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RELIGION WITH ‘‘CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS’’: 

PERSECUTION AND CONTROL IN XI JINPING’S CHINA 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE 

COMMISSION ON CHINA 

ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

JULY 23, 2015 

Printed for the use of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China 

( 

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.cecc.gov 

CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA 

LEGISLATIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS 

House Senate 

CHRIS SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman 

ROBERT PITTENGER, North Carolina 

TRENT FRANKS, Arizona 

RANDY HULTGREN, Illinois 

TIM WALZ, Minnesota 

MARCY KAPTUR, Ohio 

MICHAEL HONDA, California 

TED LIEU, California 

MARCO RUBIO, Florida, Cochairman 

SHERROD BROWN, Ohio 

DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California 

JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon 

GARY PETERS, Michigan 

EXECUTIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS 

CHRISTOPHER P. LU, Department of Labor 

SARAH SEWALL, Department of State 

STEFAN M. SELIG, Department of Commerce 

DANIEL R. RUSSEL, Department of State 

TOM MALINOWSKI, Department of State 

PAUL B. PROTIC, Staff Director 

ELYSE B. ANDERSON, Deputy Staff Director 

(II) 

(III) 

CO N T E N T S 

STATEMENTS

Page 

Opening Statement of Hon. Christopher Smith, a U.S. Representative from 

New Jersey; Chairman, Congressional-Executive Commission on China ....... 1 

Walz, Hon. Timothy J., a U.S. Representative from Minnesota .......................... 3 

Hultgren, Hon. Randy, a U.S. Representative from Illinois ................................ 4 

Lin, Anastasia, Human Rights Activist and the Current Miss World Canada .. 6 

Fu, Bob, Founder and President, ChinaAid Association ...................................... 8 

Kadeer, Rebiya, President, World Uyghur Congress ............................................ 12 

Gyatso, Losang, Tibetan Service Chief, Voice of America .................................... 16 

Pittenger, Hon. Robert, a U.S. Representative from North Carolina .................. 26 

APPENDIX 

PREPARED STATEMENTS

Lin, Anastasia .......................................................................................................... 31 

Fu, Bob ..................................................................................................................... 34

Kadeer, Rebiya ......................................................................................................... 60 

Gyatso, Losang ......................................................................................................... 62 

Smith, Hon. Christopher, a U.S. Representative from New Jersey; Chairman, 

Congressional-Executive Commission on China ................................................ 64 

Rubio, Hon. Marco, a U.S. Senator from Florida; Cochairman, CongressionalExecutive Commission on China ........................................................................ 65 

SUBMISSION FOR THE RECORD

Statement Submitted for the Record by Ellen Bork, Senior Fellow, Foreign 

Policy Initiative; Visiting Fellow, Henry Jackson Society ................................ 67 

Statement by CECC Chairs Representative Chris Smith and Senator Marco 

Rubio on President Xi’s ‘‘Increasingly Bold Disregard for Basic Human 

Rights’’ ................................................................................................................... 69 

Witness Biographies ................................................................................................ 69 

(1) 

RELIGION WITH ‘‘CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS’’: PERSECUTION AND CONTROL IN XI 

JINPING’S CHINA 

THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2015 

CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE

COMMISSION ON CHINA, 

Washington, DC. 

The hearing was convened, pursuant to notice, at 11:02 a.m., in 

HVC 210, Capitol Visitor Center, Representative Christopher H. 

Smith, Chairman, presiding. 

Also present: Senator Marco Rubio, Cochairman; and Representatives Randy Hultgren, Robert Pittenger, and Timothy J. Walz. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, A 

U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM NEW JERSEY; CHAIRMAN, CONGRESSIONAL–EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA 

Chairman SMITH. Good morning, and thank you especially to our 

very distinguished witnesses for being here this morning, as well 

as to all of those who care so deeply about human rights and are 

here in the audience. 

The freedom of religion is the most fundamental and the most 

elemental of all human rights. It is clearly the first freedom from 

which all the others flow. It allows each citizen the precious right 

to follow their conscience peacefully and without fear. 

It protects the critical part of who we are as human beings to 

seek, to speak, and to act out our fundamental beliefs. When this 

freedom is protected, the very well-being of society is enhanced. No 

government should deny or suppress this essential claim to conscience. 

The reality is, and the tragic reality is, governments and terrorist groups do restrict the freedom of religion, sometimes in the 

most brutal and public ways. The freedom of religion today, as it 

has been for a number of years, is under siege in many places in 

the world, including and especially in China, which is of course the 

subject of today’s hearing. 

Because religious freedom conditions are deteriorating globally, I 

recently introduced H.R. 1150, the Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom Act. The bill gives the administration tools to better 

address religious freedom violations around the world. 

It is why I am also fighting to reauthorize the U.S. Commission 

on International Religious Freedom, or USCIRF, which is a bipartisan and independent advisory group that has done incisive work 

over the years. USCIRF gives Congress vital recommendations 

2 

about religious freedom conditions globally and recommendations 

for actions. 

Several years ago during a visit to the United States, Xi Jinping 

was interviewed by a Chinese reporter on fellowship at U.S. colleges. After the interview, President Xi asked a single question of 

this reporter who was there, not about his family, not about his 

studies, not about whether he enjoyed living in the United States. 

The one question he asked was, ‘‘Why do so many Chinese students studying in the United States become Christian? ’’ Why one 

of the most powerful political leaders would ask this question may 

never be known, and the student did not have an answer. 

But religion was on President Xi’s mind that day. Whatever was 

behind the complex question, religious freedom conditions in China, 

especially under his watch, have not improved. Quite the opposite. 

It has been a punishing year for China’s diverse religious communities. 

China continues to rank right up there with Iran, Vietnam, and 

Saudi Arabia in terms of the sheer misery it inflicts on members 

of its diverse religious communities. This is the verdict of the bipartisan, independent U.S. Commission on International Religious 

Freedom. 

It is the verdict of the State Department—if only it would connect with policy—but it is in the human rights reports and China 

has been again designated as a country of particular concern, and 

has been since 1999, for being one of the worst violators in the 

world of religious freedom. This is also the verdict of human rights 

organizations. 

Chinese authorities are frightened by the simple proposition that 

individuals have the right to live out their beliefs openly and peacefully without fear of intimidation. All we have to do is look at 

events in the past few weeks to see a coordinate, unnecessary, and 

often brutal campaign to manage, control, or crush China’s many 

religious communities. It has been a very bad month in China. 

Two days ago, a cross on a Christian church was burned near the 

city of Wenzhou. Over 1,200 crosses, along with 35 church buildings, were demolished since 2014. This was done reportedly because they were too prominent, demonstrating the Party’s weakness. 

During the just-concluded month of Ramadan, Uyghur Muslim 

students, teachers, professors, and government employees were deprived of the freedom to fulfill their religious duties. In recent 

years, officials have shut down religious sites, conducted raids on 

independent schools, confiscated religious literature, and banned 

private study of the Koran. A new draft counterterrorism law 

equates terrorism with ‘‘the religious education of minors.’’ 

The Dalai Lama turns 80 this month and the Chinese Government expanded attempts to undermine his leadership and control 

in the selection of the Tibetan Buddhist leaders. Two hundred and 

seventy-three Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns are currently detained. Sadly, the Reverend Tenzin Deleg died in prison last week; 

he was serving a life sentence on politically motivated charges. 

Beijing also continues its relentless 16-year campaign to absolutely obliterate the Falun Gong, the anniversary of which is each 

year during July. There are reports of torture, detention, deaths in 

3 

custody, and allegations based on credible evidence of harvesting of 

organs. 

Two weeks ago, the Chinese Communist Party authorities also 

launched a massive crackdown on human rights lawyers. The lawyers were accused of being ‘‘a criminal gang,’’ charged with ‘‘creating chaos’’ because they defended the rights of Falun Gong, 

Uyghurs, Christians, and other persecuted persons in China. Many 

of the lawyers detained are professing Christians, spurred by their 

faith to defend the vulnerable and at-risk. 

Senator Rubio and I put out a statement about the arrest of 

human rights lawyers in China. We call the detentions unjustified 

and said the roundup of human rights lawyers was an undeniable 

set-back in U.S.-China relations. I would like to add that statement 

for the record. Without objection, it is so ordered. 

China actively suppresses the faith of communities. Its massive 

repression of rights lawyers and the brutal and sometimes deadly 

ways it deals with prisoners of conscience are a sad and black 

mark on China’s recent history. It will be remembered by history 

as brutal, unnecessary, and entirely counterproductive. 

It is counterproductive because religious restrictions make China 

less stable. Repression can exacerbate extremism and cause instability. Religious freedom, according to the Pew Research Center, 

can be a powerful and effective antidote to religious extremism. It 

is counterproductive because targeting peaceful religious citizens 

undermines the legitimacy of the state because it reminds even 

non-believers of the state’s capricious power. 

It is counterproductive because religious persecution 

marginalizes the persecuted, robbing China of their talents, their 

economic productivity, and their contributions to society. The issue 

of religious freedom must be addressed by the administration during a planned summit in September, but we must ask whether this 

summit should even take place. 

There are many issues in the U.S.-China relationship that need 

attention, but given President Xi Jinping’s bold disregard for 

human rights and his brutal suppression of dissent, does he deserve to get the red carpet treatment in Washington? 

I would like to yield to my good friend, Mr. Walz, for any opening 

comments. 

[The prepared statement of Representative Smith and the joint 

statement submited for the record by Representative Smith and 

Senator Rubio appear in the appendix.] 

STATEMENT OF HON. TIMOTHY J. WALZ, A U.S. 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM MINNESOTA 

Representative WALZ. Well, I thank the Chairman first of all for 

his passion and his lifelong commitment to human rights, and second for holding this important hearing. I would also like to thank 

our witnesses. Your courage and activism inspires all of us and it 

is that very real part of being human that the Chairman spoke 

about, the spiritual side of each of us, we understand how important it is. 

As many of you know—I have spoken about it in this Commission many times—I, as a young man, had the opportunity and the 

4 

privilege to live in Foshan in Guangdong and have still many acquaintances and part of who I am shaped by those experiences. 

