Ezra Jin Mingri and Gao Quanfu, Gao’s wife Pang Yu, retired Uyghur doctor Gulshan Abbas, and Lai. It asks Trump to raise their cases directly with Xi and press for their immediate release on humanitarian grounds.
During floor debate, Smith said Chinese officials detained Jin, the founder of the underground Zion Church in China, and denied him necessary medical care. He said Gao and Pang were detained for peaceful religious leadership, while Abbas is serving a 20-year prison sentence because her sister “dared to tell Congress the truth about the CCP’s [Chinese Communist Party’s] genocide” of Uyghur Muslims.
“Jimmy Lai,” Smith added, “should not spend one more night in a Hong Kong prison.”
As Zeale News previously reported, Lai — the founder of the pro-democracy and now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper in Hong Kong — was sentenced to 20 years in prison in February 2026 under Hong Kong’s national security law. His family has described the sentence as a de facto life sentence because of the 78-year-old’s failing health.
Trump has repeatedly vowed to raise Lai’s case during his upcoming summit with Xi.
>> Trump pledges again to ask Xi to release Jimmy Lai <<
Smith said during the debate that the U.S. has helped political prisoners for decades simply by naming them directly, which he said can “improve prison conditions,” “secure access to lawyers, family, and medical care,” and “save lives.”
“That matters,” Smith added. “It matters to their families. It matters to every prisoner of conscience languishing in a cell because he or she dared to pray, publish, speak, worship, or advocate for fundamental freedoms. And it matters to the Chinese Communist Party, because autocrats listen when the President of the United States names names.”
The House action comes days after Smith and Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., led a May 7 bicameral letter signed by more than 100 lawmakers urging Trump to personally ask Xi for Lai’s release during the summit, as Zeale News previously reported.
On May 12, John Moolenaar, R-Mich., who chairs the House Select Committee on China, reiterated strong bipartisan support for the prisoners’ release, noting that the detainees named in Smith’s resolution are “not criminals,” but “courageous voices for truth, for justice, and for human dignity.”
“Their persecution is a reminder that the Chinese Communist Party fears what it cannot control,” Moolenaar wrote: “free thought, independent faith, and the enduring power of truth.”