[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 157 (Wednesday, September 28, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H8200-H8203]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
COMBATING THE PERSECUTION OF RELIGIOUS GROUPS IN CHINA ACT
Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and
pass the bill (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, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 4821
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
Religious Groups in China Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) According to the Department of State's International
Religious Freedom (IRF) report estimates, Buddhists comprise
18.2 percent of the country's total population, Christians,
5.1 percent, Muslims, 1.8 percent, followers of folk
religions, 21.9 percent, and atheists or unaffiliated
persons, 52.2 percent, with Hindus, Jews, and Taoists
comprising less than one percent.
(2) The Government of the People's Republic of China (PRC)
recognizes five official religions, Buddhism, Taoism, Islam,
Protestantism, and Catholicism (according to the State
Department's IRF report) and only religious groups belonging
to one of the five sanctioned ``patriotic religious
associations'' representing these religions are permitted to
register with the government and hold worship service,
excluding all other faiths and denying the ability to worship
without being registered with the government.
(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 PRC 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) There are numerous reports that authorities forced
closures of Buddhist, Christian, Islamic, and Taoist houses
of worship and destroyed public displays of religious symbols
throughout the country.
(7) Authorities arrested and detained religious leaders
trying to hold services online.
(8) There are credible reports of Chinese authorities
raiding house churches and other places of religious worship,
removing and confiscating religious paraphernalia, installing
surveillance cameras on religious property, pressuring
congregations to sing songs of the Chinese Communist Party
and display the national flag during worship, forcing
churches to replace images of Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary
with pictures of General Secretary Xi Jinping, and banning
children and students from attending religious services.
(9) It has been reported that the PRC is rewriting and will
issue a version of the Bible with the ``correct
understanding'' of the text according to the Chinese
Communist Party. Authorities continued to restrict the
printing and distribution of the Bible, Quran, and other
religious literature, and penalized publishing and copying
businesses that handled religious materials.
(10) According to the Department of State's IRF reports,
the PRC Government has imprisoned thousands of individuals of
all faiths for practicing their religious beliefs and often
labels them as ``cults''.
(11) The Political Prisoner Database maintained by the
human rights NGO Dui Hua Foundation counted 3,492 individuals
imprisoned for ``organizing or using a `cult' to undermine
implementation of the law.'' Prisoners include--
(A) the 11th Panchen Lama, Gedun Choekyi Nyima, who has
been held captive along with his parents since May 17, 1995;
(B) Pastor Zhang Shaojie, a Three-Self church pastor from
Nanle County in central Henan was sentenced in July 2014 to
12 years in prison for ``gathering a crowd to disrupt the
public order'';
(C) 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; and
(D) Pastor Wang Yi of the Early Rain Covenant Church who
was arrested and sentenced to 9 years in prison for
``inciting to subvert state power'' and ``illegal business
operations''.
(12) Authorities continue to detain Falun Gong
practitioners and subject them to harsh and inhumane
treatment.
(13) Since 1999, the Department of State has designated the
PRC as a country of particular concern under the
International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.
(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 PRC Officials Responsible for Religious Freedom
Abuses Targeting Chinese Christians or Other Religious
Minorities.--It is the policy of the United States to
consider senior officials of the Government of the People's
Republic of China (PRC) who are responsible for or have
directly carried out, at any time, persecution of Christians
or other religious minorities in the PRC 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) Department of State Programming to Promote Religious
Freedom in the People's Republic of China.--The Ambassador-
at-Large for International Religious Freedom should support
efforts to protect and promote international religious
freedom in the PRC and for programs to protect Christians and
other religious minorities in the PRC.
(c) Designation of the People's Republic of China as a
Country of Particular Concern.--It is the policy of the
United States to continue to designate the PRC as a ``country
of particular concern'', as long as the PRC continues to
engage in systematic and egregious religious freedom
violations, as defined by the International Religious Freedom
Act of 1998 (Public Law 105-292).
SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that the United States should
promote religious freedom in the PRC by--
(1) strengthening religious freedom diplomacy on behalf of
Christians and other religious minorities facing restrictions
in the PRC;
(2) raising cases relating to religious or political
prisoners at the highest levels with PRC 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 the PRC through the Tom Lantos Human Rights
Commission's ``Defending Freedom Project'', raise the case
with PRC officials, and work publicly for their release;
(4) calling on the PRC 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;
[[Page H8201]]
(5) encouraging the global faith community to speak in
solidarity with the persecuted religious groups in the PRC;
and
(6) hosting, once every two years, the Ministerial to
Advance Religious Freedom organized by the Department of
State 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. 5. SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING ACTIONS AT UNITED
NATIONS.
