[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 493 Introduced in House (IH)]
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116th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 493
Condemning the persecution of Christians in China.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 16, 2019
Mrs. Hartzler (for herself and Ms. Speier) submitted the following
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and
in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee
concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Condemning the persecution of Christians in China.
Whereas, according to the Department of State, there are an estimated 12,000,000
Chinese Catholics and 60,000,000 to 80,000,000 Chinese Protestants
worshipping in both officially registered and unregistered churches in
China;
Whereas the activities of state-sanctioned religious organizations are regulated
by the Chinese Communist Party, which manages all aspects of religious
life;
Whereas the practice of Christianity is overseen by four major entities: Three-
Self Patriotic Movement, the China Christian Council, the Chinese
Patriotic Catholic Association, and the Bishops Conference of Catholic
Church in China;
Whereas the Chinese government is actively seeking to control, govern, and
manipulate all aspects of faith through the ``Sinicization of
Religion'', a process intended to shape religious traditions and
doctrines so they conform with the objectives of the Chinese government
and Communist Party;
Whereas, on February 1, 2018, the Chinese government implemented new religious
regulations that imposed restrictions on Chinese contacts with overseas
religious organizations, required government approval for religious
schools, websites, and any online religious services, and effectively
banned unauthorized religious gatherings and teachings;
Whereas, since February 1, 2018, forced closures of churches, arbitrary
detention, and arrests of unregistered Christian clergy and
practitioners have steadily increased;
Whereas Chinese authorities actively harass, arrest, interrogate, and detain
unregistered and registered Christian clergy and practitioners;
Whereas Chinese authorities raid house churches and confiscate religious
paraphernalia, including crosses and bibles;
Whereas, according to the Department of State, churches experience increased
restrictions and surveillance by the Chinese government, including
efforts to install security cameras on church property;
Whereas in Zhejiang Province, home to one of China's largest Christian
populations, crosses have been torn down from 1,200 to 1,700 churches
since 2015;
Whereas, as part of China's ``Sinicization of Religion'' campaign, Beijing's
Zion Church was shut down as well as other ``unauthorized churches'' in
Henan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Liaoning, and Hebei Provinces;
Whereas while the Holy See's recent deal with the Chinese government reportedly
provides a Papal veto over Catholic bishops nominated by the government-
supported Bishops Conference and was intended to protect religious
freedom, persecution of Chinese Catholics has intensified and new
restrictions on religious practice have been in place since the
agreement was signed;
Whereas a Catholic church in Xingjiang city of Yining had its three crosses, two
bell towers, and two statues demolished by authorities, and religious
features on the church's exterior walls and mosaics were covered with
paint;
Whereas two Marian shrines were destroyed including the Our Lady of the Seven
Sorrows in Dongergo, Shanxi Province, and Our Lady of Bliss in Anlong,
Guizhou Province;
Whereas, in June of 2019, Fujian Province officials issued requirements
requiring Catholic priests to ban minors from church and education, to
stop relationships with foreign Catholics, to end any missionary
efforts, and to prohibit posting religious topics online;
Whereas a Chinese official in Luoning county, Henan Province, recently erased
the First Commandment from a list of the Ten Commandments hanging on a
wall inside a church;
Whereas it has been reported that China is going to ``re-write'' and issue a
version of the Bible with the ``correct understanding'' of the text
according to the government;
Whereas Chinese authorities have banned children and students from attending
church services;
Whereas, in January 2018, Chinese authorities destroyed the 50,000-member Linfen
Golden Lampstand Church;
Whereas Chinese authorities have attempted to remove crosses and replace them
with the Chinese flag and slogans praising the Communist Party and
President Xi Jinping;
Whereas state-sanctioned Protestant churches have also faced property
destruction, cross removal, and closure by Chinese authorities;
Whereas according to the United States Commission on International Religious
Freedom, more than 5,000 Christians and 1,000 church leaders were
arrested in 2018 because of their faith or religious practices;
Whereas Chinese authorities torture lawyers, human rights defenders, and other
prisoners of conscience of all faiths;
Whereas, according to the Department of State, the Chinese government has
imprisoned thousands of individuals of all faiths for practicing their
religious beliefs and often labels them as ``cults'';
Whereas, as part of its crackdown, the Chinese government arbitrarily detained
Pastor Wang Yi of Early Rain Covenant Church along with numerous church
members, and blocked worshippers from entering the building;
Whereas many Early Rain Covenant Church members were forced to renounce their
faith and tortured in order to give confessions accusing Pastor Yi of
making statements against the Chinese Communist Party;
Whereas Pastor John Cao, a United States permanent resident from Greensboro,
North Carolina, has been detained in a Chinese prison since March 2017
for his humanitarian and missionary work in Burma under contrived
charges of organizing illegal border crossings;
Whereas, since 1999, the Department of State has designated China as a country
of particular concern under the International Religious Freedom Act;
Whereas the Department of State has hosted Ministerials to Advance International
Religious Freedom in 2018 and again in 2019 to engage like-minded allies
to advance religious freedom protections globally, including by
protecting vulnerable religious minorities; and
Whereas, as the 2017 National Security Strategy of the United States explains,
we must seek to ``advance American influence'' by ``protect[ing]
religious freedom'': Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) reaffirms the commitment of the United States to
promoting religious freedom in China and calls on the President
and the Secretary of State to strengthen United States
religious freedom diplomacy on behalf of Christians facing
restrictions in China;
(2) calls on the President, the Secretary of State, and the
United States Trade Representative to ensure that trade
negotiations include religious freedom conditions as mandated
by the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and
Accountability Act of 2015 (19 U.S.C. 4201 et seq.);
(3) encourages the President to use the authorities
available under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998
(22 U.S.C. 6401 et seq.), the Frank Wolf International
Religious Freedom Act of 2016 (Public Law 114-281; 130 Stat.
1426), and the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act
(subtitle F of title XII of the National Defense Authorization
Act for Fiscal Year 2017; 22 U.S.C. 2656 note) to address
particularly severe religious freedom restrictions in China by
holding Chinese officials accountable for their complicity in
egregious violations of internationally recognized human
rights;
(4) calls on the President, the Secretary of State, the
Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, and
Members of Congress to leverage the growing network of foreign
international religious freedom focused institutions and
parliamentary groups;
(5) urges the Ambassador at Large for International
Religious Freedom to develop an action plan to creatively
employ religious freedom programming;
(6) calls on the President and Secretary of State to raise
cases relating to religious or political prisoners at the
highest levels with Chinese officials, such as the case of
Pastor Wang Yi of the Early Rain Church, because experience
demonstrates that consistently raising prisoner cases can
result in improved treatment, reduced sentences, or in some
cases, release from custody, detention, or imprisonment;
(7) encourages Members of Congress to ``adopt'' a prisoner
of conscience in China through the Lantos Human Rights
Commission's ``Defending Freedom Project'', raise the case with
Chinese officials, and work publicly for their release;
(8) calls on the Chinese government to unconditionally
release religious and political prisoners or, at the very
least, ensure that detainees are treated humanely with access
to family, the lawyer of their choice, independent medical
care, and the ability to practice their faith while in
detention; and
(9) encourages the global faith community to speak in
solidarity with the persecuted Christians in China.
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