Washington D.C. – The Washington Stand, May 08, 2026
Every summit between world leaders comes with a priority list. When President Donald Trump meets Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping on May 14-15, the agenda will undoubtedly be packed with issues of enormous geopolitical consequence: the wars raging in the Middle East, escalating tensions over Taiwan, trade and tariff disputes, militarization in the South China Sea, and the Chinese regime’s campaign of transnational repression.
These are all serious matters deserving urgent attention between the leaders of the world’s two most powerful nations.
But President Trump should also carry another list with him into the meeting room — a list of names.
Not the names of military commanders, negotiators, or tariff officials. A list of prisoners of conscience: pastors, democracy advocates, human rights lawyers, whistleblowers, and ordinary citizens unjustly imprisoned or forcibly disappeared by the Chinese Communist Party because they dared to speak the truth, worship freely, or defend human dignity.
President Ronald Reagan understood the power of such a list.
Throughout the Cold War, Reagan famously carried in his pocket the names of prisoners of conscience suffering under Soviet oppression. Whether he was meeting Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev or other communist officials, Reagan consistently raised these names. It reportedly became so “annoying” to Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze that he complained to Secretary of State George Shultz, asking why the American president insisted on wasting valuable summit time discussing “non-priority” issues instead of nuclear disarmament and superpower rivalry.
Shultz reportedly shrugged and admitted that even he sometimes became frustrated by Reagan’s persistence. But then he told his Soviet counterpart something profoundly important: these names had become the American president’s priority.
History vindicated Reagan’s moral clarity. Many prisoners whose names were repeatedly raised by the United States were eventually released, exiled to freedom, or reunited with their families.
President Trump now has the opportunity to demonstrate similar leadership.
He can show Xi Jinping — and the 1.3 billion Chinese people watching — that America still stands for liberty, religious freedom, and human dignity. He can make clear that the United States does not measure success only in tariffs, military leverage, or economic concessions, but also in whether innocent people are allowed to live freely without fear of imprisonment for their beliefs.
Who should be on that list?