It is the sense of Congress that the United Nations Human
Rights Council should issue a formal condemnation of the
People's Republic of China for the ongoing genocide against
Uyghurs and other religious and ethnic minority groups, as
well as for its persecution of Christians, Falun Gong, and
other religious groups.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Castro) and the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Kim) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas.
General Leave.
Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their
remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 4821, as amended.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Texas?
There was no objection.
Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 4821, the Combating
the Persecution of Religious Groups in China Act, introduced by my
colleague, Representative Vicky Hartzler.
The state of religious freedom in China has been alarming for several
years now. Despite religious freedom being guaranteed in its
constitution, the PRC actively suppresses this fundamental right.
While this government's systemic orchestration of genocide and crimes
against humanity against the Uyghur people and other ethnic and
religious minorities in the Uyghur region has been widely broadcasted
across international media, followers of a variety of religious faiths
and traditions have long experienced religious persecution in China.
The ability to freely practice one's religion or engage in worship
has continued to deteriorate. Those who bravely speak out against the
infringement of religious freedom or refuse to join state-sanctioned
religious organizations face the PRC Government's inhumane repression
and human rights abuses.
Thousands of religious leaders and worshippers have been harassed,
detained, disappeared, tortured, physically abused, sentenced to
prison, or subjected to forced labor and indoctrination due to their
religious affiliation or the practice of their religious beliefs. Some
have even been pressured to renounce their religious beliefs.
In addition to these atrocities, the People's Republic of China
officials have removed or replaced religious images, iconography, and
symbols; have desecrated or demolished places of worship; and have
rewritten religious text in an effort to align with Communist Party
ideology.
This is unacceptable, but infringement on personal rights has become
business as usual in China. Nobody should be forced to endure
discrimination because of their religion anywhere in the world.
Congress must act now to support efforts to protect and promote
religious freedom in China and to protect adherents of all religious
faiths in China. We must continue to call out the PRC Government for
these atrocities and take actions to prevent the stifling of religious
freedom in China.
By passing this important, bipartisan legislation, this body sends a
clear message to the PRC Government that it will be held accountable
for its pattern of gross human rights abuses and severe violations of
religious freedoms.
Madam Speaker, I thank Representative Hartzler for authoring this
important, bipartisan legislation which I was proud to move through the
Foreign Affairs Committee, I urge my colleagues to join me in
supporting it, and I reserve the balance of my time.
House of Representatives,
Committee on the Judiciary,
Washington, DC, September 23, 2022.
Hon. Gregory Meeks,
Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of
Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Chairman Meeks: This letter is to advise you that the
Committee on the Judiciary has now had an opportunity to
review the provisions in H.R. 4821, the ``Combating the
Persecution of Christians in China Act,'' that fall within
our Rule X jurisdiction. I appreciate your consulting with us
on those provisions. The Judiciary Committee has no objection
to your including them in the bill for consideration on the
House floor, and to expedite that consideration is willing to
forgo action on H.R. 4821, with the understanding that we do
not thereby waive any future jurisdictional claim over those
provisions or their subject matters.
In the event a House-Senate conference on this or similar
legislation is convened, the Judiciary Committee reserves the
right to request an appropriate number of conferees to
address any concerns with these or similar provisions that
may arise in conference.
Please place this letter into the Congressional Record
during consideration of the measure on the House floor. Thank
you for the cooperative spirit in which you have worked
regarding this matter and others between our committees.
Sincerely,
Jerrold Nadler,
Chairman.
____
House of Representatives,
Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Washington, DC, September 26, 2022.
Hon. Jerrold Nadler,
Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary, House of
Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Chairman Nadler: I am writing to you concerning H.R.
4821, the ``Combating the Persecution of Religious Groups in
China Act.'' I appreciate your willingness to work
cooperatively on this legislation.
I acknowledge that provisions of the bill fall within the
jurisdiction of the Committee on the Judiciary under House
Rule X, and that your Committee will forgo action on H.R.
