{"id":26970,"date":"2026-09-22T19:33:03","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T19:33:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/?p=26970"},"modified":"2026-09-22T19:33:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T19:33:03","slug":"why-xi-jinping-should-let-pastor-john-cao-come-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/22\/why-xi-jinping-should-let-pastor-john-cao-come-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Xi Jinping Should Let Pastor John Cao Come Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Chinese President Xi Jinping meets US President Donald Trump in Washington this week, he will have an opportunity to extend an act of mercy that could pay significant diplomatic dividends: allowing Pastor John Cao, a U.S. lawful permanent resident, finally to return home.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Cao’s story is not one of an active prisoner awaiting release \u2014 he already served his full seven-year sentence for “organizing illegal border crossings;” he walked out of a Chinese prison in March 2024.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

His actual offense, as human rights observers \u2014 including the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention \u2014 have noted, was building schools and delivering aid to impoverished children along the China-Myanmar border. Since his release, however, Chinese authorities have withheld his passport under a footnote in China’s Passport Law, a provision that allows the government to withhold a released prisoner’s travel documents for up to three years. Cao has now waited over two and a half years.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Now Cao is facing a diagnosis of late-stage prostate cancer with a spinal tumor. For him, continued delay would potentially be fatal, far from his loved ones and the focused medial aid he deserves.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

There is recent precedent for exactly this kind of humanitarian gesture. A previous pastor, Jin Mingri, had a similar case raised with Xi during Trump’s earlier visit to Beijing; Jin was subsequently released and reunited with his family in the United States. This outcome demonstrated that acts of diplomacy on behalf of individuals have the means to build goodwill \u2013 and the Cao case comes at a time when both governments seek to find areas of common ground.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

For Xi, issuing Cao’s passport creates nothing but good will. Cao has already served his sentence in full (although why he was prosecuted and jailed for humanitarian assistance speaks to other issues). He certainly poses no legal or security issues for China. And he is an extremely sick man who should be reunited with his family before any more time passes.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

What does China stand to gain? A meaningful signal at a highly-watched bilateral meeting that Beijing can act with humanity and decency despite strategic competition with Washington.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Trump would surely welcome such a sign, demonstrating that his face-to-face meetings with China’s leader can create events that go beyond trade agreements and diplomatic dinners.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

An ailing American citizen should be allowed to come home. It would be an act of clemency consistent with China’s own laws, taken by a confident government secure enough to show mercy to a dying man. Xi has an easy opening to make that point with the president of the United States. He should take it.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0egretnewseditor@gmail.com\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Chinese President Xi Jinping meets US President Donald Trump in Washington this week, he will have an opportunity to extend an act of mercy that could pay significant diplomatic dividends: allowing Pastor John Cao, a U.S. lawful permanent resident, finally to return home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47471,"featured_media":26971,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[149,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-intel","category-top-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47471"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26970"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26973,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26970\/revisions\/26973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}