Faith, freedom, and courage were the defining themes of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)’s 2025 Democracy Awards on November 4 in Washington, D.C. The ceremony honored extraordinary individuals and organizations confronting the Chinese Communist Party’s repression of speech and belief, while affirming the fundamental rights to worship freely, speak the truth without fear, and live according to one’s own conscience.
Watch the Awards Here.
This year’s Democracy Awards honored China Digital Times, accepted by founder and editor-in-chief Xiao Qiang, and Campaign for Uyghurs, accepted by founder and executive director Rushan Abbas. The Democracy Service Medals recognized Pastor Wang Yi, imprisoned leader of China’s house church movement, accepted on his behalf by Cao Yaxue of China Change, and the 11th Panchen Lama, Tibet’s abducted spiritual leader, accepted on his behalf by Abbot Zeekyab Rinpoche of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery. The evening also featured a powerful appeal from Grace Jin Drexel, whose father, Pastor Ezra Jin, was detained earlier this month along with nearly thirty church leaders across China.
The program featured remarks by a distinguished group of leaders including Representatives John Moolenaar, Jason Crow, Joaquin Castro, and Raja Krishnamoorthi. NED Board Members participating in the program included Senator Todd Young, Chairman Representative Peter Roskam (Ret.), Vice Chair Eileen Donahoe, Senator Mel Martínez (Ret.), and Board Member Alyssa Ayres.
NED presents two distinct honors that reflect the many faces of courage. The Democracy Award recognizes those on the frontlines—organizations confronting repression and expanding the space for freedom today. The Democracy Service Medal pays tribute to those whose lifelong dedication has made an indelible mark on the cause of freedom and democracy and has inspired generations to follow.
By honoring these courageous voices, the 2025 Democracy Awards highlighted the enduring power of individuals who stand for truth and conscience in the face of repression. Their leadership affirms that free speech, religious liberty, and human dignity are fundamental values—and that those who defend them strengthen not only their own nations, but also the security, prosperity, and freedom of the United States.
NED was also honored to announce the Board’s welcoming of a new member, Representative John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, who joins the Board in an honorary capacity. In accepting the nomination, he offered remarks, noting that as Chairman, he has “seen how the CCP’s authoritarian model seeks to suffocate that universal aspiration not only in China, but far beyond its borders. However, I’ve also seen how courage, truth and faith can prevail even in the darkest times.”
Special Guest Grace Jin Drexel: A Daughter’s Plea
In a moving opening reflection, Grace Jin Drexel, the daughter of imprisoned Beijing Pastor Ezra Jin of Zion Church, urged the world not to look away from China’s escalating campaign against people of faith. “I am here today to plead for my father and the 22 others because there is a window of opportunity in the next 20 days before they are formally indicted,” she said. “The Chinese Communist Party seeks to control everything—including the most intimate part of us, our beliefs. But as powerful as they are, they will never succeed. Faith and freedom will prevail.”
Introducing Drexel, NED Board Chairman and former U.S. Representative Peter Roskam reflected that the freedom to worship—enshrined as America’s first freedom—was born of a “scandalous” conviction: that allegiance to God transcends any earthly power. “That’s exactly what Pastor Jin has done,” Roskam said. “He has told the Chinese Communist Party, ‘You are not my emperor. My Savior is my emperor, and it is Him alone I serve.’ Our responsibility tonight is to make sure that we are giving voice to people like Pastor Jin and others who are suffering.”
Learn more about Pastor Ezra Jin and the CCP’s crackdown on Zion Church in China Change.
Pastor Wang Yi: 2025 Democracy Service Medal Honoree
Accepted on his Behalf by Cao Yaxue, China Change
The Democracy Service Medal honoring Pastor Wang Yi was accepted by Cao Yaxue, who has chronicled the persecution of Wang Yi’s Early Rain Covenant Church and the house church movement as founder of China Change.
Introducing the Medal, Representative Jason Crow reflected, “Authoritarian regimes target faith because they cannot tolerate an alternative power. They cannot tolerate people believing in something bigger than themselves and bigger than the state.” Pastor Wang Yi, he said, “is taking his faith and his responsibility to others, and to his country, and to his congregation seriously. He is making the sacrifices necessary to set the example for all of us, and we can garner great strength from that.”
Accepting the Medal, Cao observed that “the house church movement in China, despite relentless repression, is one of the most dynamic and enduring drivers of social change because of its emphasis on human dignity, service, justice, and neighborly love.” She shared a message from a member of Wang Yi’s congregation: “Pastor Wang Yi’s imprisonment and all that our church has endured are not an isolated event. Nor is it confined to just the religious freedom of Christians in China. It is a microcosm of what countless Chinese prisoners of conscience are suffering today.”
Reflecting the broader meaning of the tribute, NED Board Member Senator Todd Young emphasized that “brave men and women are standing up against the Chinese Communist Party’s oppression. Their struggle reminds us that the cause of liberty is universal and it requires our continued solidarity. You give hope to millions, and we stand with you.”
Learn more about Democracy Service Medal Honoree Pastor Wang Yi
Campaign for Uyghurs: 2025 Democracy Award Honoree
Accepted by Rushan Abbas, Campaign for Uyghurs
Rushan Abbas, founder and executive director of Campaign for Uyghurs, accepted NED’s Democracy Award on behalf of her organization. Her remarks connected the Uyghur struggle to the broader fight for freedom worldwide.
