FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Free China Movement says 26 years of experience warrant a reassessment of the assumptions behind permanent normal trade relations with the PRC
WASHINGTON — September 23, 2026 — The Free China Movement (FCM) is calling on President Donald Trump to demand that Xi Jinping release political and religious prisoners in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao before their next meeting.
FCM is also calling on Congress to revoke the People’s Republic of China’s Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status if Beijing refuses broad and verifiable prisoner releases.
The proposal returns to a central question from the original China trade debate: whether granting permanent trade treatment while expanding economic engagement would be accompanied by greater political openness and respect for fundamental rights—or whether the United States would surrender important leverage without achieving those hoped-for changes.
“Twenty-six years later, we no longer have to argue only about what engagement might produce. We can examine what actually happened,” said Lian Shengde. “Release the political and religious prisoners in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao. If Beijing refuses, Congress should revoke PNTR.”
From Tiananmen to the PNTR debate
Lian Shengde was a prominent leader of the 1989 democracy movement, serving as the elected commander-general of the federation representing students from 192 universities outside Beijing and serving in a Tiananmen Square command structure during the martial-law period.
According to FCM’s archival reconstruction, Lian was arrested on June 9, 1989—before Chinese authorities publicly issued their principal most-wanted student-leader list. He was subsequently imprisoned at Qincheng Prison and released in 1991.
After coming to the United States, Lian remained active on democracy and human-rights issues involving China. Archival material from 1999 confirms that he was publicly serving as an FCM contact at that time, alongside Timothy Cooper.
During the debate over permanent trade relations with Beijing, Lian opposed granting unconditional permanent trade treatment to the PRC. FCM says the concern underlying that position was straightforward: expanding economic privileges without meaningful human-rights consequences risked allowing political persecution to continue while U.S. leverage diminished.
Twenty-six years later, FCM says Congress should examine the record
FCM argues that the question facing policymakers today is materially different from the question facing Congress in 1999 and 2000.
At the time, much of the debate concerned expectations about China’s future development and whether deeper economic integration would contribute to greater openness.
Today, FCM argues, policymakers can examine more than a quarter-century of subsequent experience.
“In 2000, Americans were debating predictions about what engagement might eventually produce,” Lian said. “In 2026, Congress does not have to debate a prediction. It can examine the record.”
FCM therefore calls on Congress to reassess PNTR in light of developments since the original trade debate, including documented political imprisonment, restrictions on religious practice and civil society, constraints on expression, and national-security prosecutions in Hong Kong.
End the prisoner-by-prisoner cycle
FCM says the United States should not measure success merely by securing the release of a handful of internationally prominent prisoners around major diplomatic meetings.
Instead, FCM is calling for a broad, verifiable release process covering people deprived of liberty substantially because of peaceful political expression, religious practice, journalism, association, human-rights advocacy or other internationally protected activity.
That process should address documented cases across mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao, while recognizing the different legal systems and detention mechanisms operating in the three jurisdictions.
“For decades, prisoners have entered diplomatic negotiations one name at a time while new prisoners take their place,” Lian said. “That cycle cannot become a permanent feature of U.S.–China diplomacy. Political imprisonment should have consequences.”
FCM’s existing public work has already called for political-prisoner cases to be placed on the agenda surrounding the expected Trump–Xi meeting.
FCM’s request before the Trump–Xi meeting
FCM calls for the Trump administration to seek:
- Release of political and religious prisoners held substantially for peaceful expression, association, journalism, religious practice or human-rights advocacy in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao;
- Disclosure of the whereabouts and legal status of people whose detention or disappearance has been credibly reported but whose status remains unclear;
- Independent and verifiable implementation of prisoner releases rather than private promises of future action; and
- Revocation of the PRC’s PNTR status by Congress if Beijing refuses meaningful, broad prisoner releases.
FCM does not contend that PNTR itself legally required the PRC to democratize. Its position is that Congress can now reassess whether maintaining permanent trade treatment remains appropriate in light of the subsequent record.
Lian: trade and human rights should not exist in separate universes
Lian argues that the United States can maintain economic relations with China without treating PNTR as irreversible.
“The United States can trade with China and still decide that permanent trade privileges are not untouchable,” Lian said. “Economic policy and human rights do not have to exist in separate universes.”
FCM says the approaching Trump–Xi meeting creates an opportunity to test whether political and religious imprisonment will remain largely separated from the most consequential elements of the bilateral relationship.
About Lian Shengde
Lian Shengde was a prominent student leader during China’s 1989 democracy movement. He served as the elected commander-general of the federation representing students from 192 universities outside Beijing and served in a Tiananmen Square command structure during the martial-law period.
According to FCM’s archival reconstruction, Lian was arrested on June 9, 1989, before Chinese authorities publicly issued their principal most-wanted student-leader list. He was imprisoned at Qincheng Prison and released in 1991.
Historical material also documents Lian acting publicly for the Washington-based Free China Movement by 1999.
About the Free China Movement
The Free China Movement (FCM) documents political imprisonment, human-rights developments and the history of China’s democracy movement and publishes research and public-policy proposals concerning China’s political future.
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