Just like any nation, the sense of what we want as humans, the 

opportunity to live our lives as we choose, to worship and believe 

as we choose, is fundamental. So the Chairman holding this hearing is exactly right. I do not think it is any secret, the statistics 

and the recent events the Chairman talked about against religious 

freedom. 

But I think what most of us know is that, again, nations and citizens are not synonymous, but I think as we both know the way to 

strengthen a nation and strengthen that sense of resolve is through 

respecting the spiritual freedoms and the religious freedoms of 

their citizens. I think it is important to have these hearings. 

Every nation strives toward a more perfect union, and I think it 

is incumbent upon us as citizens of the world, if you will, to make 

this case. So the Chairman is exactly right. I am grateful for him 

bringing this forward. 

We are here today to hear from each of you, and I think you 

should view this Commission—the Chairman’s passion is evident— 

that this is a place that we understand our responsibility to be a 

place where we can have the conversation, where we can further 

those goals and where we can make the case to the Chinese Government that the way to strengthen the nation is to honor those 

religious freedoms. 

So, Chairman, I thank you. 

Chairman SMITH. Mr. Walz, thank you very much. Thanks for 

underscoring that this is a truly bipartisan Commission and there 

is no distance between us. There are lots of other issues where we 

disagree, but not here. I think it is important that that be conveyed 

to the Chinese leadership. 

Randy Hultgren? 

HON. RANDY HULTGREN, A U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM 

ILLINOIS 

Representative HULTGREN. Thank you, Chairman. I also want to 

echo my gratitude for the work that each of you has done fighting 

for human rights, letting us know how we can work together. This 

really is something that is universal for us. We know that if religious freedom is taken away in other places, if people are persecuted for their faith, it very easily can happen here as well. So 

we have to be vigilant, we have to be ever watchful of how important this basic freedom is. 

So I just again want to thank you, all of you, for being here, for 

the position that you put yourselves in and your families in to be 

a strong voice for what is right. We want to help. I am convinced 

that as we shine light into some areas that are dark, this will 

cause things to change. 

So this is a pivotal time, I know, with the President’s visit coming up, we need, as a Congress and as an administration, to stand 

up again for people who do not have a voice themselves. You are 

speaking up for them, and we need to speak up for them. So, thank 

you. I look forward to learning from you. 

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate, as always, your incredible work on 

this and other issues as well. I yield back. 

5 

Chairman SMITH. Thank you so much, Mr. Hultgren, for your 

leadership. I am glad you are not in the chair again. You have been 

presiding over the House many, many days. It is good to have you 

here. 

I would like to now begin with our witnesses, beginning first 

with Ms. Anastasia Lin, who is a Toronto-based actress. She won 

the Miss World Canada title in 2015. Since her start in acting at 

the age of seven, Anastasia has appeared in over 20 films and television productions, and most prominently played lead actress in 

several Toronto-based films about human rights themes in China. 

Her work has garnered numerous international awards, including the Mexico International Film Festival’s Golden Palm Award 

and the California Indie Fest Award of Merit. Along with her acting and participation in pageants, she is also known for her public 

position against human rights abuses in China, a very brave position. 

Canadian television reports attributed her victory in the 2015 

Miss World pageant in part to her passion for human rights. 

Anastasia will participate in the 2015 Miss World competition to 

be held this December in Sanya City in China. 

We will then hear from Pastor Bob Fu, who was a leader in the 

1989 student democracy movement in Tiananmen Square, and 

later became a house church pastor. In 1996, authorities arrested 

and imprisoned Pastor Fu and his wife for their work. After their 

release, they escaped to the United States and in 2002 he founded 

ChinaAid Association. 

ChinaAid monitors and reports on religious freedom in China 

and provides a forum for discussion among experts in religion, law, 

and human rights in China. Pastor Fu is frequently interviewed by 

media outlets around the world and has testified previously at U.S. 

congressional hearings and at hearings around the world. He has 

also appeared before the European Parliament and the United Nations. 

Pastor Fu holds a double bachelor’s degree from the People’s University and the Institute of Foreign Relations and has taught at 

the Beijing Communist Party School. In the United States, he 

earned a Master’s degree from Westminster Theological Seminary 

and is now working on his Ph.D. 

We will then hear from Ms. Rebiya Kadeer, who is a prominent 

human rights advocate and leader of the Uyghur people. She is the 

mother of 11 children and a former laundress-turned-millionaire. 

She spent six years—six years—in a China prison for standing up 

to the authoritarian Chinese Government. Before her arrest in 

1999, she was a well-known Uyghur businesswoman and at one 

time among the wealthiest individuals in the People’s Republic of 

China. 

Ms. Kadeer has been actively campaigning for the human rights 

of the Uyghur people since her release in 2005. She was nominated 

to receive the Nobel Peace Prize several times since 2006. 

Despite Chinese Government efforts to discredit her, Ms. Kadeer 

remains the pro-democracy Uyghur leader and head of the World 

Uyghur Congress, which represents the collective interests of the 

Uyghur people in the world. 

6 

We will then hear from Mr. Losang Gyatso, who is the service 

chief of Voice of America’s Tibetan Service which broadcasts news 

and information into Tibet and is arguably the most influential and 

trusted source of information for the Tibetan people. 

Before joining VOA, Mr. Gyatso was a founding director of 

mechakgallery.com, a non-profit group promoting contemporary Tibetan art through exhibitions, publications, and social media. 

Prior to that while working as an advertising executive in New 

York City in the 1980s and 1990s, Mr. Gyatso was a Tibetan community organizer and one of the most prolific graphic designers for 

projects carried out by groups such as the International Campaign 

for Tibet, Students for a Free Tibet, and Tibetan Center for Human 

Rights and Democracy. Thank you for your extraordinary work. 

I would like to now turn to Ms. Lin for her testimony. 

STATEMENT OF ANASTASIA LIN, HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST 

AND THE CURRENT MISS WORLD CANADA 

Ms. LIN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China for convening this 

event. 

My name is Anastasia Lin. I am a Canadian actress. I will be 

representing Canada at the 2015 Miss World competition in Sanya, 

China. At least, that is my hope. Recent events leave me worried 

for my family who are still in China. 

I campaigned for the title Miss World Canada on a human rights 

platform. I wanted to speak for those in China who are beaten, 

burned, electrocuted for holding their beliefs, people in prison who 

eat rotten food with blistered fingers because they dared to have 

convictions. These are not criminals, these are people who believe 

in truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. 

When I was crowned Miss World Canada my father was very 

proud of me, but within days his tone changed. He told me to stop 

my advocacy or he would sever contact with me. I understand he 

was visited by the Chinese security agents and forced to say these 

things to me. 

I have taken on roles in film and television shows that depict 

human rights abuses in China, and to prepare I speak with those 

who have suffered, including Falun Gong practitioners. 

In ‘‘The Bleeding Edge,’’ a film to be released this winter, I 

played one such woman. She is in prison and tortured. In one 

scene, her family is brought before her, made to kneel and beg her 

to give up her beliefs. This is the region’s policy of guilt by association and this is why my father was threatened by the security 

forces, never mind that I am a Canadian citizen, upholding Canadian values on the other side of the world. 

It is a shock to realize that the man who made you feel safe is 

in danger. I had to choose between silence and my hope for a better 

China. Then I remembered, silence helps no one. Silence feeds terror. 

Practitioners of Falun Gong who have been marginalized, defamed, and vilified in China since 1999 are noble people. Despite 

the constant threat of arbitrary torture, psychiatric abuse, or 

death, they are steadfast in their principles. They have always 

7 

sought peaceful means to resist persecution and generate awareness. 

In China today, our traditional values are buried under the mortal scars of endless political campaigns. Material wealth and the 

pursuit of self-interest are foremost in people’s minds. The courage 

of Falun Gong practitioners and other dissidents and human rights 

lawyers are exceptions that give me hope for China’s future. Yet, 

it is these people that suffer the most, people with stories of courage and tragedy, like the father of my fellow Canadian Paul Li. 

The elder Mr. Li is 60 years old and lives in Chengdu, China. 

Once a highly respected county magistrate, he is now beginning his 

second eight-year prison sentence. He was a rarity in China, a high 

official that did not use his position to gain wealth or personal advantage, and instead he followed Falun Gong’s teachings of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance and sought to be fair in his 

dealings. 

Mr. Li spent his first eight years in prison for writing essays 

criticizing the Communist Party’s crimes and they tortured him 

and tried to get him to renounce his relief and embrace atheism. 

They made him blind in one eye. 

He did not give up. After being released, he exposed cases of torture and abuse and that was why he was again arrested and sentenced to another eight years this April. This is a story of incredible courage, almost completely ignored by the world’s media. There 

are millions of such stories. 

Thousands continue to be sentenced to prison every year, often 

after show trials. Lawyers who represent Falun Gong practitioners, 

including those lawyers targeted in the most recent crackdown, 

have faced disbarment, beating, and imprisonment. The current 

crackdown on lawyers targets these individuals and comes as some 

80,0000 criminal complaints are filed against the former Party 

leader, Jiang Zemin, by Falun Gong practitioners. 

The persecution of Falun Gong is widespread and brutal. In 

1998, the Chinese Communist Government estimated there were 

70 million practitioners of Falun Gong in China. Since the persecution began in 1999, millions have been imprisoned, tortured, and 

sexually assaulted. Estimates of the murdered range widely because information is scarce, and exposing the persecution is punished severely. 

While we have the names and stories of the some 3,800 practitioners who have been killed in the persecution, multiple independent investigators estimate that tens of thousands have been 

killed so their vital organs could be harvested and sold for organ 

transplantation, a lucrative business in China. 

This is a gruesome and unspeakable crime that has created profit for those brutal persecutors. The victims did not do anything 

wrong. They are people of faith and morality. They are people that 

any country would be fortunate to have. These are the people of integrity that China so desperately needs nowadays. 

Mr. Chairman, I hope that, together, we can gain the Chinese 

people a voice. The hope for a better future lies in the people there 

gaining the freedom to believe what they want and talk to whoever 

they want to talk to about whatever they want to talk about. I 

8 

hope this can happen soon. For myself, this would give me back a 

father, but for many others, it would save their lives. 

Thank you very much. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Lin appears in the appendix.] 

