Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wisc., the chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), on Wednesday called attention to China’s increasing crackdown on religious freedoms and accused Chinese President Xi Jinping of "playing the role of God."
In a roundtable attended by religious leaders from not only the Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist faiths but along with those who have fled religious persecution in China, the committee listened to steps the CCP have taken to exert control over religious beliefs in China.
"Xi Jinping has no problem with the first commandment, just so long as he and the CCP are playing the role of God," Gallagher said in his opening statement in the Wednesday roundtable.
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The chairman also accused the CCP of "rewriting the Bible" and in certain areas of China, like the Henan province — located in eastern China and home to several significant temples including some of China’s first Buddhist temples — the CCP has allegedly begun replacing the 10 Commandments from Christian churches with dictatorial quotes from Xi.
Gallagher said that quotes like "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me" have been replaced with "diktats" from Xi like the order to "Resolutely guard against the infiltration of Western ideology."
Experts pointed out that religious oppression is just the latest in long line of oppressive techniques that China has increasingly utilized to control its populations, including human rights abuses against the Uyghurs and overt censorship through advancing technology.
"China’s repressive actions do not discriminate," Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council and former chair of the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom, said. "All religious groups are seen as a threat to the Chinese regime — whether it be Christians who are monitored through artificial intelligence…or the Falun Gong who have been subjected to unbelievably brutal treatment."
Perkins argued that "China is more repressive today than it was two decades ago" because it has been able to largely act with impunity as it arose as a top economic powerhouse globally.
"In September 2000, the U.S. Senate voted to give China permanent ‘most favored nation’ status which paved the way for China to join the World Trade Organization," he continued, noting that U.S. officials believed the status would be key in bettering China’s poor human rights record. "Well, 23 years later the record shows it has been the key to changing the values of American businesses, not China."
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Perkins argued that if the U.S. wants to be serious in holding China accountable it needs to hit China where it hurts the most — American consumerism.
Other religious officials in attendance echoed Perkin’s arguments and suggested the U.S. take an immediate and more direct role in countering China on a global scale by building networks to keep communications between religious groups in China open, as well as backing a U.N. special hearing to examine religious oppression by the CCP.
Sanctions and proposals on moving more industries Americans rely on like pharmaceuticals, apparel and tech out of China were also suggested.
One Muslim official, Imam Hajim, said he would like to see the U.S. address the issue with Muslim nations, many of which have only bolstered their ties with China despite gross human rights abuses committed against populations like the ethnic Muslim Uyghurs.
Hajim argued that the majority of Muslim populations in the Middle East and Southern Asia are unaware of the treatment of the Uyghurs in China and suggested the U.S. could do more to encourage these nations to pressure China on the issue.
But it is not just religious groups abroad who remain uniformed when it comes to CCP oppression.
The American religious leaders present at the Wednesday roundtable also argued that Western religious officials, including everyone from the Pope to local pastors, should be doing more to inform their flock on the religious persecution that many face not only in China but places like India and beyond.
"America is multicultural. There’s an opportunity there to connect with people back to their stories," Florida GOP Rep. Carlos Gimenez, who sits on the House Select Committee on the CCP, said. "In the church we tend to often disconnect our theology from our practice."
"I think if you want to grab people’s hearts you have to teach from your book of faith and connect it to the real world," he added. "A lot of pastors aren’t doing that."
