FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — September 23, 2026
WASHINGTON — The Free China Movement (FCM) calls on President Donald Trump to press Xi Jinping, before their expected meeting, for the release of people imprisoned for peaceful political, religious, journalistic and civil-society activity in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao. FCM also calls on Congress to revoke the People’s Republic of China’s Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status if Beijing does not undertake meaningful releases.
FCM frames the proposal as a reassessment after roughly 26 years of experience following the 2000 U.S. legislation granting PNTR treatment to products from China, rather than as a claim that PNTR itself caused political imprisonment. The movement argues that the expectation that deeper economic engagement would be accompanied by greater political openness should now be tested against the subsequent record.
A position rooted in the original trade debate
Lian Shengde, a prominent leader in the 1989 democracy movement who later opposed PNTR during the original trade debate, said:
“Twenty-six years of experience warrant a different U.S. policy. Release political and religious prisoners in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao. If that release does not happen, Congress should revoke the PRC’s PNTR status.”
Lian was arrested on June 9, 1989 — before the Beijing authorities issued their later most-wanted student list — and remained imprisoned until 1991. During the 1989 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.
From the 1999 warning to the present
During the trade-policy debate in 1999, Lian and Free China Movement co-founder Timothy Cooper argued against giving Beijing permanent trade treatment without stronger human-rights accountability. FCM says the concern was that removing the recurring trade-status debate would also remove a recurring point of leverage and public scrutiny over political and religious imprisonment.
FCM’s present position is that Congress should examine that warning against the record since PNTR was enacted: whether the anticipated political opening occurred, how repression evolved in mainland China, and how conditions changed in Hong Kong and Macao. The movement urges Congress to conduct that review using documented human-rights evidence rather than treating trade status as insulated from rights policy.
A pre-meeting human-rights test
FCM urges President Trump to place verified political- and religious-prisoner cases directly on the agenda with Xi and to seek releases before the meeting rather than accepting individual prisoner releases as substitutes for addressing the broader system.
“For decades, individual prisoners have repeatedly become bargaining points in diplomatic relationships,” Lian said. “The United States should seek freedom for people imprisoned for peaceful political and religious activity as a class, not allow one or two releases to close the human-rights file.”
FCM further urges Congress to establish clear, public human-rights benchmarks for any reconsideration of PNTR and to provide due process in any legislative action affecting trade status.
About the Free China Movement
The Free China Movement documents political imprisonment and human-rights conditions, preserves historical evidence, and conducts research on democratic and constitutional alternatives for China’s future.
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