‘Bring Them Home’: Americans Push to Free Loved Ones Jailed in China

WASHINGTON—With the U.S.–China summit approaching, Americans who have loved ones detained in China are pleading with President Donald Trump not to forget them.  

One of them is 20-year U.S. Army veteran Nelson Wells, whose son Nelson Wells Jr. has been in Chinese prison for 12 years on charges that the family said were dubious. 

At a hearing held by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China on Sept. 22, Wells appealed to the U.S. president “father to father.” 

Weeks ago, his son was diagnosed with hepatitis C. He was set to be released in 2041. But with Wells Jr.’s deteriorating health, including chronic pain, high blood pressure, diabetes, and seizures, Wells said he’s not sure whether his son would last that long. 

“He’s sick. His family has suffered. There’s no justice in allowing him to die in prison,” Wells said.

Wells Jr.’s daughter, now 12, “has never seen her father outside photographs” and prays at night “for someone who can bring him home.”  

Trump can be that someone, he said. 

Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), who hosted the hearing, agreed that the United States cannot look away. 

Freeing political prisoners needs to be on the U.S.–China summit agenda, he told The Epoch Times. 

“It has to be—period,” he said.

The congressman said he felt “heartbroken” hearing the pain and suffering of the families.

“Just think what it’s like to be jailed, tortured, mistreated, having your organs taken—I mean, you’ve got to have a heart,” he said.

He added that he hopes the president can convey “a sense of urgency and compassion” for “these suffering individuals.”

Seated next to Wells at the witness table was Tim Hunt, whose sister, Dawn Michelle Hunt, like Wells’s son, was arrested in China in 2014 for alleged drug smuggling. Both families deny the accusations. 

While visiting his sister in July, Hunt said he didn’t recognize the sibling he had last seen two years ago. 

“She has aged dramatically. Her posture is that of someone much older. She is slumped over,” he said. He noticed how her teeth had yellowed and shifted, and how her hair had grayed. 

When they met, he said, she kept asking when she would be freed, and he couldn’t give her an answer. 

In January, their father passed away at age 92. 

“He lived a long life before he died, with his only daughter still in prison,” Tim Hunt said, tears rolling down his face. “He could not see her one last time.” 

Wells put his arm around Hunt while wiping off his own tears.  

His deepest hope is to “bring them home alive, and bring them home this year,” Wells said. 

‘Can’t Delay It Further’

More than 200 Americans are currently detained in China, according to the Dui Hua Foundation, a human rights group focused on the country.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has also heavily suppressed religious and ethnic minority groups, such as Uyghurs, Christians, and practitioners of the spiritual faith Falun Gong, subjecting them to arbitrary arrests, harsh sentences, and other forms of abuse.  

Those imprisoned include many who have families in America. 

Rushan Abbas, executive director at Campaign for Uyghurs, described the case of her sister, Gulshan Abbas, as an example of the CCP’s transnational repression. 

Gulshan Abbas disappeared days after Rushan Abbas spoke in public about the mass detention and torture of Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang region. The former was sentenced to 20 years in prison in a secret trial. 

“Behind every statistic is a human being, a family torn apart, and a voice the CCP is trying to silence,” Rushan Abbas said.

Erping Zhang, a spokesperson for Falun Gong, noted Alisa Zhou, a Maryland accountant in the audience whose mother has been detained in China since April.

The arrest followed months of covert Chinese police surveillance of two Falun Gong study groups, Zhang noted in his written testimony. 

American Grace Chen, who’s in the U.S. Army, was a teenager when the Chinese authorities arrested her parents in 2020. Only after their release in 2025 did Chen learn about the “horrors” that her father experienced, Zhang said at the hearing. Chen’s father was denied sleep, scalded with hot water, and forced to drink urine, according to Zhang.

Her parents are still in China. 

Trump in July helped Pastor Ezra Jin of Beijing’s Zion Church gain his freedom. Jin also testified at the hearing, with his daughter, Grace Jin Drexel, as the translator. 

He said later in an interview that he considers the upcoming meeting between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to be the best shot to raise the political prisoners’ case. 

“We can’t delay it further,” Jin said. He added that he hopes the freedom he enjoys can soon extend to many others who still don’t have it—including eight church fellows arrested at the same time as him in October 2025 and two Light of Zion Church leaders, Gao Quanfu and his wife, Pang Yu.

Wells has about 10 minutes of call time with his jailed son each month. He has saved this month’s allotment for after the summit, hoping to deliver some good news, he told The Epoch Times. 

Hunt is cautiously hopeful. Speaking slowly at the hearing, he told the audience that if his sister and Wells’s son can’t come home at the same time, he hopes Wells’s son gets the priority. 

“He still has a mother and a father that are alive. He still has that family that can support him. He needs that,” Hunt said.

Wells, listening, quietly wiped away tears.