Chairman SMITH. Thank you so very much, Ms. Lin, for your 

very eloquent and incisive testimony, and done so with such kindness even toward the persecutors. 

I would like to know recognize Bob Fu, and as I do, remind my 

colleagues, when Frank Wolf and I went and visited China right 

before the Olympics we had a human rights agenda, obviously, that 

we were promoting. 

We called Bob Fu from the U.S. Embassy van and mentioned 

that—and it was tongue-in-cheek—that we might go to Tiananmen 

Square and unfurl a banner that says ‘‘Respect Human Rights.’’ 

Within 20 to 25 minutes, our embassy got a phone call from the 

Chinese Foreign Affairs Department saying that we would be escorted out of the country or arrested if we proceeded with that, and 

this was just in a phone call from ourselves to Bob Fu. Maybe the 

van, maybe the phone call was bugged. On that trip, Bob had set 

up for us to meet with a number of house pastors, Christian house 

pastors. 

All but one were stopped by the government, and the one man 

and his family that we met with was arrested afterward and put 

through a withering time with the secret policy, again underscoring, just as with the Falun Gong and all the others, and we will 

hear from the others momentarily, but the repression based on the 

best information, as bad as it was then, it is even worse now. 

Pastor Bob Fu? 

STATEMENT OF BOB FU, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, 

CHINAAID ASSOCIATION 

Mr. FU. Thank you, Chairman Smith, for your unwavering leadership and solidarity with those who are persecuted in China and 

all over the world. I also thank the Cochair, Senator Rubio, and 

thank all the members, Congressman Walz and Congressman 

Hultgren, who are demonstrating their support, your support, for 

this honorable cause. 

This is the third year of President Xi Jinping’s administration in 

China, whose policies and actions have raised increasing alarm, 

and in some cases have astonished the international community. 

Domestically, Mr. Xi has approached his political rivals through a 

selective anti-corruption campaign and monopolized power within 

the leadership of the Communist Party, the government, and the 

military. 

On foreign policy, Mr. Xi has adopted a dangerous and aggressive agenda, challenging existing international law and creating his 

own when deemed necessary, including the National Security Law, 

which has been viewed by many as a pretext for human rights 

abuses. 

This antagonistic and arrogant approach to governance over the 

past two and a half years has earned Xi the nickname ‘‘Chairman 

Mao, Jr.,’’ or ‘‘Xitler.’’ In the past two years, the human rights and 

rule of law in China have rapidly deteriorated. 

9 

The number of dissidents taken into police custody, arrested, and 

convicted since Xi took power has exceeded the total number that 

occurred during the 10-year reign of President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao. Chinese citizens who peacefully criticize the 

government or defend the rights of citizens, lawyers who dare to 

represent so-called ‘‘sensitive cases’’ without cooperating with the 

government, and activists who assemble in a peaceful manner to 

attempt to request the government’s permission to establish an 

NGO or peacefully protest against government policies or judicial 

injustice, even to gather for a meal, are subsequently invited to 

drink tea, summoned for interrogation, detained, or arrested and 

eventually tried in a corrupt judicial system. 

To be sure, the Chinese Government has intensified its harassment of NGOs, civil society organizations, law firms representing 

human rights cases, charitable organizations, and political organizations such as the New Citizen Movement. 

During the Xi administration, and particularly in the past 18 

months, religious freedom abuses have reached a level not seen 

since the Cultural Revolution. Not only have house churches continued to experience intensifying persecution, but now the government-sanctioned Three-Self churches are being subjected to government-sponsored persecution and campaigns. 

The Chinese Government’s persecution of Tibetan Buddhists, 

Uyghur Muslims, and Falun Gong practitioners, as my fellow witnesses will and have testified, has also increasingly worsened. The 

Chinese Government perceives that religious practitioners are 

being guided by so-called foreign influence and has subsequently 

pursued absolute control over religious communities. 

This new so-called National Security Law that just took effect on 

July 1 has expanded the management, oversight, and suppression 

of religious activity under the guise of so-called national security. 

So, I will talk about religious freedom and human rights and rule 

of law in China, specifically focused on the forced demolition of 

churches and crosses in Zhejiang province and ongoing persecution 

of house churches and the torment and treatment of human rights 

lawyers and human rights defenders in China. 

Then, I will offer some recommendations for the U.S. foreign policy on China, and I want to request the Chair to agree for both our 

annual report and my written testimony to be on the record. 

Chairman SMITH. Without objection, all of that, and any additional remarks or materials the other witnesses would like to have 

included will be made a part of the record. 

Mr. FU. Thank you. 

The forced demolition of church crosses. In the past year, the 

government of Zhejiang province has demolished churches and 

crosses under the pretext of implementing standards for buildings 

and initially people thought it was maybe just a local eradication 

of some buildings based on the building codes. 

But up until today, we have documented over 1,500 churches 

that had their crosses forcibly removed, and a number of pastors 

and believers have been beaten up and some pastors are even sentenced to criminal imprisonment for defending the crosses. 

According to the information we have collected at least—besides 

the government-sanctioned churches, which is more than 1,500 

10 

with their crosses being removed by force, or some of the churches, 

the whole buildings were totally destroyed—at least 50 other house 

churches in rural areas were also destroyed or their crosses were 

forcibly removed. 

I think we have a few photos, if you could show these photos. 

You can tell, some of the churches are being demolished as late as 

yesterday morning. The crosses were even burned from the top of 

the church building. 

Yesterday at a large church, their cross was being forcibly removed. This morning, more than 44 churches had issued a joint 

declaration, basically denouncing the government’s evil act of forceful removal of crosses, and made a commitment to defend their 

crosses from being removed. A number of Chinese human rights 

lawyers were also called to help those churches, so some of the lawyers are still in Zhejiang province. 

This morning, according to a BBC report, there are a few hundred churches in Guangdong province that have received official 

notice that they are to be shut down. So, apparently this campaign 

has already expanded into Guangdong province. 

Also this morning, honorable members of this commission, in 

Guangzhou city, a church called Guangfu Church was raided by 50 

public security officers; the pastor’s wife and three other senior 

leaders of the church were taken into custody. 

So, these kinds of barbaric acts of just demolishing churches and 

destroying the peaceful symbol of Christian faith, not only to the 

Protestant churches, but to Catholic churches as well, demands 

and warrants a unanimous condemnation by the international community. 

Notably, even the government, the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association of Zhejiang, and the Chinese Catholic Bishops Conference 

of Zhejiang, and the Chinese Christian Council, all sent official letters to the government agencies protesting and basically denouncing this barbaric act and urging the government to stop this kind 

of destruction. 

This is an unprecedented, of course, rebuke from those government-controlled religious institutions, and it certainly reflects the 

millions of believers’ mindset that I think it could trigger more unrest, as contrary to the Communist government’s intention. 

Of course, the persecution against the house churches with a secret document in 2011 that we obtained, mandates the eradication 

of all house churches within 10 years. In the past 18 months, we 

have seen a continued, systematic campaign that increased both 

the number of the persecutions of the house churches, and also the 

number of arrests has been dramatically worsened. 

So, in reviewing religious freedom abuses perpetrated against the 

house church during both the 2014 and 2015 years, the following 

characteristics emerged: The abuse of administrative penalties and 

regulations regarding the length of administrative or criminal detention of church members and leaders, persecuting churches and 

church members under the guise of so-called eradicating cults and 

confiscating house church possessions, religious materials, including bibles and other scriptures, and banning and harassing Sunday 

schools, and even the church-managed kindergartens. 

11 

Like in Guangxi province, four leaders of the kindergarten teachers were given a criminal sentence this year for just teaching the 

children about character building. That is it. They received a twoto-three-year criminal sentence just for managing that kindergarten school. 

As the Chairman just mentioned, since July 10, the government 

initiated this sudden campaign against human rights lawyers. This 

happened in spite of the number of arrests against other prominent 

human rights lawyers, including Pu Zhiqiang, including the NGO 

leader Guo Yushan, including human rights lawyer Xu Zhiyong, 

and Hu Shigen, including, of course, the human rights defender 

and journalist, 71-year-old Ms. Gao Yu. 

This new wave of attacks against human rights lawyers and 

human rights defenders really proves that the Xi Jinping administration has no intention—no intention at all—to obey its own law, 

let alone international law. 

These human rights defenders, they courageously not only defend 

abuses of the house churches and Catholic churches, but also they 

are the defenders for Falun Gong practitioners and political dissidents and Tibetans, persecuted Muslims, and human rights advocates. So, they are labeled as subversives or some are said to be 

causing trouble. 

I will give you another example that happened in March 2014, 

when a group of human rights lawyers—Tang Jitian, Jiang 

Tianyong, Wang Cheng, Zhang Junjie, and nine family members of 

their clients who are Falun Gong practitioners—in Jiansanjiang, 

Heilongiang province, when they just visited there, tried to just ask 

the whereabouts of their clients. 

All these human rights defenders and family members were detained and were abused physically, and the four detained human 

rights lawyers were beaten and tortured, resulting in collectively 

having 24 of their ribs broken, and some of them are still kind of 

receiving medical treatment. So, this is just one of the incidents 

that has happened in the past year. 

This morning, Chairman Smith, there was a case in Guangzhou 

involving three bold human rights defenders. They are a Christian 

human rights lawyer Tang Jingling, Yuan Xinting, and Wang 

Qingying. They are human rights defenders. 

So, for simply holding a banner in front of a government building 

demanding freedom of speech, this morning their trial just started, 

and several of the lawyers have been arrested, including lawyer 

Sui Muqing, who is one of the victims of this July 10 raid. 

So, as of this morning, we learned just over 246 human rights 

lawyers and advocates and legal professionals have either been interrogated, detained, or have gone missing into police custody, of 

which 11 human rights lawyers and 3 human rights advocates 

have been criminally detained and 6 remain missing. 

I received a note from one of the missing human rights lawyers 

with whom Congressman Smith has met, attorney Li Heping. His 

wife just sent a note this morning saying that she had to send off 

her 13-year-old son to her hometown in a rural area, away from 

Beijing. 

