US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback yesterday called on Beijing to end religious persecution in China, while requesting a visit to the nation’s mass internment camps in the western region of Xinjiang.
In a strongly worded speech during a visit to Hong Kong, Brownback said that Beijing was waging a “war with faith” and that it needs to respect the fundamental and “sacred right” of people to worship.
“It is a war they will not win,” he told an audience at the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents’ Club. “The Chinese Communist Party must hear the cries of its own people for religious freedom and act to correct its wrongs.”
Photo: AFP
Addressing the subject of China’s vast internment camps for Muslims in Xinjiang, Brownback spoke of rights violations including torture, political indoctrination and forced labor.
The camps reportedly hold more than 1 million ethnic Uighurs and people from other Muslim minorities,
The administration of US President Donald Trump “is deeply concerned and considers this oppression a deliberate attempt by Beijing to redefine and control members of these Muslim minority groups’ identity, culture and faith,” he said.
He declined to say whether the US is weighing any fresh policies or sanctions against China over the crackdown in Xinjiang, including human rights-related sanctions against the region’s Chinese Communist Party Secretary Chen Quanguo (陳全國).
“We don’t discuss internal matters about what’s being discussed about possible actions in any place around the world, the same for Xinjiang,” he said, but reiterated a request for an open visit to such camps.
“I would like to have the opportunity to go, but not to just to be given a show. I want to get into the actual camps themselves and talk to people and interview them freely,” he said.
Turning to the issue of Catholics in China, where there exists an underground church loyal to the pope and a state-sanctioned church, Brownback said that a reported landmark deal for China to allow the Vatican a say over the appointment of new bishops in China has not led to improved freedoms.
“Since this provisional deal was announced last year, the Chinese government’s abuse of members of the Catholic community has continued. We see no signs that will change in the near future,” he said.
Hong Kong, with its strong rule of law and religious diversity, could serve as an example for China to follow in future, Brownback added.
“The gates of religious freedom will fly open in China and the iron curtain of religious persecution will come down. The Chinese government is currently on the wrong side of history,” the former US senator said.
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