Trump Says He Raised Political Prisoners With Xi. What About Falun Gong?

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Trump: "I Did"

On Wednesday, Trump told reporters he had brought up the issue with Xi. Asked whether he raised the cases of Min Zin and Jimmy Lai, he answered, "I did with President Xi. I did." He called the talks important and said he hoped they would be fruitful.

Xi visited the White House on September 24, 2026, and attended a state dinner there. Before the visit, the White House had said Trump was expected to raise the cases of people wrongfully detained in China.

Trump gave no details about what Xi said in return. In the sources reviewed, there was no report of any prisoner being released.

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Two Cases in the Spotlight

Jimmy Lai founded the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, which has since been shut down. Hong Kong authorities convicted him in December 2025 under the national security law. In February, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Lai, a devout Catholic, is 78.

Trump has pressed his case before. In late 2025, he said he had asked Xi to consider Lai's release. More than 30 US senators, from both parties, also urged him to make Lai a priority.

Min Zin is a scholar of Myanmar politics and a US citizen. Chinese authorities arrested him in June. In August, Washington officially designated him as wrongfully detained. His wife, Sylvia Zin, asked Trump for help at a congressional hearing on September 16.

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The Prisoners Few Name

Lai and Min Zin are well known in Washington. Many others are not.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a federal advisory body, says in its 2026 report that China imprisons Falun Gong practitioners, along with Uyghurs, Tibetan Buddhists and members of unregistered churches. It reports that an 87-year-old practitioner was forced to begin a three-and-a-half-year sentence last August. It also says several elderly practitioners reportedly died in prison in 2025.

Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, is a meditation practice built on the principles of truthfulness, compassion and forbearance. The Chinese Communist Party banned it in 1999 and has pursued its followers ever since.

Practitioners and their relatives gathered in Washington during Xi's visit to ask that detained family members be remembered. The Falun Dafa Information Center, a practitioner-run advocacy group, had asked the administration to raise individual cases with Xi.

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Background: A Long Record of Pressure

Independent investigators have also examined claims that prisoners of conscience, including Falun Gong practitioners, were used as organ sources. These include the Kilgour–Matas reports and the 2018–2019 China Tribunal in London. Beijing denies the allegations.

The pattern extends beyond China's borders. A June 2026 survey by the Falun Dafa Information Center, covering 1,080 practitioners in the US, reported pressure on practitioners and on their relatives in China. It is advocacy-group research and should be read as such.

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Outlook

Trump has made freeing Americans held abroad a priority. Reuters notes that he has said little about Tibetans, Uyghurs and other dissidents. The White House did not say whether he raised those issues with Xi, or the new "ethnic unity" law.

Rights advocates now hope the conversation will widen beyond a handful of famous names. Whether any prisoner is freed, and whether Falun Gong practitioners are part of those talks, remains to be seen.

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