She basically said this 13-year-old boy, witnessing on July 10 

when her home was raided and his father, attorney Li Heping was 

12 

taken away in front of this 13-year-old, with another little girl, so 

she said despite her reluctance to send her son away, she just 

prayed that being in a rural area, maybe that could protect their 

13-year-old son from being further harassed. 

The 16-year-old son of the other two human rights lawyers, lawyer Ms. Wang Yu and her husband attorney Bao Longjun, and 

their 16-year-old son Bao Mengmeng, on July 9, he was just on the 

way to go to study in Australia. 

Then, after the public security officers abruptly just kidnapped 

his father and also this 16-year-old son and separated them and 

put him in detention for 48 hours, now today they forced this boy 

to move from Tianjin city, his hometown, to Inner Mongolia. He 

was already summoned three times for interrogation. 

I have a 16-year-old daughter. Actually, I brought her with me 

today. As a father, how do you feel that when you are together and 

suddenly a group of strangers, by force, grab the father away for 

already 11 days? Nobody knows where the father or the mother is 

being detained. 

Their lawyers are not able to find out anything. So this new 

wave of campaign, once again, shows that it is almost the government that became part of a Mafia-style, to arbitrarily force the disappearance and kidnapping of these human rights lawyers. They 

are the backbone of China’s rule of law, and they are the defenders, 

and they should be rewarded for their action, as Chairman Smith 

made the statement on July 10 right after this happened. 

So I want to make a few recommendations, finally. 

Chairman SMITH. Pastor Fu, could we get back to that after we 

get through all the others? 

Mr. FU. Yes. 

Chairman SMITH. Just in the interest of time. 

Mr. FU. Yes. 

Chairman SMITH. Marco Rubio will be here momentarily and I 

am sure he will want to hear those recommendations. 

Mr. FU. Yes. 

Chairman SMITH. I would like to now yield and recognize Rebiya 

Kadeer. 

[The annual report of ChinaAid and the prepared statement of 

Mr. Fu appear in the appendix.] 

STATEMENT OF REBIYA KADEER, PRESIDENT, WORLD 

UYGHUR CONGRESS 

Ms. KADEER. I would like to express my deep appreciation to 

Congressman Smith for the invitation to speak here today. It is my 

honor to discuss religious persecution of the Uyghur in China. 

The situation of the Uyghur Muslim is not getting any better because of our strong belief in Islam and the Chinese Government’s 

repression is only getting worse. So I believe this hearing is very 

timely to discuss the religious persecution of all groups represented 

here today. To save time, I will have my special assistant to read 

my written statement. 

I am very honored to be here today and I wish to express my profound appreciation to Representative Chris Smith and Senator 

Marco Rubio for inviting me to testify today. I also want to thank 

13 

other CECC Commissioners for their strong support of religious 

freedom in China. 

The Uyghur people perceive their belief in Islam not only as a 

personal expression of faith, but also as a statement of their cultural distinctiveness from China’s mainstream Communist, atheist, 

and materialistic culture. For many Uyghurs, the incursion of the 

Chinese state into this private aspect of their lives and the role it 

plays in establishing a broader, new identify for them is viewed as 

part of China’s assimilative process or a form of cultural genocide. 

In East Turkistan, the two-fold implementation of strict national 

and regional regulations concerning religious belief and practice 

mean the Uyghur people are subject to the harshest conditions governing religious life in China. 

This occurs even though China’s domestic laws, such as the Constitution and the Regional Ethnic Autonomy Law, guarantee religious freedom. Rather than simply forbid religious practice of the 

Uyghur people, Chinese authorities have implemented regulations 

that progressively narrow the definition of lawful activity. 

As a result, many Uyghurs often discover traditional, normal religious customs are increasingly not permitted. However, Chinese 

officials justify many of the restrictions through claims that outlawed practices have been imported from overseas and that it faces 

an organized threat to public security in the form of the ‘‘three evil 

forces’’ of terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism. 

China’s highly politicized criminal legal system, as well as the 

state apparatus governing and monitoring religion, have insured 

that government is the ultimate arbiter in the interpretation of religious affairs. In fact, the bodies established by the Chinese state 

to oversee administration in China do little to protect religious believers, but assist the government’s repression of religious freedom 

by helping to formulate and promote restrictive regulations. 

Uyghur religious leaders, such as imams, are required to attend 

annual political indoctrination classes to ensure compliance with 

Chinese Communist Party regulations and policies. Only state-approved versions of the Koran, the Holy Book of Islam, and the sermons are permitted, with all unapproved religious texts treated as 

illegal publications liable to confiscation and criminal charges 

against whoever was found in possession of them. 

Any outward expression of faith in government workplaces, hospitals, and some private businesses, such as men wearing beards 

or women wearing head scarves, is forbidden. No state employees 

or no one under the age of 18 can enter a mosque, a measure not 

enforced in the rest of China. Organized private religious education 

is proscribed and facilitators of private classes in Islam are frequently charged with conducting illegal religious activities. 

Students, teachers, government workers are prohibited from fasting during Ramadan, the holy month of Islam. In addition, 

Uyghurs are not permitted to undertake Hajj, which is pilgrimage, 

unless it is with an expensive official government tour in which 

state officials carefully vet Uyghur applicants. 

Uyghurs found to have contravened religious regulations are 

punished severely. In a disturbing number of cases, Uyghurs have 

been given long prison sentences for illegal religious activities for 

14 

actions considered normal by international human rights standards. 

For example, in East Turkistan today police can stop any Uyghur 

at any time to check their mobile phones for religious content. If 

the police deem such religious content as illegal, the Uyghur can 

be arrested on the spot. An area of considerable concern is also the 

open discrimination against Uyghur religious believers, especially 

women, who choose to lead religious lives publicly. 

In 2015, the restrictions placed on Uyghurs’ ability to observe 

Ramadan fasts were widely reported. As detailed by the overseas 

media, government work units outrightly denied Uyghurs the right 

to follow their religious customs. For example, middle schools in 

Bortala, Tarbaghatay and Tumshuq informed their employees and 

students that they were not permitted to fast. 

In Jing county, restaurant owners were mandated by the local 

Food and Drug Administration to remain open during fasting hours 

and some were even forced to sell alcohol and tobacco products, 

which were against their religious faith. 

Reports also surfaced on social media that Uyghurs were being 

compelled to eat watermelon in public to demonstrate non-observance of the fast. Although these reports remain unconfirmed, they 

are consistent with numerous accounts I have heard from Uyghurs, 

particularly students, who were required to drink water at school 

in front of their teachers to prove they were not fasting, but were 

following school and local government regulations. 

Ramadan, in 2015, was particularly tense and harsh for the 

Uyghur people. In an article dated June 24, 2015, Radio Free Asia 

described how government workers were being put on alert prior 

to the holy month. Their report was an alarming indication of the 

suspicion with which the state views Uyghurs who continue with 

their religious practices. 

Furthermore, according to Radio Free Asia, one county issued 

guidelines calling for intrusive searches of convenience stores, repair shops, and mosques. These restrictions create an atmosphere 

of distrust and fear. 

However, 2015 witnessed provocations against the Islamic faith 

previously not seen. Reports that a beer drinking festival had been 

organized in Niya, a predominantly Uyghur settlement, on the eve 

of Ramadan. It was a humiliation of the Islamic faith and an attack on the Uyghur people’s belief. 

A report published by Human Rights Watch in 2005 described 

the close relationship between the Uyghur identity and Islam. The 

authors of the report accurately state Islam is perceived as a fading 

Uyghur ethnic identity and so the subordination of Islam to the 

state is used as a means to ensure the subordination of the Uyghur 

people as well. 

A report issued by the Uyghur Human Rights Project [UHRP] in 

2013 found a sharp deterioration in Uyghur religious rights in the 

period following 2005. Since the publication of the UHRP report, in 

April of 2013 the abuse of China’s denial of Uyghurs’ rights to freedom of religion has not abated. 

The increased repression of religious practices and belief under 

way corresponds with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s determination 

15 

to implement a major strategic shift in East Turkistan that 

prioritizes security policies in the region. 

State rhetoric regarding the tightening of security is often accompanied by crackdowns on the so-called ‘‘three evil forces,’’ which frequently target peaceful religious expression of the Uyghur people. 

A trip to East Turkistan by Xi Jinping concluded on April 30, 

2014, reinforced the call for enhanced security measures. Xi visited 

People’s Liberation Army soldiers and the People’s Armed Police in 

Kashgar, a Uyghur-majority city, that he claimed was the front 

line of counterterrorism. 

Radio Free Asia reported a series of cases involving limits placed 

on Uyghur religious expression across East Turkistan in 2013 and 

2014, including Balaqsu near Kashgar in May 2013, Beshtugmen 

in Igerchi near Aksu city in May 2013, Uchturpan in Aksu prefecture in August 2013, Shihezi in November 2013, Turpan in April 

2014. 

In April 2014, the fourth extension to an original 12-year jail 

term handed down to Uyghur religious leader Abdukiram Abduveli, 

in an extraordinary move, the harshness of the religious policies 

prompted a Uyghur delegate to China’s People’s Consultative Conference to speak up during a March 2014 session. 

Further signs that regulations governing religion hardened since 

Xi’s announcement is an April 2014 notice issued by the Chinese 

Communist Party committee of Qartal Bazaar in Aksu city regarding the holding of an unlawful funeral ceremony for Uyghur cadre 

Nurdin Turdi, a loyal Party official, distinguished actually by the 

state. 

The notes widely circulated on social media said that as Nurdin 

Turdi’s funeral was held at the mosque and not at his home, his 

family was in contravention of regulations on funerals for individuals holding Turdi’s status. 

As a consequence of the infraction, the funeral fees normally paid 

by the state to such individuals were rescinded, six months of benefits for the family were withheld. Customarily, the state used to 

permit Islamic burials for any Uyghur who wished to have one in 

the past. 

Prior to Ramadan 2015, reports surfaced of the harsh sentencing 

of a Uyghur man from Kashgar to six years in jail because he had 

grown a beard, in accordance with his religious beliefs. The man’s 

wife was handed a two-year sentence for veiling herself. The ban 

on Islamic veiling in Urumqi in 2015 was described by scholars 

James Leibold and Timothy Grose as ‘‘a sign of a deepening rift of 

mistrust between the Uyghurs and the Han-dominated Communist 

Party.’’ 

