File photo caption: A photograph taken on July 19, 2023, shows a watchtower at what is said to be a detention facility in Artush, Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture, in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region (East Turkistan).

Source: Voice of America Chinese

September 17, 2026

Translation: Turkistan Times

Around 30 organizations promoting human rights, democracy and religious freedom worldwide published an open letter to Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping on Wednesday, September 16. They urged him, before his visit to Washington next week, to release prisoners of conscience, pledge an end to transnational repression and commit to key judicial reforms.

“Since you assumed power in late 2012, our organizations have documented—and some have experienced firsthand—the widespread and systematic human rights crimes committed by your government, in violation of China’s domestic and international legal obligations,” the letter said.

The open letter cited the Xi government’s repression of Tibetans, Uyghurs and Hong Kong, as well as its targeting of religious leaders and communities, feminists, journalists, lawyers, public-health experts and other activists. It also referred to China’s newly implemented Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law.

The advocacy groups said: “We share the concerns of United Nations human rights experts that the scope and scale of arbitrary detention across China may in themselves constitute crimes against humanity, and we stand in solidarity with victims and survivors throughout the country.”

The letter continued: “We are equally concerned about your government’s use of transnational repression and collective punishment to silence speech and restrict conduct outside China.”

It noted that many of the letter’s signatories had been harassed, followed or monitored in the United States by the Chinese government, Chinese Communist Party authorities or their proxies. Family members in China of some activists living in the United States had also faced retaliation from the Xi government.

“We are greatly encouraged by the efforts of the United States and other governments to investigate and prosecute these blatant extralegal activities, and we will continue to document these violations for as long as necessary,” the letter said.

Four demands addressed to Xi Jinping

The open letter set out four demands:

• Immediately and unconditionally release prisoners of conscience, human rights defenders and people arbitrarily detained because of their relatives’ rights-advocacy work. Those named included, but were not limited to, people with close ties to the United States whose release has drawn the attention of US lawmakers: retired Uyghur doctor Gulshan Abbas; Uyghur entrepreneur Ekpar Asat; Hong Kong democracy activist Chow Hang-tung; Uyghur scholar Rahile Dawut; Chinese human rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi; Chinese journalist Dong Yuyu; house-church leader Pastor Gao Quanfu; US-based artist Gao Zhen; Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng; the 11th Panchen Lama Gedhun Choekyi Niyima, recognized by the Dalai Lama; Tibetan monk and writer Go Sherab Gyatso; Hong Kong democracy activists Albert Ho and Lee Cheuk-yan; Hong Kong pro-democracy media magnate Jimmy Lai; Myanmar American scholar Min Zin; Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti; Tibetan monk Lobsang Tsering; overseas democracy activist Wang Bingzhang; Chinese writer and Christian pastor Wang Yi; Chinese rights advocate Yang Maodong; and the leaders of the Zion Church.

• Announce an intention to repeal or amend laws adopted under Xi’s leadership that violate international human rights obligations, including, but not limited to, the 2020 Hong Kong National Security Law and the 2026 Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law.

• Confirm that people outside China, including the 14th Dalai Lama, will be permitted to travel to China to reunite with relatives and communities if they wish to do so, and guarantee their safety during such travel.

• Publicly affirm before arriving in the United States that all members of the Chinese delegation and their associates in the United States will refrain from transnational repression or collective punishment in response to protests and acts of resistance surrounding Xi’s visit.

The letter said that a refusal to take these steps would only deepen global public concern about the Chinese government’s intentions on human rights. Its signatories also expressed willingness to meet Xi directly during his visit.

Signatories include Uyghur advocacy representatives

The open letter was signed by 29 representatives of organizations around the world that advocate for human rights, democracy and religious freedom.

They included Sophie Richardson of the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders; Olivia Enos of the Hudson Institute; Jamie Fly of Freedom House; Beh Lih Yi of the Committee to Protect Journalists; Aleksandra Bielakowska of Reporters Without Borders; Nadia Daar of Amnesty International USA; Rishat Abbas of Uyghur Academy International; Zumretay Arkin of the World Uyghur Congress; Tencho Gyatso of the International Campaign for Tibet; Mark Clifford of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation; Adrian Zenz of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation; and Zhou Fengsuo of Human Rights in China and Humanitarian China, among others.

Pastor Bob Fu of ChinaAid was also among the signatories.

Fu told Voice of America on Wednesday that, during more than a decade of Xi Jinping’s rule, conditions for human rights, the rule of law and religious freedom in China had deteriorated to their worst level since the Cultural Revolution. Many human rights advocates around the world were disappointed and some had even fallen into despair, he said. Yet even if Xi did not respond to the open letter’s demands, rights advocates needed to use the US-China summit as an opportunity to speak according to their conscience.

“We cannot become desperate and remain silent because of a regime’s violence and continuing repression,” Fu said. “Instead, we should raise our voices at this moment. This is not simply a question of assessing whether our efforts are effective or whether the ruler will respond. It is our moral and spiritual responsibility to speak for those who have no voice.”

Trump expected to meet Xi on September 24

President Donald Trump is expected to meet the visiting Xi Jinping on September 24.

The summit between Trump and Xi in Beijing in May led to the release of Pastor Ezra Jin, a leader of Beijing’s Zion Church. The case of Jimmy Lai was also raised at that leaders’ meeting.

Fu said that power in China was now concentrated in Xi Jinping’s hands and that whether the upcoming US-China summit could secure the release of more prisoners of conscience would depend on the preference of China’s top leader.

“I am not especially optimistic that many people will be released, but there should at least be some friendly gestures in the next two weeks,” he said.

Fu said human rights organizations had almost abandoned hope that detainees would be exonerated and released. They were merely calling on the Chinese authorities to respect the most basic humanitarian limits.

He cited the case of Chinese American pastor John Cao, who has advanced stage-four prostate cancer. Cao served seven years in prison and, although released two and a half years ago, remains confined in China and is not permitted to return to the United States to reunite with his family.

“There is no way to explain this to the international community,” Fu said. “Then there is lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who has been disappeared for more than nine years. No one knows whether he is alive or dead, and the authorities still refuse to give his family any information. There is also Dr. Wang Bingzhang. Many of these are really humanitarian cases.”

“We have basically given up asking for them to be ‘rehabilitated,’ or even released from prison. We are only asking for information—information about whether they are alive or dead. And for someone like Pastor John Cao, to let him meet his first grandchild before he dies—how could even that be such an extravagant hope?”

Source record

Voice of America. “全球人权倡导组织在美中峰会前向习近平发出公开信.” Voice of America Chinese, September 17, 2026, 4:08 a.m. China time. Original article. Accessed September 17, 2026.