4821 to expedite floor consideration. I further acknowledge
that the inaction of your Committee with respect to the bill
does not waive any future jurisdictional claim over the
matters contained in the bill that fall within your
jurisdiction.
I also acknowledge that your Committee will be
appropriately consulted and involved as this, or similar
legislation moves forward and will support the appointment of
Committee on the Judiciary conferees during any House-Senate
conference convened on this legislation.
Lastly, I will ensure that our exchange of letters is
included in the Congressional Record during floor
consideration of the bill. Thank you again for your
cooperation regarding the legislation. I look forward to
continuing to work with you as the measure moves through the
legislative process.
Sincerely,
Gregory W. Meeks,
Chairman.
Mrs. KIM of California. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
Madam Speaker, I rise in support of this bill. The Chinese Communist
Party is at war with religious freedom. The CCP treats as threats those
organizations and allegiances that it does not control. Members of the
CCP and the PLA are required to be atheists and are prohibited from
practicing a religion. National law effectively prohibits young people
in China from receiving any religious education.
Xi Jinping is ramping up his so-called Sinicization of religion and
is expressly demanding that religious groups support the control and
ideology of the Chinese Communist Party. The consequences for those who
refuse to submit are brutal.
House-church Protestant Christians, underground Catholics, Tibetan
Buddhists, Uyghur Muslims, Falun Gong practitioners, and other people
who seek to worship freely are repressed.
The State Department's annual religious freedom reports note deaths
in police custody. They also state that the PRC ``tortured, physically
abused, arrested, disappeared, detained, sentenced to prison, subjected
to forced labor and . . . harassed adherents of both registered and
unregistered religious groups for activities related to their religious
beliefs and practices.''
Both the Trump and Biden administrations have correctly recognized
the PRC's brutal crackdown and forced encampment of Uyghur Muslims and
other minorities in Xinjiang as a genocide, involving crimes against
humanity.
According to credible reports, more than 800,000 Muslim children have
been separated from their families.
Just this week, 90-year-old Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen is on trial
in Hong Kong, one of several Catholic bishops imprisoned and actively
persecuted by the CCP. Numerous Protestant pastors remain in detention,
and the government continues to demolish church buildings and crosses.
[[Page H8202]]
Religious believers in China deserve our prayers, our respect, and
our support.
This bill before us today will help ensure that CCP officials
responsible for this persecution are identified, sanctioned, and denied
visas into the United States.
It also states that the People's Republic of China has continued to
earn designation as a ``country of particular concern'' under the
International Religious Freedom Act. It calls for efforts by the United
States, including diplomacy at the highest levels, to promote the
protection of Christians and other religious minorities inside China.
It expresses the sense of Congress that the U.N. Human Rights Council
should formally condemn the PRC for its ongoing genocide in Xinjiang as
well as its persecution of Christians and other religious groups. The
inability of that Council to condemn such massive human rights abuses
is an indictment of its effectiveness.
Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Hartzler)
for introducing this important bill of which I am a proud cosponsor. It
deserves our unanimous support, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mrs. KIM of California. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the
gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Hartzler).
Mrs. HARTZLER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to advocate for the
passage of my bill, H.R. 4821, the Combating the Persecution of
Religious Groups in China Act. This urgently needed legislation will
hold senior officials of the Chinese Communist Party accountable for
the human rights violations and persecution of Christians and other
religious groups in China.
The Chinese Communist Party believes any religion threatens its
control over society. As a result, the CCP is carrying out a systemic
crackdown on all religions to control and manipulate every aspect of
faith. This includes the closing and destruction of churches,
installing surveillance equipment on church property, forcing the
modification of religious teachings to conform with the objectives of
the government, and the wrongful imprisonment of thousands of
individuals.
{time} 2200
Through the Defending Freedoms Project, I am a congressional advocate
for three of these religious prisoners: Pastor John Cao, Pastor Zhang
Shaojie, and Pastor Wang Yi. Each were sentenced to several years in
Chinese prisons on illegitimate charges for practicing their faith.
This is unacceptable, and it must end.
As a Nation built on the fundamental principle of the freedom of
religion, we have a responsibility to shed light on this persecution
and speak for those in China who have no voice.