Universal religious freedom is protected under Article 18 of the 

normative human rights standards outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international instruments 

whose standards China is obliged to meet, and also ensure the 

right of religious freedom, such as the Convention on the Rights of 

the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of 

Discrimination against Women. 

China’s domestic laws, such as the Constitution and the Regional 

Ethnic Autonomy Law, have strong provisions on freedom of religious belief. Despite the international and domestic legal frameVerDate Mar 15 2010 16:55 Feb 04, 2016 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00019 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 U:\DOCS\95782.TXT DEIDRE
16 

work, restrictions on religious freedom are deemed lawful by Chinese authorities through the strict implementation of regulations 

that contradict China’s own laws and international obligations. 

Thank you. 

Chairman SMITH. Thank you very much, Ms. Kadeer, for your 

testimony and leadership. 

Mr. Gyatso? 

STATEMENT OF LOSANG GYATSO, TIBETAN SERVICE CHIEF, 

VOICE OF AMERICA 

Mr. GYATSO. Thank you, Chairman Smith. Thank you to the 

Commission for inviting me. I would just like to clarify that I am 

not a practicing activist. I am here as an engaged Tibetan and as 

Service Chief of Voice of America’s [VOA] Tibetan language service. 

I am here to provide a sense of what is happening in Tibet today 

and to put it in the context of Chinese policies and actions in Tibet 

over the last 50, 60 years. 

I have four images to show you. It will be in the first two or 

three minutes. As I hold them up, it will be a signal for you to view 

it on the screen over there. 

Since problems facing religion, religious institutions, and religious teachers in Tibet is widely known and well-documented by 

this Commission and many other governmental and non-governmental organizations in the United States and abroad, I will not 

take up too much of your time going over too many examples. 

I would like to, however, touch on two events that took place this 

month which may serve to highlight the degree to which the Chinese Communist Party is willing to carry out actions that cause 

enormous suffering for Tibetans, and that create an environment 

of oppression in monasteries and in the personal lives of Tibetans 

that have triggered the self-immolation protests by over 140 Tibetans since 2009. 

The latest such protest took place on the afternoon of July 9, two 

weeks ago. A young monk named Sonam Topgyal set himself on 

fire at a public square in Kyegudo, the prefectural capital of what 

China today refers to as the Yulshul Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai province. 

Photos and videos showing Sonam Topgyal on the ground in 

flames have emerged since then and once again, as in many previous such cases, Sonam Topgyal was taken from the site by Chinese security and is believed to have died at a hospital. 

A note he wrote one week earlier has surfaced, and in it he says, 

‘‘I am the 27-year-old son of Tashitsang of Nangchen, Yulshul, in 

Tsongon region,’’ referring to his hometown and the region with the 

traditional Tibetan geographic designation. 

He continues, ‘‘Currently, I am a monk studying in Dzongsar Institute. As people within the country and outside are aware, the 

Chinese Government does not look at the true and real situation 

of the minorities, but practices only harsh and repressive policies 

on them. At a time when the government is carrying out policies 

to stamp out our religion, tradition, and culture and destroy our 

natural environment, there is absolutely no freedom of expression 

for the people and there is no channel to appeal our situation.’’ 

17 

The other development this month which has been particularly 

difficult for Tibetans is the prison death of a widely respected lama 

and political prisoner on July 12, 11 days ago. Tenzin Deleg 

Rinpoche’s family and monastic community had not been allowed 

to see him since 2013, and were not allowed to see him on the day 

that Chinese authorities claim he died of a heart attack, nor for 

several more days as they pleaded to have his body returned to 

them in order to conduct a funeral fitting for a high lama. 

Tibetans pleading for the return of his body were beaten severely 

by security forces on July 13, 10 days ago, in Nyagchu county, 

Sichuan province. Several days after the announcement of his 

death, his family and some monks were allowed to see his body in 

the detention center, where he was incinerated in the prison crematorium against their wishes. 

The Chinese have been in Tibet since 1951, long enough to understand that a prison cremation for a highly regarded spiritual 

teacher will be seen by Tibetans as a humiliating and degrading 

act, and therefore understand it to be an added punishment for 

those who had been pleading his innocence for 13 years, and then 

pleading for his remains after his death. 

Further troubling is the fact that his sister and niece have gone 

missing since July 17. A relative of Rinpoche living in exile that 

VOA interviewed, suspected that the two women had been detained 

for possibly persisting in demanding a proper investigation into his 

sudden death. 

On July 14, nine days ago, House Members at a hearing on Tibet 

by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission had urged the Chinese authorities to return the body of Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche to his 

family members. As far back as 2004, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution by unanimous consent, calling for Rinpoche’s release. Both 

calls have gone unheeded. 

Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche’s story is neither unique nor rare when 

you look back over the last six decades of Chinese rule of Tibet. 

Today, there are many known and probably many, many more unknown Tibetans languishing in China’s prisons for simply expressing their dissent with the oppressive rules and regulations governing Tibetan lives and the institutions and figures of Tibetan 

Buddhism. 

Writers and artists are imprisoned for simply writing or singing 

about their love of Tibet’s mountains and lakes, culture and history. Many more are detained for refusing to denounce their religious heads, such as the Dalai Lama, during reeducation campaigns at temples and monasteries. All of the above seemingly innocuous acts can today be categorized as separatist acts according 

to recent regulations targeting Tibetans. 

Once imprisoned, the Tibetans are accused of acting at the instigation of the Dalai Lama and/or foreign anti-China forces, by 

which most Tibetans understand the Chinese to mean the United 

States, and are then subjected to torture and prolonged mistreatment with the sole purpose of extracting confessions that correspond to the accusations. 

This process, repeated across Tibet for 50 years, has created immeasurable suffering for the Tibetan people and deeply disturbed 

their psychological well-being for decades. As I mentioned earlier, 

18 

the Chinese Government’s attack on religion and religious institutions and figures in Tibet is not a recent development, nor are they 

random aberrations in their rule of Tibet since 1951. The Chinese 

Communist Party has been purposefully and methodically working 

to dismantle the very fabric of Tibetan spirituality and religious 

tradition since 1955. 

Between 1955 and 1968, almost every single religious institution 

in Tibet, estimated to number over 6,000 monasteries and temples, 

many of them a 1,000 years, 500 years old, had been aerial 

bombed, artillery shelled, and razed to the ground. Tens of thousands of lamas, religious teachers, monks, and nuns were imprisoned, executed, or disrobed. 

Public humiliation and torturing of respected reincarnated 

lamas, often to death, took place across Tibet in the 1950s and 

1960s in order to ridicule religion and to prove that religious figures were powerless. 

Attacks on religion during that period was the reason why all of 

the heads of the major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, all five heads, 

went into exile in 1959 before the fall of the Tibetan Government 

and remain so to this day. 

The highest ranking lama remaining inside Tibet in 1959 was 

the Panchen Lama. He spent 13 years in solitary prison for speaking against what the Chinese had done in Tibet up to 1961. After 

his sudden death in 1989, the Chinese installed their own choice 

of his reincarnation, a child whose parents were Party members, 

Chinese Communist Party members. The child that was selected by 

monks in the Panchen Lama’s own monastery and approved by the 

Dalai Lama as is customary, was disappeared, along with his entire family in May 1995 and has not been heard of since then. 

In 2007, China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs introduced measures that dictate which Tibetan religious figures may or 

may not reincarnate, and the requirement for the approval of selected reincarnated lamas by offices under the Communist Party. 

While this may appear simply surreal and bizarre to most people, 

there are two very serious possible consequences from these measures; one that will even further diminish human rights in Tibet, 

and the other that will impact the state of religious institutions 

and the very existence of religious practice as we know it in Tibet. 

First, since nearly all expressions critical of conditions in Tibet, 

and/or, in praise of aspects of Tibetan culture and identity can be 

categorized as ‘‘separatist’’ activities that are punishable acts 

today, the following sentence in the measure, ‘‘living Buddha reincarnations should respect and protect the principles of the unification of the state,’’ would mean that all officially sanctioned reincarnated lamas and the religious institutions affiliated with them, 

would be forced into silence on issues relating to human rights and 

the state of religious and cultural freedoms in Tibet. 

And second, and this may not be fully appreciated by many people at present, the interference by the Communist Party in the selection or de-selection of reincarnated spiritual masters undermines 

Tibetan Buddhism at its most fundamental level by aiming to 

break the trust and faith that Tibetans have invested in their 

lamas for hundreds of years. 

19 

Tibetan Buddhist practice, based on ancient Indian traditions, 

holds at its very core the sacred relationship between religious 

teachers with pure and direct spiritual lineages, many that go back 

1,000 years, and the student practitioners who take vows, initiations, and meditation instructions from them. The successful guidance through complex psychological states and through layers of 

consciousness in the course of a person’s spiritual practice relies 

completely on this connection between trusted and respected reincarnated lamas and their followers. 

The measures to control reincarnated lamas is therefore aimed 

at this bedrock of Tibetan religious practice and could lead to the 

destruction of thousands of unbroken spiritual lineages of the 

lamas, and to the eventual demise of Tibetan Buddhism as it has 

been practiced since the 13th century when the reincarnation system was initiated in Tibet. As an example and on a much more 

mundane level, it is as if a government decided that it would select 

people to practice medicine, surgery, and psychiatry, based not on 

their qualifications and background, but on their political leaning. 

You can imagine what this would do to the state of healthcare. 

These are just a few examples of how persecution of religion and 

religious institutions and figures in Tibet are an ongoing feature of 

Chinese rule of Tibet, and they are posing existential challenges for 

Tibetans in maintaining intellectual rigor and spiritual vitality in 

the monasteries and temples across Tibet. 

The Dalai Lama says in his autobiography that in one of his 

meetings with Chairman Mao in 1954, Mao turned to him, leaned 

forward, and said, ‘‘Religion is poison.’’ That view appears to have 

been, and continues to be, the guiding principle of Chinese rule in 

Tibet, where its policies since 1955 have gone from destroying religion completely, to today, where a small number of monitored monasteries and controlled religious figures are allowed to exist as a 

show of the government’s tolerance for religion and as tourist attractions, while in reality, the monastic institutions and the system 

of reincarnated lamas is being controlled and used purely for the 

perpetuation of China’s control of Tibet. 

