Sam Brownback, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, speaks to journalists in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2019. Pakistan has “a desire to change” its ways and be removed from an American blacklist of countries that infringe religious freedoms, Brownback said Sunday on a tour of a Mideast long riven by faith. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell) 
美国国务院华盛顿哥伦比亚特区2019年3月8日塞缪尔•布朗巴克（Samuel D. Brownback）
国际宗教自由事务无任所大使
外国记者会（Foreign Correspondents Club）
中国香港
[讲话稿]
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我首先要向中国人民表达我深深的敬意。我的小女儿是中国人，现在就读于贝勒大学（Baylor University）。
……在此次讲话中，我将表述美国对中国大陆的宗教自由状况的一系列关切。这是出于痛心，而不是愤怒。我们高度评价中国人民过去、现在以及将来为人类做出的所有贡献。
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我们都目睹了中国走上国际舞台。我第一次到中国是在1985年。我认为中国政府往往按民族划分，并通过实行“宗教事务条例”，做出对数不胜数的宗教群体施行控制、摧毁敬拜场所、非法关押宗教领袖，以及无情镇压任何形式的有建设性的异见的行为，显示出其无视每一位中国公民的个人尊严。
有鉴于此，我想谈谈美国政府所抱的关切——特别是关于中国大陆日益恶化的宗教自由状况。过去几年来，我们看到了中国政府对来自很多信仰以及来自大陆各地的宗教信徒的迫害越来越严重。全世界都表示关切。
让我先谈谈新疆维吾尔族自治区——让人警觉的是，中国有关当局任意关押穆斯林少数群体的成员，将他们关进拘留营的原因包括常见的宗教行为，例如蓄须、戴面纱、参加仪式、信守斋月、分享宗教著述，乃至祈祷。
自2017年4月以来，大陆有关当局关押了超过100万名穆斯林族裔。他们把维吾尔人、哈萨克人、吉尔吉斯人以及其他穆斯林少数群体成员作为对象，并强行将他们迁往拘留营。这些人的亲属不知道他们的去向，甚至不知道他们的死活。特朗普政府（Trump Administration）深表关切，认为这类迫害活动说明北京蓄意对这些穆斯林群体的身份、文化和信仰进行重新界定和控制。
中国只把这些设有岗楼和铁丝网的不断蔓延的营地说成是“职业培训中心”。我们必须揭露这些营地的真相；它们是为了抹杀少数社群的文化和宗教身份而设的拘留营。多份报告显示，大陆有关当局强迫无辜民众进入这些营地，往往主要根据他们的宗教信仰和族裔身份。国际社会目睹并报道了这类事件。我最近读到了两篇有关这类事件的文章。他们随后受到不确定期限的关押，并遭到身体及心理折磨、高强度政治灌输，以及强制劳动。11月，这类拘留营中的一位幸存者告诉美国国会（United States Congress），她遭受了残忍的酷刑，并亲眼看到与她同牢房的至少9名无辜女性在短短几个月内死去。这位妇女与她的三胞胎骨肉分离。可悲的是，她的一名子女在被中国政府关押期间死去。除了拘留营外，中国政府还在新疆镇压民众，限制出行，利用一套“奥威尔式”的高科技监控系统监查他们的一言一行，并严禁某些宗教活动。政府甚至禁止儿童参加宗教仪式，并禁止父母给他们的子女取常见的伊斯兰名字。
中国长期借助于其经济势力来压制对其严重践踏人权的行径的批评。我赞赏那些公开批评中国在新疆的侵权行径的国家。土耳其最近就那里的人权危机发表了强烈的谴责。应当有更多的国家这样做。
中国声称使用拘留营以及采取其他镇压行为是为了先发制人地铲除恐怖主义。
但中国强行将妇女、儿童、老人以及教育程度极高的知识分子送进大规模关押中心和拘留营，不仅没有解决恐怖主义问题，反而还制造了问题。这类关押的规模之大，与中国面临的来自极端主义的任何切实威胁完全不相称，甚至根据中国自己的官方媒体和警方报告也是如此。在关押规模于2017年3月之后扩大以前，新疆已有一年半甚至没有过大型极端主义事件的报道。而中国政府的种种行为的目的在于确保独特的族裔和宗教群体受到残酷的、强制性的管控；原因就在于他们与众不同。出于某种原因，有信仰的男女民众被视为对中国共产党的一种威胁。
根据幸存者的证词，清楚明确的是中国在新疆采取的错误和残酷的政策正造成忿懑、仇恨、分裂、贫困和愤怒。引用一位中国官员自己的话说，这实际上是养肥了“滋生恐怖主义的土壤……”。
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中国共产党必须聆听本国人民发出的宗教自由的呼声，并采取行动纠正错误。
中国人民是伟大的人民。在不久的一天，他们将能自由地践行自己的信仰。宗教自由的大门将在中国完全敞开，宗教迫害的铁幕将被打破。目前中国政府正站在历史错误的一边……但这将会改变。
美国及其他国家正在汇聚全世界各国政府和宗教领袖，以增进所有人的宗教自由。我们去年7月创设的促进宗教自由部长级会议（Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom）就是为了专门推进这项事业。蓬佩奥国务卿（Secretary Pompeo）已宣布下一次部长级会议将于7月16日到18日在华盛顿举行。
我们还在同全世界其他政府和组织合作，举办后续性地区会议，着重于各地区特有的宗教自由问题。
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Samuel D. BrownbackAmbassador at Large for International Religious FreedomForeign Correspondents ClubHong Kong, ChinaMarch 8, 2019
Introduction
I would like to begin by expressing my profound respect for the Chinese people. My youngest daughter is Chinese and now attends school at Baylor University.
