[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4821 Referred in Senate (RFS)]
<DOC>
117th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 4821
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
October 11, 2022
Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
AN ACT
To hold accountable senior officials of the Government of the People's
Republic of China who are responsible for or have directly carried out,
at any time, persecution of Christians or other religious minorities 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
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;
(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.
Passed the House of Representatives September 29, 2022.
Attest:
CHERYL L. JOHNSON,
Clerk.