Thank you. 

Chairman SMITH. Mr. Gyatso, thank you very much for your very 

comprehensive and incisive testimony. 

We are joined by Senator Marco Rubio, who was in, and probably 

has to go back to, a hearing that is on the Iran nuclear deal as a 

member of the Foreign Relations Committee, a leader on that committee. Secretary Kerry is testifying, but I would like to yield to my 

good friend and colleague. 

STATEMENT OF HON. MARCO RUBIO, A U.S. SENATOR FROM 

FLORIDA; COCHAIRMAN, CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA 

Senator RUBIO. I just want to thank you, and I want to thank 

all of you for being here for this important hearing. I do not have 

an extensive statement. Are we going to go into the question period? 

Chairman SMITH. Yes. 

Senator RUBIO. Yes. I just wanted to make a couple of points. I 

mean, we have all watched over the last two weeks as the Chinese 

20 

Communist Party and its authorities have launched an unprecedented crackdown on human rights lawyers, on activists, the most 

severe since the legal system was reestablished after the Cultural 

Revolution. 

To date, there has been over—that we know of—200 people detained, questioned, reported missing. So I think this hearing today 

is timely, and in particular the focus on religious liberties, which 

there seems to be an amped-up effort to target those, whether it 

is the extensive cross removal campaign resulting in the destruction of hundreds of Chinese crosses, the Thai authorities forcibly 

repatriating Uyghur Muslims back to China, Tibetan Buddhists 

who have continued to set themselves on fire in desperation at the 

abuses of their people; it goes on and on. 

So I think this is an important opportunity to shed light on this 

extraordinary development that is going on in China, that the 

world seems largely either unaware of, or uninterested in, given all 

the other challenges that exist on this planet. I think it is one we 

need to continue to focus on and ensure that this country’s foreign 

policy is one deeply and firmly anchored in moral clarity and 

human rights. 

So thank you for the opportunity to be a part of this hearing 

today, and I look forward to hearing from our witnesses. I apologize 

that I have to leave a few minutes early. We are in the middle of 

an Iran hearing. It is the only chance we will have to talk to Secretary Lew, Secretary Kerry, and Secretary Moniz on an important 

issue as well. But again, I wanted to come by for a few minutes 

and hopefully be able to ask some questions. 

I would love to, if I can go first. I appreciate your indulgence in 

that regard. 

So Mr. Gyatso, I want to begin with you. Do you think that a 

Chinese-appointed Dalai Lama is something that Tibetans would 

ever accept or eventually get used to? 

Mr. GYATSO. Thank you for that question. It is an extremely difficult and delicate subject for Tibetans. I think the clearest answer 

I can provide would be that there is actually an existing example 

of an imposition of an important lama inside Tibet, the Panchen 

Lama. The Panchen Lama, as I mentioned earlier, this current 

Panchen Lama, was imposed by the Chinese in 1996. The Panchen 

Lama that was recognized by his own monastery, and as customary, approved by the Dalai Lama, has been disappeared since 

1996 to this day. 

The Chinese-appointed Panchen Lama has not received acceptance at all across Tibet. He has had trouble finding proper religious 

teachers who are willing to accept that role. He has had problems 

having monasteries that are willing to have him study in the institutions, and almost every aspect of his public appearances in Tibet 

have to be orchestrated and choreographed with people bussed in 

to greet him, et cetera. So I think that gives you a very small indication, although he is a lama of a smaller scope than the Dalai 

Lama, that acceptance of a Chinese-appointed Dalai Lama is not 

a viable option. 

Senator RUBIO. And Mr. Fu, I wanted to ask you, what policy 

recommendations do you have for the U.S. Congress, for the executive branch, in terms of protecting religious freedom in China? How 

21 

should the U.S. Government convey those concerns to Chinese officials in these high-level bilateral meetings? 

Mr. FU. Thank you, Senator Rubio. Yes, I think the how part, at 

least I can give a few recommendations. First of all, I think given 

the fruitless years of U.S.-China human rights dialogue with 

China, I think I would really recommend the administration to cancel this kind of really useless, toothless human rights dialogue. 

I would also recommend that human rights should play a more 

central role instead during the annual U.S.-China Strategic and 

Economic Dialogue instead, including a review mechanism to ensure progress on human rights is made during each year’s meeting. 

I also would urge Congress, both the House and Senate, to seriously pass the Global Magnitsky Act and the other Human Rights 

Protection Act sponsored by Congressman Smith, and I think that 

the mechanism, if passed by the Congress for the Global Magnitsky 

Act, would really give the true teeth to ensure, at least partially, 

those human rights abusers would be more hesitant to make further persecution. 

For instance, the latest campaign against human rights lawyers. 

And the Chinese Government admitted the central figure who orchestrated or laid this campaign is Minister Guo Shengkun. He is 

the Minister of Public Security, and he has contributed to this increasing crackdown, like the crackdown and forced removal of 

crosses in Zhejiang province. 

The Party secretary of Zhejiang, Mr. Xia Baolong, who has been 

the leading force for these latest abuses, although with the authorization and approval from President Xi Jinping. Mr. Xia Baolong 

and Mr. Guo Shengkun should clearly be put on the list at the 

State Department for the travel ban, banning them to travel to 

America. We can coordinate with the European allies to ban them 

as well. 

So these are some of the key recommendations I would give. 

Senator RUBIO. And Ms. Lin, I wanted to ask you, you have documented that this has happened to you as well, how the Chinese 

Government often uses China-based family members of Chinese 

rights activists as leverage to get them to stop their work. 

Can you describe a little bit about it? I mean, you have written 

about it before, but is that an ongoing practice? How many people 

have you met that are affected by it, the idea that they use your 

relatives back in China as leverage against you to prevent you, or 

hopefully to convince you? 

Because I think it is amazing. I know it would be shocking to a 

lot of Americans to know that there are people living in this country, perhaps American citizens, who are being extorted and/or 

blackmailed through the safety or security of their own relatives 

back in China. 

Ms. LIN. Yes. I would say that this is a common experience of 

many Chinese overseas, including Chinese Canadians, Chinese 

Americans. It is a well-known fact among the community that the 

Chinese consulate would send people to watch over the Chinese. 

Religious freedom and human rights does not just affect people 

that are living in China, but every Chinese who still has loved ones 

there. I do not know what it feels like to be tortured by prison 

guards, but now I know the deep fear probably felt by many ChiVerDate Mar 15 2010 16:55 Feb 04, 2016 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00025 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 U:\DOCS\95782.TXT DEIDRE
22 

nese people that their convictions might be paid by their loved 

ones. 

But if we keep silent, there is no end to this kind of compromise. 

The Chinese people overseas need to speak up about this issue. 

Yes, we might be afraid, but courage is not always the absence of 

fear. To be courageous, is to know that something else is much 

more important than fear. To be able to live according to your conscience, for Falun Gong practitioners and other dissidents, it outweighs the fear of death. That is why I am going back to China. 

I hope my presence in that country would help those who are facing these unspeakable horrors, to preserve their hope a little 

longer. Thank you. 

Chairman SMITH. Thank you. 

At my request, I would like to ask that Senator Rubio, we will 

suspend for about two minutes. If you would not mind saying hello. 

I know you could not get here because of the hearing and you are 

going back to the Iran hearing. 

Senator RUBIO. I am just going to come down to say hello to everyone. 

Chairman SMITH. That would be great. 

[Whereupon, at 12:26 p.m. the hearing was recessed.] 

AFTER RECESS 

[12:27 P.M.]

Chairman SMITH. Thank you, Cochair Senator Rubio. The hearing will now reconvene. 

Let me just ask a few questions. Again, your testimonies have 

been absolutely stellar and hopefully motivating, not just to the 

Congress and to the press and free peoples everywhere, but to the 

President and to the administration as well. 

When Pastor Fu says that in the past two years human rights 

and the rule of law in China have rapidly deteriorated, the number 

of dissidents taken into police custody, arrested, and convicted 

since Xi took power has exceeded the total number that occurred 

during the 10-year reign of President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen 

Jiabao. 

That ought to be in headlines across the world that the race to 

the bottom with North Korea is unprecedented. It has shades as 

you pointed out, of Chairman Mao, Jr. There is an emulation here 

of the extraordinary excesses of Chairman Mao and the depravity, 

the cruelty that was visited. 

As you said, Mr. Gyatso, about the meeting with the Dalai Lama 

and Chairman Mao, the answer back was that religion is poison. 

What the government is doing to its own people is poison. 

We fail in capitals around the world, including this one, to recognize the insatiable appetite for depravity and cruelty by the 

guards, right up to the highest levels of this government in Beijing, 

to hurt people, to find very specific ways, whether it be ensuring 

that fasts are broken, Ramadan is not followed, public drinking of 

water and taking of food in order to humiliate, of course the genocide being committed against the Tibetans which is ongoing and 

pervasive, the relentless attempt to not just persecute, but to eradiVerDate Mar 15 2010 16:55 Feb 04, 2016 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00026 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 U:\DOCS\95782.TXT DEIDRE
23 

cate religion and spiritual belief and exercises, and I think that is 

the track that Xi Jinping is on. The evidence is overwhelming. 

My first question—I think the point is, and Mrs. Rebiya Kadeer 

certainly has dealt with this with her own family as well, the Senator asked a very, I think, important question about not just the 

incarcerated and persecuted dissident or religious believer or Falun 

Gong practitioner, but also the whole family goes to jail, not just 

in China, but everywhere else where members of the family and 

the extended family reside. 

We know that with Chen Guangcheng, who Bob Fu worked tirelessly to free and to get his wife and family out of Beijing; we are 

waiting for his nephew to be released—you might want to speak to 

that. But they always find other people to take actions against. 

I remember being in Hungary not so long ago and a member of 

our Embassy there made a very serious faux pas when they were 

somehow accusing the Hungarian Government of having a cozy relationship with China. Who has a cozy relationship with China 

then? President Obama and others in our government, particularly 

on the economics front. 