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During this speech, I will express a number of concerns the United States has about the religious freedom situation in mainland China. That is out of lament, not anger. We highly regard the Chinese people for all their contributions to mankind in the past, present, and for the future.
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Increasing Religious Freedom Problems in China 
We have all watched China emerge onto the international stage. I first traveled to China 1985. I believe the efforts by the Chinese government to exert control over members of countless religious groups, often along ethnic lines, through the enforcement of “religious affairs regulations,” the destruction of houses of worship, the unlawful imprisonment of religious leaders, and actions to ruthlessly silence any forms of constructive dissent, demonstrates its disregard for the individual dignity of every Chinese citizen.
In that spirit, I want to talk about concerns the United States government has – and specifically about the deteriorating state of religious freedom in mainland China. Over the last few years, we have seen increasing Chinese government persecution of religious believers from many faiths and from all parts of the mainland. The world is taking notice.
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Xinjiang
Let me start in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region – it is alarming that Chinese government authorities have arbitrarily detained members of Muslim minority groups in internment camps for reasons including common religious practices, such as having a beard, wearing a veil, attending services, observing Ramadan, sharing religious writings, or even praying.
Since April 2017, mainland authorities have detained more than one million ethnic Muslims. They have targeted and forcibly relocated to internment camps Uighurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and members of other Muslim minority groups. Family members do not know the whereabouts of their loved ones, or even whether they are dead or alive. The Trump Administration 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.
China describes these sprawling camps with guard towers and barbed wire as simply “vocational training centers.” We need to call these camps what they are; they’re internment camps created to wipe out the cultural and religious identity of minority communities. Numerous reports indicate that mainland authorities force innocent people into these camps often based primarily on their religious beliefs and ethnic identity. The international community has seen and covered these events. I recently read two articles on these events. They are then held for an indeterminate amount of time and subjected to physical and psychological torture, intense political indoctrination, and forced labor. In November, a survivor of one of these camps told the United States Congress that she was brutally tortured and witnessed at least nine other innocent women in her cell die in just a few months. The same woman was separated from her triplets. Tragically, one of her children died while being held in Chinese government custody. Beyond the camps, the Chinese government also represses people in Xinjiang, restricting travel, monitoring their every move by using a high-tech Orwellian surveillance system, and banning certain religious practices. The government even bans children from participating in religious services and prohibits parents from naming their children common Islamic names.
China has long used its economic weight to silence criticism of its severe human rights abuses. I applaud the countries that have spoken out against China’s abuses in Xinjiang. Turkey recently issued a strong condemnation of the human rights crisis there. More countries should do so.
China justifies its use of internment camps and other repressive practices by claiming that it is rooting out terrorism preemptively.
But China is not solving a terrorist problem by forcibly moving women, children, the elderly, and the highly educated intelligentsia into mass detention centers and internment camps. Instead, they are creating one. The magnitude of these detentions is completely out of proportion to any real threat China faces from extremism, even according to China’s own official media and police reports. Xinjiang had not even reported a large scale extremist incident for more than a year and a half before the detentions expanded after March 2017. Rather the Chinese government’s actions are intended to ensure that distinct ethnic and religious peoples are brutally and forcefully controlled; why—because they are different. Somehow, men and women of faith are viewed as a threat to the Chinese Communist Party.
Based on the testimonies of survivors, it is clear that China’s misguided and cruel policies in Xinjiang are creating resentment, hatred, division, poverty, and anger. To use a Chinese official’s own words, this is essentially fertilizing the “soil that breeds terrorism…”
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What We Are Doing
The Chinese Communist Party must hear the cries of its own people for religious freedom and act to correct this wrong.
The Chinese people are a great people. Someday soon, they will be free to practice their faith. 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…but this will change.
The United States and other nations are bringing together government and religious leaders from around the world to promote religious freedom for all. We created the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom last July specifically to advance this cause. Secretary Pompeo has already announced that the next Ministerial will take place on July 16th to 18th in Washington.
We are also working with other governments and groups around the world to host follow-on regional conferences that focus on religious freedom issues specific to that area.
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Conclusion
Through all of our efforts, we are chasing a simple but important dream: that one day all peoples around the world will be able to worship freely and believe what they want, just like you can in Hong Kong. We invite the rest of the world to join us in achieving this goal. As the detained pastor of the Early Rain Church, Wang Yi [Wong Yee], said: “In Xinjiang, in Shanghai, in Beijing, in Chengdu, the rulers have chosen an enemy that can never be imprisoned – the soul of man.”