CSW calls on government to allow Pastor John Cao to leave China

CSW is calling on the Chinese government to permit Pastor John Cao, who holds permanent residency in the United States and who has been diagnosed with stage four cancer, to leave China so that he might be reunited with his family. He has held a US green card for over 30 years.

Pastor Cao, now in his late 60s, served a seven-year prison sentence linked to his work establishing 16 schools in poverty-affected areas on the China-Myanmar border, which he established in 1986. He worked with churches from a range of denominations in the US and took an interdenominational approach. He was charged with ‘illegal border crossing’ in March 2017 upon return to Yunnan Province from Myanmar.

Despite his release in 2024 on completion of his sentence, Chinese authorities continue to withhold his passport, preventing him from leaving the country. The exit ban is thought to be linked to his detention on 14 October 2024 in Zhenxiong, Yunnan Province when he was held for questioning after 20 police raided a meeting of new unregistered church (Peace Reformed Church) and accused him of ‘illegal evangelism’ and conducting public baptisms.

Pastor Cao was recently diagnosed with, and has undergone chemotherapy treatment for, prostate cancer which has now spread to his bones and spine. Nevertheless, he is reportedly well enough to travel. His wife and two adult sons, all of whom hold US citizenship, live in North Carolina.

The Chinese government has prevented other religious leaders from leaving the country. In 2024 Catholic priests in the Wenzhou City region were charged with ‘illegal border crossings’, and on 16 December 2025 the government-run Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA) adopted the Provisional Regulations on the Standardised Management of Exit-and-Entry Travel Documents for Catholic Clergy, requiring travel documents to be submitted to the central government for review.

On 16 September CSW joined a network of Christian organisations in calling on US President Donald Trump to raise Pastor Cao’s case with China’s President Xi Jinping during their upcoming summit in Washington, D.C. on 24 September. The letter, co-ordinated by the Christians Against All Persecution network, also calls on President Trump to raise the cases of eight leaders from Zion Church who remain imprisoned following their detention in October 2025, and prominent Uyghur professor and economist Ilham Tohti, who was sentenced to life in prison on unfounded charges in September 2014.

CSW’s Director of Advocacy Anna Lee Stangl said: ‘CSW condemns the Chinese Communist Party’s strategy of imposing exit bans on religious leaders across China to restrict freedom of religion and belief in an attempt to silence and prevent voices speaking out about human rights abuses in China on the international stage. We call on China to immediately return missionary Pastor John Cao’s passport so that he can be reunited with his family in the US as he faces the difficult battle against late-stage cancer. We also call on US President Trump to raise this case in his meetings with President Xi from 24 September in Washington DC.’