But I said, do you realize that they follow and they send more 

people to follow—this is to say, the Chinese Government—in capitals around the world and in cities around the world when there 

is more of a diaspora there because they feel they own you, they 

own the Chinese people? If you speak out—and Rebiya Kadeer has 

dealt with that here as well, where she has been harassed by the 

Chinese Government here, not just there but here. 

So I think the point—and maybe some of you might want to 

build on it—about what this government so cruelly does to the families, they torture, they imprisoned, but then they cruelly mistreat 

the families as well, trying to do what they are doing—trying to do 

to you, with your dad saying to back off on human rights. So the 

whole family goes to jail and I think that is under-appreciated by 

policymakers everywhere. 

I would say on the Muslim persecution—and you might want to 

respond to all that. I would say on the persecution of the Muslims, 

I do not know any other country in the world where Muslims are 

persecuted the way the Uyghurs are in the People’s Republic of 

China, yet China sits as a member of good standing on the Human 

Rights Council, on the Security Council of the United Nations, and 

on many other prestigious seats there. 

I plan on taking this testimony, which again, I think every Member of Congress needs to read and we will get it out to the Members, the House and Senate, hopefully the press will report accurately—I believe they will—as to what they have heard today, but 

also to Prince Zeid. He is the High Commissioner for Human 

Rights. 

I have worked with him on human trafficking issues in the past. 

He runs a large UN bureaucracy of human rights personnel and he 

is a Muslim. He should be speaking out every day of the week generally on all the persecution in China, but if he cannot show solidarity with the Uyghurs, that would be a very serious flaw on his 

part. So we will convey this record to him, especially the urgency 

that it is worse now than it was a year ago, two years ago, and 

China is in, like I said, a race to the bottom with North Korea. 

24 

If you might want to respond to any of that, I would appreciate 

it. That is an opener. Also, Pastor Fu, we are going to talk about 

your recommendations, if you would include them as well. 

Mr. FU. Yes. You are absolutely right, Chairman Smith, about 

the cruelty, the increasing cruelty, toward the family members. 

Family members oftentimes have become hostages. I have received 

multiple messages from these human rights lawyers even before 

they were arrested, and, of course, the example of Gao Zhisheng is 

another example, whose daughter was just attacked, and the wife 

was beaten up on the street. I remember when I spoke up in 2002 

after I came to the United States, then my 70-year-old father was 

taken into the police station. 

Later on, after I rescued him out of China, I learned he was beaten up with a big stick and basically tried to send a signal to silence 

my voice here. I am the latest example. Of course, you know that 

Major Yan Xiong, who is the army chaplain, should be a hero and 

who is one of the student leaders in the student democracy movement, a close friend of mine. We always pray together over the 

phone, and he is a human rights campaigner, too. 

He requested to even visit his mother initially. Remember, you 

also tried to intervene, and a number of other Members of Congress wrote letters, tried to really do a private diplomacy for just 

simple, humanitarian grounds. Major Yan Xiong’s mom was recently holding her last breath, waiting for her son to go back to say 

farewell. The Chinese Embassy and Consulate rejected his visa application, and his mom died last week, and he still was not granted 

a visa. 

So this shows the cruelty. Of course, my friend Yang Jianli, who 

spent five years in prison for just speaking up and traveling in 

China, meeting with other dissidents, I think given the kind of deteriorating situation, one of the concrete recommendations I would 

urge you and Senator Rubio to really strongly push is to urge the 

Obama administration to reconsider the invitation to President Xi 

Jinping to visit the United States in September. This is not the environment for him to get a red-carpet welcome. He is not welcome 

by the American people. 

He may be welcomed by some politicians who care nothing but 

for economic interests and who really value nothing but their 

purse. And this visit by Xi Jinping in September should either be 

canceled, postponed, or at least pre-conditioned on the release of 

those prisoners of conscience, some prominent ones in the Free 

China 18 list. 

Of those prominent human rights activists, journalists, like Gao 

Yu, Pu Zhiqiang, Guo Yushan, Ilham Tohti, those are the peaceful 

citizens, the conscience of China. With them in the dark cells of 

Chinese prisons, I do not see that there is any good reason to justify a state visit, a welcome to Xi Jinping this September. So, this 

is one of my concrete recommendations. 

Ms. KADEER. Thank you, Mr. Smith, for the question. In the case 

of the Uyghurs, the Chinese Government not only targets Uyghur 

activists in East Turkistan, but also those Uyghurs who have fled 

outside of the country, and especially targets their family members. 

In my case, as you know, it is very well-known that two of my 

sons were sentenced by the Chinese authorities just because of my 

25 

human rights advocacy. One son was sentenced to seven years, another to nine, basically for guilt by association. 

Although both of my sons are out of prison now, having served 

their terms, I do have 24 other relatives, including children and 

grandchildren. They are not in prison, but it is not any different 

than if they were in prison. Actually, they are all under surveillance and strict government control, so they are in an open prison. 

All their financial means are frozen and confiscated by the government. Some of my grandchildren who graduated from universities, they are also black-listed and they could never get a job anywhere. 

Another example is a reporter, a Uyghur reporter at Radio Free 

Asia. His name is Shohret Hoshur. Because of his reporting of Chinese Government human rights violations, three of his siblings 

were detained by the Chinese authorities. 

These are obviously just two cases, but for all Uyghurs who have 

fled Chinese persecution and have become active overseas, their 

relatives and family members are harassed and some family members, the government uses them to pressure their relatives outside 

of the country, to spy on their own communities on behalf of the 

Chinese authorities. 

Due to the increasing religious repression of the Chinese authorities against the Uyghur people and targeting the Uyghur people’s 

faith in Islam, which is demonized by the Chinese authorities, for 

many religious Uyghurs it is almost impossible to live a normal life 

in and around East Turkistan. 

As a result, many have sold whatever they could sell and fled to 

southeastern Asian countries like Thailand and Malaysia, hoping 

to reach Turkey in recent years. We have seen men, women, children, and even pregnant women leaving our homeland en masse. 

We had several hundred Uyghurs detained by the Thai authorities for the past two years, and recently 109 of them were forcibly 

deported by the Thai Government to China. We have seen the 

photos of the deportation. They were treated like criminals by the 

Chinese authorities and taken away. 

We now have nearly 60 Uyghurs still in Thai detention centers. 

We deeply fear for their future, should any deportation happen, but 

we already know the Chinese Government is harassing the relatives of the nearly 60 Uyghurs detained in Thailand, pressuring 

the family members basically to pressure the Uyghurs detained in 

Thailand to return to China. 

So the situation, of course, is very similar across the board, 

whether one is a Falun Gong member, one is a Chinese Christian, 

one is a Tibetan under Chinese rule. The Chinese Government’s aggressive persecution of the activists, both inside and outside China, 

is extremely severe. But at the moment we are deeply concerned 

with the fate of the 109 Uyghurs deported to China. We also hope 

the rest of the Uyghurs in Thai detention would not be deported. 

Thank you. 

Ms. LIN. I would like to talk about some of my colleagues’ experiences. These are very courageous people that I work with on independent film and television projects that expose human rights 

abuses in China. 

26 

The NTD TV president’s brother was harassed in China because 

he practiced Falun Gong and also speaks about the abuses that are 

happening. A film producer I worked with last summer, Leon Li, 

made a film about the organ harvesting that is happening in China 

and his family members have been threatened by the security 

force. 

These are people that are working in the media and helping to 

bring light to these kinds of abuses. I think if every Chinese can 

speak up and if our governments can protect these citizens by talking about it publicly, to let the Chinese Government know that 

when they do such things they will have a reputational cost, then 

perhaps they will respect our borders more. Thank you. 

Chairman SMITH. We are joined by Commissioner Pittenger, a 

good friend and colleague, and also a religious freedom human 

rights activist and a very, very strong believer and inspiration to 

me. 

Mr. Pittenger? 

STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT PITTENGER, A U.S. 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM NORTH CAROLINA 

Representative PITTENGER. Thank you, Chairman Smith, for 

your wonderful leadership applied to religious freedom for people 

throughout the world. We met some 30 years ago and I have always been grateful for your big heart and compassion toward these 

important issues. 

I have been engaged in this since my involvement with Campus 

Crusade for Christ back in the 1970s. For 10 years, I was an assistant to Dr. Bill Bright, president of the organization. We quietly 

worked through various groups in various parts of the world and 

the plight of those who are suppressed for their faith, as well as 

working and traveling in the former Soviet Union back in the 

1980s with Congressman Frank Wolf and David Amess, a Member 

of Parliament. We went there on behalf of those seeking freedoms 

of conscience and religious liberties. 

So I am deeply committed to these issues and I want to express 

my heartfelt solidarity with each of you. I know that many gathered here last week for the Falun Gong demonstration and for the 

rights to practice their beliefs. 

We stand with all people of all faiths for that right and that 

privilege. It is a God-honored commitment that I believe that all 

people should have. So, thank you for having this hearing, Mr. 

Chairman. I look forward to continued discussion and dialogue 

with you. 

Chairman SMITH. Thank you very much. 

Before we conclude, if there are any other points that any of you 

would like to make, I do want to say that China is a signatory to 

the Genocide Convention. They have, in my opinion—and they 

ought to be held to account for it—committed multiple acts of genocide and do so to this very day. 

There is the gendercide issue, where females are being slaughtered through the One-Child-Per-Couple policy. They pass laws 

that are absolutely ineffective and unenforced because it brings the 

numbers down. We know that as part of population control that 

came right out of Washington, Planned Parenthood, and other orVerDate Mar 15 2010 16:55 Feb 04, 2016 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00030 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 U:\DOCS\95782.TXT DEIDRE
27 

ganizations in the 1960s, the idea of destroying the baby girl, the 

girl child in utero, is an effective means of reducing your population because not only do you kill the baby in the womb who happens to be a girl, you also kill the chances of that girl being a 

mother when she is 20, 25, and 30. 

On religious grounds, the Tibetans, there is no clearer example 

ever of genocide. I have read the Dalai Lama’s book when he talked 

about the Han majority replacement, systematically displacing indigenous Tibetans. The multiple, systematic attacks against Tibetan Buddhists is a clear example of genocide. 

