[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4821 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4821

To hold accountable senior officials of the Government of the People's 
   Republic of China who are responsible for, complicit in, or have 
    directly persecuted Christians in China, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 29, 2021

Mrs. Hartzler (for herself, Mr. Duncan, Mr. Gallagher, Mr. Lamborn, Mr. 
 Aderholt, Mr. Latta, Mr. Bilirakis, Mr. Weber of Texas, Ms. Salazar, 
 Mr. Timmons, Mr. Good of Virginia, Mr. Hice of Georgia, Mr. Budd, Mr. 
  Harris, Mr. Steube, Mr. Guest, Mr. Gohmert, Mrs. Miller-Meeks, Mr. 
Gaetz, Mr. Babin, Mr. Mullin, Mr. Brooks, Mrs. Wagner, Mr. Pfluger, Mr. 
Reschenthaler, Mr. Grothman, Mr. Johnson of Ohio, Ms. Letlow, Mr. Smith 
  of New Jersey, Mr. Mann, Mr. Waltz, Mr. Allen, Mr. Owens, Mr. Buck, 
  Mrs. Miller of Illinois, and Ms. Stefanik) introduced the following 
 bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in 
addition to the Committees on the Judiciary, and 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

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To hold accountable senior officials of the Government of the People's 
   Republic of China who are responsible for, complicit in, or have 
    directly persecuted Christians in China, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Combating the Persecution of 
Christians in China Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) According to the Department of State's International 
        Religious Freedom reports, there are an estimated 12,000,000 
        Chinese Catholics and 60,000,000 to 80,000,000 Chinese 
        Protestants worshiping in both officially registered and 
        unregistered churches in China.
            (2) 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.
            (3) The activities of state-sanctioned religious 
        organizations are regulated by the Chinese Communist Party, 
        which manages all aspects of religious life.
            (4) The Chinese Communist Party 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 Communist Party.
            (5) 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 service, and effectively banned unauthorized 
        religious gatherings and teachings.
            (6) Since February 1, 2018, forced closures of churches, 
        arbitrary detention, and arrest of Christian clergy and 
        practitioners have steadily increased, including the arrest and 
        9-year prison sentence of Pastor Wang Yi of the Early Rain 
        Covenant Church.
            (7) In September 2018, the Holy See announced that a 
        Provisional Agreement on the appointment of bishops had been 
        signed with the Chinese government; however, several news 
        sources have reported that since the agreement was signed 
        Chinese authorities have detained clergy, pressured them to 
        join an ``independent church'', closed unregistered churches, 
        and removed children from churches.
            (8) There are credible reports of Chinese authorities 
        raiding house churches, removing crosses, confiscating 
        religious paraphernalia, installing surveillance cameras on 
        church property, pressuring churches to sing songs of the 
        Chinese Communist Party and display the national flag during 
        community worship, forcing churches to replace images of Jesus 
        Christ or the Virgin Mary with pictures of President Xi 
        Jinping, and banning children and students from attending 
        church services.
            (9) It has been reported that China is rewriting and will 
        issue a version of the Bible with the ``correct understanding'' 
        of the text according to the Chinese Communist Party.
            (10) According to the Department of State's International 
        Religious Freedom reports, the Chinese government has 
        imprisoned thousands of individuals of all faiths for 
        practicing their religious beliefs and often labels them as 
        ``cults''.
            (11) Prisoners include Pastor Zhang Shaojie, a Three-Self 
        church pastor from Nanle County in China's central Henan was 
        sentenced in July 2014 to 12 years in prison for ``gathering a 
        crowd to disrupt the public order'', and Pastor John Cao, a 
        United States permanent resident from Greensboro, North 
        Carolina, who was sentenced for 7 years in prison in March 2018 
        under contrived charges of organizing illegal border crossings.
            (12) Since 1999, the Department of State has designated 
        China as a country of particular concern under the 
        International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.
            (13) The Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and 
        Accountability Act of 2015 states that the United States 
        overall trade negotiating objectives must ``take into account 
        conditions relating to religious freedom of any party to 
        negotiations for a trade agreement with the United States''.
            (14) The National Security Strategy of the United States 
        issued in 2017, 2015, 2006, 2002, 1999, 1998, and 1997, 
        committed the United States to promoting international 
        religious freedom to advance the security, economic, and other 
        national interests of the United States.

SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY.

    (a) Holding Chinese Officials Responsible for Religious Freedom 
Abuses Targeting Chinese Christians.--It is the policy of the United 
States to consider senior officials of the Government of the People's 
Republic of China who are responsible for, complicit in, or have 
directly persecuted Christians in China to have committed--
            (1) a gross violation of internationally recognized human 
        rights for purposes of imposing sanctions with respect to such 
        officials under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights 
        Accountability Act (22 U.S.C. 2656 note); and
            (2) a particularly severe violation of religious freedom 
        for purposes of applying section 212(a)(2)(G) of the 
        Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(2)(G)) with 
        respect to such officials.
    (b) Ensuring Trade Negotiations Consider Religious Freedom 
Conditions.--It is the policy of the United States to ensure that trade 
negotiations with China include religious freedom conditions as 
mandated by the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and 
Accountability Act of 2015 (19 U.S.C. 4201 et seq.).
    (c) Department of State Programming To Promote Religious Freedom 
for Chinese Christians.--Consistent with section 401 of the Frank R. 
Wolf International Religious Freedom Act (Public Law 114-281; 130 Stat. 
1436), of the funds available to the Department of State for 
international religious freedom programs, the Ambassador-at-Large for 
International Religious Freedom should support efforts to protect and 
promote international religious freedom in China and for programs to 
protect Christians in China and other religious groups.
    (d) Redesignation of China as a Country of Particular Concern.--It 
is the policy of the United States to continue to redesignate China as 
a ``country of particular concern'', as long as China continues to 
engage in systematic and egregious religious freedom violations, as 
defined by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (Public Law 
105-292).
    (e) International Ministerial To Advance Religious Freedom.--It is 
the policy of the United States that the Department of State will host 
once every two years the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom in 
order to bring together leaders from around the world to discuss the 
challenges facing religious freedom, identify means to address 
religious persecution and discrimination worldwide, and promote great 
respect for and preservation of religious liberty.

SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

     It is the sense of Congress that the United States should promote 
religious freedom in China by--
            (1) strengthening religious freedom diplomacy on behalf of 
        Christians and other religious minorities facing restrictions 
        in China;
            (2) raising cases relating to religious or political 
        prisoners at the highest levels with Chinese officials 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;
            (3) encouraging 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;
            (4) calling 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
            (5) encouraging the global faith community to speak in 
        solidarity with the persecuted religious groups in China, 
        including Christians.
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