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Migrants storm a barbed-wire fence as they attempt to cross the land border with Spain's African enclave of Ceuta near Fnideq in northern Morocco on September 15, 2024. (Getty Images)
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Police patrol outside the West Kowloon court before Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai arrives for his national security trial in Hong Kong on August 18, 2025. (Getty Images)
Given the scope and scale of the political prisoner crisis across China, the United States needs to do more to secure political prisoners’ release. The Chinese Communist Party holds at least 1.8 million Uyghurs in political prison camps and nearly 1,000 political prisoners in Hong Kong. In addition, the CCP extrajudicially detains many Tibetans, Christians (including pastors), and political dissidents. This is largely because the CCP sees political prisoners as an essential method of quashing dissent and retaining its power.
With that in mind, the United States should have equally robust mechanisms for setting political prisoners free. Congress has a substantial apparatus for securing political prisoners’ release. But the executive branch pursues political prisoner release in a more ad hoc manner. A new office of political prisoner advocacy in the executive branch, with a special envoy of ambassador rank, could bolster existing US efforts to free political prisoners.
Join Hudson for a discussion on the situation facing political prisoners across China, what the US can do to advance their cause, and potential reforms to Washington’s political prisoner advocacy framework.
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Related Research
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(Screenshot via Fox News)
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Campaign for Uyghurs Executive Director Rushan Abbas holds a photo of her sister, Gulshan Abbas, in New York on March 22, 2021. (Getty Images)
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(Screenshot via YouTube)
