Congressional hearing reveals CCP’s detention of Catholic bishops, underground pastors, and transnational intimidation of U.S.-based advocates; experts urge Trump sanctions.
Newsroom (21/11/2025 Gaudium Press ) China’s escalating persecution of religious believers constitutes a direct national security threat to the United States and demands immediate sanctions, witnesses told a Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) hearing on November 20, 2025.
Former Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS), who served as Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom during the first Trump administration, delivered stark testimony before the bipartisan panel co-chaired by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK).
“Ten Catholic bishops are in prison in China,” Brownback emphasized. “Do people even know they’re in prison?” He noted that despite repeated designations of China as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for severe religious freedom violations, Beijing “has not paid a dime” in consequences. Brownback urged the incoming Trump administration to impose targeted sanctions, arguing that the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) systematic assault on faith communities undermines global stability and U.S. interests.
Bob Fu, founder and president of ChinaAid, recounted a chilling 2020 incident in which CCP agents surrounded his family home in Midland, Texas, threatening his wife and children in an effort to silence his advocacy. Fu described the operation as part of a broader pattern of transnational repression that now reaches American soil.
Grace Jin Drexel, daughter of detained Chinese house-church pastor Ezra Jin, fought back tears as she detailed her father’s October 2025 arrest and the exit ban that has kept him separated from his U.S.-based family for over seven years. Pastor Jin’s church had grown into one of China’s largest unregistered congregations, serving tens of thousands annually despite constant harassment.
“Underground church believers are not trying to subvert the state,” Drexel stressed. “They are merely asking to be free from the Communist Party in worship—where God, not the Party, is at the center.” She revealed that she herself has endured stalking and intimidation in Washington, D.C., including menacing phone calls from individuals impersonating U.S. federal agents. “Do not signal defeat of this trampling of human rights with your silence,” she implored lawmakers.
A bipartisan group of senators—including Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR)—has already called on the incoming administration to press Beijing for Pastor Jin’s unconditional release.
Additional testimony highlighted repression across faiths. Ismail “Ma Ju” Juma, a Hui Muslim advocate, and Bhuchung Tsering of the International Campaign for Tibet detailed ongoing campaigns against Islamic and Tibetan Buddhist communities.
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), a Catholic member of the commission, cautioned that U.S. credibility on global religious freedom hinges on protecting it domestically. He cited the bishop of San Bernardino’s decision last summer to grant a Sunday Mass dispensation to migrants fearing deportation under Trump administration policies, arguing that “our voice would have more effect if the U.S. protected the religious freedom of people living in the U.S.”
The hearing underscored a growing congressional consensus that China’s war on religion is not merely a human-rights issue but a strategic challenge requiring robust American response, including sanctions, diplomatic pressure, and support for victims of transnational repression operating on U.S. territory.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from CNA
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