“This is not a Uyghur issue anymore; it is China’s war on freedom and democracy, a war on women and children, and a war on humanity itself,” Abbas said. She dedicated the award to “all those whose voices are silenced, including my beloved sister,” Dr. Gulshan Abbas, detained by Chinese authorities since 2018. “Nothing in this world will slow me down,” she said. “Please join me in this fight to protect humanity and the future of the free world we cherish.”
NED Board Member and former U.S. Senator Mel Martínez presented the award, noting, “As someone whose own family fled tyranny in search of freedom, I know courage like this does not come easily. It is born of love—a love for family, for faith, and for the simple dignity of being free.” He added, “We reaffirm our shared conviction that courage like hers is contagious, and that even in the darkest hours, freedom finds its defenders.”
Eileen Donahoe, NED Board Vice Chair, reflected on the deeper meaning of the awards “to lift up those whose courage reminds us that democracy’s strength lies not in power, but in ideas—and in the people brave enough to live by them.” She emphasized that “the defense of democracy is not partisan, but a shared conviction rooted in our deepest values of liberty and justice.”
Learn more about Democracy Award honoree Campaign for Uyghurs
China Digital Times: 2025 Democracy Award Honoree
Accepted by Xiao Qiang, China Digital Times
Accepting the award on behalf of China Digital Times, founder and editor-in-chief Xiao Qiang honored the “countless netizens inside the Great Firewall whose courage to speak, document, and share truth keeps the light of freedom alive.”
Founded in 2003, China Digital Times documents the voices and experiences that China’s censors attempt to erase, preserving a living record of resistance and resilience that defies authoritarian control.
Representative Joaquin Castro, a NED Board Member, presented the award to Qiang, noting, “The CCP operates the largest, most sophisticated and most repressive censorship apparatus in the entire world. Xiao Qiang has refused to be censored and refused to be silenced.” He praised China Digital Times as “the world’s foremost source documenting the Chinese people’s struggle for freedom,” adding that its website “is one of the first destinations for a large number of Chinese people looking to breach the Great Firewall,” and that it “plays a major role in enabling people inside China to communicate with each other by preserving and redistributing censored social media.”
Holding the Democracy Award—modeled after the Goddess of Democracy statue erected by Chinese students before the Tiananmen Square massacre—Qiang reflected, “I began my journey when [the statue’s] original body was crushed by tanks at Tiananmen Square. So it’s not just public, it’s personal. I made a vow that day that I would work for this until one day I could come back to China, come back to Tiananmen Square, and lay down flowers for the people who died for freedom.”
“At CDT, our mission is to speak truth to power. Not with hatred, but with clarity and courage, and to preserve collective memory as history,” Xiao added. “Freedom begins with truth—and truth, when preserved in collective memory, becomes the seed of a freer future.”
Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi noted, “Democracy may bend, but it never breaks because of courageous people, like those we are honoring.” He also noted the importance of supporting these individuals and “the countless others who are toiling, sometimes in obscurity or silence, also fighting for democracy, we should always stand with them.”
Learn more about Democracy Award honoree China Digital Times
The 11th Panchen Lama Gedhun Choekyi Nyima: 2025 Democracy Service Medal Honoree
Accepted on His Behalf by Abbot Zeekyab Rinpoche
Accepting the Democracy Service Medal for the 11th Panchen Lama, Abbot Zeekyab Rinpoche of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery called on the world to remember Tibet’s disappeared child lama, recognized as the second-highest authority in Tibetan Buddhism and abducted at age six in 1995.
Abbot Rinpoche posed the question, “Why is a country as powerful as China so threatened by a child? The answer is simple: the boy embodies a sacred lineage. He is the second-highest authority in Tibetan Buddhism. To abduct one is to plunge a people into darkness. And that is precisely why China took him.”
“Authoritarians fear faith,” Rinpoche continued. “When people find meaning, dignity, and unbreakable resolve in their beliefs, no regime—no matter how powerful—can extinguish it. Faith will always prevail over tyranny.”
NED Board Member Alyssa Ayres presented the award to Abbot Rinpoche, drawing attention to China’s ongoing assault on Tibetan faith and culture.
“Nearly one million Tibetan children are separated from their families and raised in state-run schools that strip them of their language and faith,” she said. “The Chinese Communist Party has even declared that it will appoint its own Dalai Lama—an act that would violate centuries of spiritual tradition and strike at the heart of religious freedom itself.”
Ayres reflected that, “Even in the face of such control, the story of the Panchen Lama endures. His disappearance has become its own form of witness: a reminder that truth and faith cannot be dictated, and that even silence can become a form of defiance.”
Learn more about Democracy Service Medal honoree the 11th Panchen Lama
Standing with the Brave
In his remarks, NED President and CEO Damon Wilson emphasized NED’s mission to stand alongside those defending freedom around the world.
“At NED, we have the privilege and responsibility to stand with people like Rushan and Pastor Wang Yi,” Wilson said. “Their bravery gives our mission its purpose. But courage like this doesn’t just inspire—it grows stronger when recognized, celebrated, and connected.”
He continued, “With our partners, the Endowment is helping to empower a global network of freedom—one that transcends borders, languages, and faith traditions. It’s a network built not on politics, but on principle: that every person deserves the right to worship freely, think independently, and live with dignity.”
The evening closed with a renewed call to solidarity—an affirmation that wherever people stand up for truth and conscience, NED stands with them.
Remarks have been lightly edited for clarity and consistency.
