US Secretary of State says China ‘criminalises religious expression’ as report on religious freedom is released
- The annual State Department report on international religious freedom calls out Beijing for suppressing Christians, Uygur Muslims and Tibetan Buddhists
- Antony Blinken also announces the placing of sanctions on a Communist Party official for ‘gross violations of human rights’
The US State Department released its annual report on the state of religious freedom around the world on Wednesday, slamming Beijing for suppressing Christians, Uygur Muslims and Tibetan Buddhists and sanctioning a senior Communist Party official.
In releasing the 2020 Report on International Religious Freedom, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Chinese Communist Party official Yu Hui, the former director of a Chengdu office aimed at suppressing “heretical religions”, would be denied entry to the United States, along with his immediate family.
“He is designated for his involvement in gross violations of human rights, namely the arbitrary detention of Falun Gong practitioners for their spiritual beliefs,” said Blinken, referring to the exercise and meditation group founded in 1992 and banned in China as an “evil cult” in 1999.
“We will continue to consider all appropriate tools to promote accountability for those responsible for human rights violations and abuses in China,” Blinken added.
The 2,400-page survey examined religious tolerance in some 200 countries and territories. China accounted for the largest section, and the State Department cited persistent reports of Chinese human rights violations, including torture, physical abuse, arrests, detention, forced indoctrination of Communist Party ideology and deaths in custody of religious believers.