By passing this legislation, the House of Representatives will be
sending a clear message to China that we will not stand by as they
brutally abuse their own citizens. No one should live in fear for
practicing their faith, and China must be held accountable for their
criminal human rights violations.
Madam Speaker, I thank the Foreign Affairs Committee members and
their staff for their hard work in bringing this important legislation
to the floor, and I call on my colleagues to support its passage.
Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mrs. KIM of California. Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith).
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Madam Speaker, I thank Vicky Hartzler for
authoring this very important and extraordinarily timely resolution.
Under Xi Jinping, the Chinese Communist Party is waging war against
all faiths: Christians, Falun Gong, Tibetan Buddhists, Muslims,
Uyghurs. He is actually committing genocide against the Uyghurs and has
been doing it for some time now.
Thankfully, this Congress has spoken out before, particularly on the
Uyghurs, but we need to speak out again on the Christians who are
suffering, the most persecuted group in all of China.
Let me say, too, that in calling for sanctions, we have sanctions,
Madam Speaker. The Global Magnitsky Act and other sanctions are in
place for the violation of the Religious Freedom Act of 1998, and the
sanctioning could occur there as a CPC country, a country of particular
concern.
I believe we need to do more to hold individuals and, collectively,
the Chinese Communist Party to account. That goes for all. That goes
for Trump when he was in office. It goes for President Biden now.
We should have done more. We need to do more now because it is all-
out war on religion.
I wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post in 1998. I titled it ``The
world must stand against China's war on religion'' and noted that the
sinicization, making all faiths comport to Xi Jinping's horrible,
nightmarish vision for that country, needs to be incorporated. Whole
texts, the Bible texts and sacred scriptures of all faiths, are being
rewritten in order to comport, again, with his socialist ideology.
In 1994, after Tiananmen Square, I went to China. I went there many
times--barred from going now. I know Bishop Shu of Baoding Province.
Here was a man who spent years being tortured, being deprived of food,
but especially being tortured because there were terrible usages of
cattle prods and all the other terrible things that they do in Chinese
prisons, Laogai.
I couldn't believe when he looked me in the eyes and said: I pray for
my persecutors.
I mean, we all get a little mad when we get a bad editorial or
something politically. Here is a man saying he has endured all this,
and he prays for the people of China and for his persecutors.
I held a hearing as co-chairman of the Tom Lantos Human Rights
Commission, asking Xi Jinping, just this Congress: Where is Bishop Shu?
He disappeared. He may have passed away due to the mistreatment, but
that is what they do, as well. People all of a sudden just disappear.
Numbers of Christians and other believers just go off the face of the
Earth.
This resolution couldn't be more timely. The Chinese Communist Party
is getting worse by the hour. Xi Jinping may get reelected by his peers
to a third term as dictator. Our hope is that the Chinese Communist
Party will realize they bring gross dishonor to China by their gross
misbehavior.
Thankfully, the U.N. High Commissioner, as we all know, just released
a report calling out China for its genocide. They called it crimes
against humanity. That is good. Hopefully, the U.N. Human Rights
Council will take this up, as well.
We need to do sanctioning, and we need to do it now.
Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Madam Speaker, I have no more speakers, and I am
ready to close. I reserve the balance of my time.
Mrs. KIM of California. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume for the purpose of closing.
Madam Speaker, the Chinese Communist Party persecutes religious
believers who will not submit their religious convictions to CCP
control. It reacts with brutality against any attempted religious
practice outside of the five religious patriotic associations allowed
and controlled by the regime.
This bill tells the truth about the dangers faced by Christians,
Uyghur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, and other religious minorities in
China and takes steps to sanction their CCP persecutors.
I am an enthusiastic cosponsor of this bill by my colleague from
Missouri, and I urge its unanimous passage.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume for the purpose of closing.
Madam Speaker, H.R. 4821 sends a strong and unequivocal message that
the United States stands firmly in support of worshippers of all
religious traditions and faiths and their ability to freely practice
their religion or engage in worship without fear of discrimination or
persecution.
This legislation signals strong bipartisan House support for the
administration to hold accountable all those responsible for the severe
violations of religious freedom and persecution of religious groups in
China.
[[Page H8203]]
Madam Speaker, I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting this
resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Castro) that the House suspend the rules and
pass the bill, H.R. 4821, as amended.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. CLYDE. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this motion will be postponed.
____________________