More Sanctions Needed to Protect Religious Freedom in China, Panel Hears
The U.S. should use the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act to sanction those responsible for China's recent increase in religious repression, witnesses told the Congressional-Executive Commission on China Nov. 20.
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Such measures, including asset freezes and financial transaction bans, would “send a clear message that perpetrators of religious persecution will face consequences,” said Bob Fu, founder and president of ChinaAid, a Christian human rights nonprofit. The Global Magnitsky Act was enacted in 2016 to counter human rights abuses and corruption.
Witnesses also urged Congress to pass several pending bills, including the Combatting the Persecution of Religious Groups in China Act, which calls for sanctioning Chinese officials who violate religious freedom (see 2510280007), and the Uyghur Genocide Accountability and Sanctions Act, which seeks to protect China’s Uyghur minority ethnic group by broadening sanctions authorities under the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 (see 2507310057).
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, who chairs the commission, said that a panel database contains 1,647 documented religious prisoner cases in China, "though that number may be 10 times higher when we consider all those detained in the Uyghur region." There are an estimated 500 million people in China "whose faith traditions face some form of restrictions or control," Sullivan added.