[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.

                          ____________________