politics
National Security Experts Urge U.S. President to Address Religious Persecution in China Summit
A group of national security experts has sent a letter urging the U.S. president to confront religious persecution in China during an upcoming summit in Beijing. The letter, drafted by the Vandenberg Coalition, calls for demands to end such persecution and release specific religious prisoners. It was submitted on Wednesday to the U.S. president and the secretary of state.
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Dozens of national security experts have submitted a letter urging the U.S. president to address religious persecution in China during a planned summit in Beijing next month. The letter, drafted by the Vandenberg Coalition and sent on Wednesday to the U.S. president and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, encouraged confronting the significant religious persecution perpetrated by the Chinese Communist Party under paramount leader Xi Jinping.
The experts urged making clear that the United States expects China to end religious persecution against people of all faiths. They recommended issuing sanctions and visa bans targeting specific Chinese officials responsible for such persecution. Among the signers are former officials from the previous administration, including former Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie and former deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger.
is an atheistic state with limited protections for organized religion. Faith groups must register with the government and accept ideological directives from Beijing, or risk arrest and imprisonment. The Chinese Communist Party has issued directives requiring the rebirth of living Buddhas to comply with Chinese laws and regulations.
In early 2021, the previous U.S. administration declared that the Chinese government was committing genocide against Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang, involving torture, imprisonment, forced labor, and forced sterilization.
The letter praised the previous determination on Uyghurs and pushed for further action, including demanding the release of persecuted pastor Ezra Jin Mingri from prison and allowing him to leave China. Jin founded Beijing Zion Church in 2007, which operated independently for years before a crackdown last year.
