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October 2013 

Factsheet

 CHINA

China: 20 Questions on 

Religious Freedom for 

China’s Universal 

Periodic Review THE U.S. 

COMMISSION ON 

INTERNATIONAL 

RELIGIOUS 

FREEDOM

was created by the 

International 

Religious Freedom Act 

of 1998 to monitor the 

status of freedom of 

thought, conscience, 

and religion or belief 

abroad, as defined in 

the Universal 

Declaration of Human 

Rights and related 

international 

instruments, and to 

give independent policy 

recommendations to 

the President, 

Secretary of State, 

and Congress. 
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China will go through its second human rights review at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, 

Switzerland. During this review, which is called the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), countries 

will be able to ask questions of China during its review.

The UPR is intended to assess progress towards commitments made in 2009, and it will consider 

new information about human rights conditions in China since 2009. China rejected most of the 

specific recommendations made in 2009, but the UPR still offers a chance to both review China’s 

human rights record and seek answers from Chinese officials about religious freedom and related 

rights.

QUESTIONS FOR CHINA

1. Will China commit to ensuring that Tibetan Buddhist leaders are allowed to select monastic 

teachers autonomously under Buddhist procedures and standards, and will Tibetan Buddhists 

be allowed to openly express their devotion for recognized religious leaders including the Dalai 

Lama?

2. There have been more than 100 self-immolations within Tibetan areas of China since 2009. 

China’s response has been to increase police presence and religious restrictions and re-educate 

monks and nuns, leading to further discontent and dissatisfaction among Tibetans. Will China 

use different methods to address the root cause of immolations, including guaranteeing that 

Tibetans can freely exercise religious cultural, linguistic, political, and economic rights?

3. Will China commit to resuming direct dialogue with the Dalai Lama or his representatives 

without preconditions? 

4. Will China end secrecy and publish statistics of Tibetan Buddhists and Uighur Muslims 

accused of various national security crimes, allow all charged with such crimes access to 

lawyers and family members, and ensure that the charges of “endangering state security,” 

“splitticism,” “extremism,” and “terrorism,” conform to international human rights standards? 

5. Will China commit to ensuring the universal right to the freedom of religion or belief of Uighur 

Muslims, including: allowing students to pray, attend mosque and private religious 

instructions; allowing government employees to fast, wear religious garb and attend religious 

services; ending raids on private religious study sessions and the labeling of them as a 

“extremist” activities; and allowing Uighurs to observe without restrictions Ramadan and other 

religious holidays? 

6. Will China consider revising the “National Regulations on Religious Affairs” to conform to 

international standards related to the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief? 
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7. Will China consider providing additional legal protections for individuals who exercise their 

right to the freedom of religion or belief in “unregistered” religious groups or facilities, 

including “house church” Protestants, “unregistered” Catholics, or folk religions? 

8. Will China end the practice of selecting bishops for the Catholic Patriotic Association of China 

(CPA) who are not affiliated with the Vatican, allow Catholic religious leaders to openly and 

freely affiliate with the Holy See, and end the detentions of priests and bishops from the 

“unregistered” Catholic Church, including Shanghai Bishop Ma Daqin, who publicly quit the 

CPA in July 2012? 

9. Will China end efforts to disband the Shouwang Church of Beijing, and other similar 

unregistered Protestant churches in China, release the leaders of these churches from detention, 

and simplify legal approval requirements for religious practice consistent with international 

human rights standards? 

10. Will China consider repealing Article 300 of the Criminal Procedure Code, and any other 

associated legislation regarding the banning of “evil cults,” and disbanding the “610” office 

and the system of administrative and extrajudicial detention centers, including the 

transformation through reeducation facilities run by the 610 office?

11. Will China end efforts to disband the Falun Gong and allow UN special procedures and other 

interested observers to inquire freely about Falun Gong practitioners reportedly subject to 

arbitrary detentions, torture, other degrading treatment, forced labor, organ harvesting, lengthy 

jail terms, appropriations of property, expulsions of children from schools, suspensions of 

government pension payments, and other forms of discrimination and human rights violations?

12. In light of numerous reports of reprisals, arrests, and torture, the loss of their professional law 

licenses for defending Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetan activists, and unregistered housechurch Protestants, will China protect the right of lawyers to vigorously defend clients in 

sensitive political cases by implementing China’s own plan set forth in its Judicial Reform 

White Paper (2012) on “revising laws to provide legal guarantees for lawyers to overcome 

difficulties in meeting with suspects or defendants, accessing materials concerning the case 

and obtaining evidence through investigation”?

13. Will China release all those deemed by United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention 

to be arbitrarily detained, including individuals who advocated for greater religious freedoms, 

such as Gao Zhisheng, Thomkis Gyatso, Teltem Gyatso, Kalsan Gyatso, and Alimujiang 

Yimiti?

14. Will China consider releasing those arrested and sentenced for their religious activities or 

religious freedom advocacy including Wang Yonghang, Cao Nan, Qahar Mensur, 

Muhemmed Tursun, Yang Rongli, Wang Xiaoguang, Chen Zhenping, Fr. Li Huisheng, Fr. 

Joseph Zhang, Bishop Su Zhimin, Bishop Ma Daqin, Fan Yafeng, Jin Tianming, Yuan Ling, 

Zhang Xiaofeng, Li Xiaobai, Namkha Gyaltsen, Gedun Choekyi Nyima, Wang Xiaomei, 
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Wang Xiaodong, Runggye Adak, Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, Liu Gang, Wei Jun, Liu Fengmei, 

and Song Sheng?

15. Will China ensure that religious content on the internet is not blocked, censored, or deemed to 

be politically sensitive?

16. In 2009, China agreed to “strengthen the protection of ethnic minorities’ religious, civil, socioeconomic and political rights.” In this regard, will China consider releasing Tibetan filmmaker 

Dhondup Wangchen, whose films included praise for the Dalai Lama, and Uighur internet 

journalist Gheyret Niyaz, who criticized repressive policies toward Muslims? 

17. Though China rejected in 2009 the recommendation to invite the Special Rapporteur on 

Religion and Belief, will it respond positively now to the outstanding request made by that 

Special Rapporteur and allow a visit to China?

18. Will China grant greater access to both ethnic minority and autonomous regions for the Office 

of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and other relevant United Nations 

bodies, as well as journalists, diplomats, international media, NGOs, and other interested 

observers, including places such as Tibet and Tibetan regions outside Tibet, Xinjiang and the 

autonomous regions within Xinjiang, and the Yanbian Autonomous Prefecture.

19. In 2009, China agreed to allow a visit by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human 

Rights. Will China accept a visit from the High Commissioner within the next year?

20. Will China work with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and 

other interested observers and NGOs to: establish a mechanism to confer temporary asylum 

for those seeking such protection and permit safe transport to countries of final asylum; provide 

unrestricted access for the UNHCR to interview in particular North Korean nationals in China; 

and ensure that the return of any North Korean asylum seeker does not violate China’s 

obligations under the Refugee Convention or Article 3 of the Convention Against Torture?