The same goes, I believe, with the Uyghurs, less visible to many 

people. It ought to be, but it is not. It is another genocide, a systematic destruction of a people in whole or in part. It fits the definition. Christians. They have tried to manage it for years after trying to completely eliminate, as Mao Zedong told the Dalai Lama, 

the poison of religion, then they looked to manage it. 

I think now they are reverting back to a destructive modality. 

The Falun Gong, it is inexplicable what the fear is there. It ought 

to be—I mean, people of faith form wonderful citizens who are lawabiding and Falun Gong have shown no tendency other than to be 

very, very good people with good principles, and yet the Chinese 

Government has been on a tear to slaughter, kill, and as you pointed out, Ms. Lin, the organ harvesting issue is something we are 

really looking aggressively into because that is another major fundamental human rights abuse, to kill someone to procure their organs. 

I held hearings 20 years ago, and we had a man who actually 

was a police officer who left, got asylum here. He got asylum in 

part because he came and appeared before our hearing. But he 

brought documentary evidence showing that they were exterminating, killing, executing prisoners, but not totally until they got 

the preferred body organ for transplant. He gave us a tremendous 

amount of documentation on that. 

To think that kind of horror, which is Nazi-like, continues today 

against Falun Gong and perhaps others is an atrocity that cannot 

go unaddressed. Bob Fu, Pastor Fu, said that Xi Jinping’s invitation, and who knows if it is going to be a full White House dinner 

with the red carpet. You enable evil, in my opinion, when you bring 

people in and give them a public relations opportunity back home 

that is second to none. 

I believe in meeting with people that you profoundly disagree 

with. I met with Bashir, who did the genocide against the people 

of Darfur in South Sudan. I met with him for well over an hour, 

argued with him. We do not do the arguing part. We meet, we toast 

and we make nice. Diplomacy ought to be heavily imbued with 

truth and reality. 

Unfortunately—and the one that got me even more than when 

President Obama had Hu here was when Chi Haotian came in, the 

Defense Minister of China who was the operational commander for 

the Tiananmen Square massacre. He should have been sent to the 

Hague for crimes against humanity. Instead, he was given a 19- 

gun salute by President Bill Clinton. 

I will never forget it. I put together a hearing that day. Some of 

you were here and we bore witness to the fact, two days after Chi 

28 

Haotian said nobody died at Tiananmen Square. Back home, as I 

ready People’s Daily, the English version, it was like Chi Haotian 

takes Washington by storm. We need our government, we need the 

President—he can do it as diplomatically as he wants, but to have 

some red lines about these human rights abuses that, as you have 

pointed out, all of you have pointed out, has gone from bad to 

worse. 

Again, we are going to give this hearing over to the White House. 

Hopefully they will look at it and hopefully they will not throw it 

into the circular file. But the President himself, and Biden himself—you know, if you are going to get these positions, if you aspire 

to be President, you had better be president for all the people, 

Americans, as well as for people who are struggling under the tyranny of a dictatorship as they are in Beijing and throughout China. 

So if you want to make any final comments, or Mr. Pittenger, if 

you would want to conclude on anything, thank you for your speaking truth to power with risks to yourselves and your loved ones 

when you do it. I just want to say how grateful we are. We will 

give this to Prince Zeid. 

I will get a copy to Ban Ki-moon and hopefully I will physically 

put it in his hands and ask him to read it, because China gets a 

pass on human rights. They have been for far too long and now 

that they are in a race to the bottom, I will say it for the third 

time, with North Korea for abuses against their own citizens, it is 

about time that the United Nations found its voice. 

Pastor Fu? 

Mr. FU. Yes. Thank you, Chairman, once again. I just want to 

have the rest of the four specific recommendations to the State Department specifically, and thank you, Congressman Pittenger, for 

your leadership, too. 

As you just mentioned, the family members, I mean, we actually 

even on our list today there was a petitioner from Heilongjiang 

province, Ms. Ma Yuqin. She was abused and tortured even for just 

simply making peaceful petitions for her property. Her whole factory was arbitrarily confiscated with all her wealth gone. 

I think the U.S. State Department should strongly consider posting an officer at the U.S. Embassy in China with the sole responsibility of monitoring and reporting on religious freedom and related 

human rights abuses within China, including in the areas of Tibet 

and Xinjiang. I also recommend that the State Department’s Office 

of International Religious Freedom and the Commission on International Religious Freedom to, each year, at least request to visit 

China. 

When was the last time each of the offices and agencies have visited China? I think it is already years that there has been no visit. 

My request for a visit of the former Ambassador was even denied 

a visa, but we did not hold any protests on even denying a president-appointed ambassador-at-large. That is a shame. 

The third recommendation I would recommend is that the State 

Department should make an official public statement condemning 

this forced demolition of churches and crosses in Zhejiang and 

other areas of China. So far, neither Secretary Kerry nor the 

spokesperson has issued a public statement condemning this large, 

brutal, shameful campaign. 

29 

The fourth and last one, is the State Department should raise 

publicly and at all levels of exchange with the Chinese Government 

the cases of prisoners of conscience, including the China 18 and 

others. I know you had led the campaign to urge President Obama 

to meet with the daughters of the prisoners of conscience multiple 

times. 

I think if the excuse not to meet with these family members in 

China—it could pose a danger or potential threat—but how about 

here in the United States? There is no threat to meet with the family members. So, these are the recommendations. 

I hope the State Department and our Embassy can really actively engage with those family members affected by the forced removal of crosses and the demolition of churches, the pastors can go 

and visit them and to meet with them and to really know about 

the situation and take concrete steps. Thank you. 

Ms. LIN. Just one final remark, Mr. Chairman. There are 50 

Falun Gong practitioners who have been recently denied refugee 

status in South Korea and are ready to be deported back to China 

to face those inhumane violations. 

I admire your commitment to human rights, but not every government is like that. I think we now face a choice, every one of us 

who are outside and inside China. We can choose to be silent and 

conform to these kinds of violations or we can use our liberty to advocate for those whose liberty has been deprived. Thank you very 

much. 

Chairman SMITH. On those 50, we will look into it and see if it 

would be appropriate—it probably will, but we will have to do a 

quick vetting of it. I mean, the whole issue of refoulement is that 

you do not send somebody back where there is a well-founded fear 

of persecution. You can count on each of those people, I think, 

going back to persecution, not even the fear of it. 

We have had ongoing arguments with the UNHCR, and then a 

number of host governments who continually do this, send Falun 

Gong and others back to near certainty, either incarceration, certainly harassment, and we contact not only the government of 

South Korea, but also the High Commissioner for Refugees. So we 

will follow up on that right after this hearing. 

Ms. Kadeer? 

Mr. GYATSO. If I may, just one final. 

Chairman SMITH. Yes. 

Mr. GYATSO. In terms of finding some sort of a resolution and a 

solution to the situation inside Tibet, one thing that is clear for Tibetans in exile, and I think from messages coming out of inside 

Tibet also, there is support for the Dalai Lama’s proposal made to 

the Chinese Government many years ago of finding an amicable solution for Tibetans to exist within the Chinese state but with autonomy over their culture, education, et cetera. 

I think a possible solution within this Dalai Lama’s lifetime 

would be for the United States and other ally countries that may 

see the wisdom of this solution, this proposal, to support it more 

openly and to help introduce education for the Chinese people to 

understand the content of that proposal so that they can see that 

a viable solution is not being properly addressed by the Chinese 

30 

Government. Because after the passing of this Dalai Lama, I believe Tibet will enter a much bleaker situation. 

Thank you. 

Ms. KADEER. In the case of Uyghurs, our biggest concern is 

extrajudicial killing of Uyghurs by the Chinese security forces, especially in predominantly Uyghur areas of Yatican, Kashgar, and 

Hotan. 

It is also extended sometimes to Aksu and Urumqi areas. In 

most cases, we see Chinese security forces shoot and kill Uyghurs 

and just blame them. We do see, sometimes, family members, 

women and children, who are involved especially in police raids 

into the homes of the Uyghurs. 

Just two days ago, the Chinese security forces in the city of Aksu 

shot and killed a Chinese woman with her child. She was taking 

her daughter to a piano lesson, and for some reason she may not 

have stopped at the particular checkpoint. We believe she was mistaken as a Uyghur and shot and killed. This is the first time a Han 

Chinese was extrajudicially killed in our home. 

Her husband was obviously furious with the extrajudicial killing 

of his wife in the presence of the daughter, so he basically asked, 

‘‘Why didn’t you stop her? Or if you were suspicious, why didn’t you 

shoot the tires? Why did you shoot inside of the car and kill my 

wife? Is it your job to just shoot and kill, not to stop people? ’’ They 

said we thought maybe some Uyghurs or something were inside. 

So my hope is both the administration and U.S. Congress, especially the State Department, could raise the issue urgently of the 

extrajudicial nature of Chinese security forces killing of not just 

Uyghurs, because they test with Uyghurs and then they extend to 

Tibet, to Falun Gong, to Chinese Christians. Usually this is the 

way to go, so I hope the U.S. Congress and the administration will 

pay particular attention to the extrajudicial killings. Thank you. 

Chairman SMITH. Any concluding comments? 

[No response]. 

Chairman SMITH. Thank you so much. You are true heroes. 

[Whereupon, at 1:04 p.m. the hearing was concluded.] 

(31) 

A P P E N D I X 

32 

PREPARED STATEMENTS

PREPARED STATEMENT OF ANASTASIA LIN

JULY 23, 2015

Thank you Mr. Chairman, and thank you to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China for convening this event. 

My name is Anastasia Lin. I’m an actress and a Canadian citizen. I will be representing Canada at the 2015 Miss World competition in Sanya, China, at least that 

is my hope. Recent events leave me uncertain, I’m a little worried about what will 

happen next if I continue to speak out. 

I campaigned for the title of Miss World Canada on a human rights platform. I 

wanted to speak for those in China that are beaten, burned and electrocuted for 

holding to their beliefs; people in prison who eat rotten food with blistered fingers 

because they dare have convictions. These are some of China’s most noble people, 

people of moral fortitude—a characteristic once treasured in my homeland, a characteristic now so desperately needed. 

When I was crowned Miss World Canada, my father was so proud of me. 

He received hundreds of congratulatory messages. But within a couple days, my 

father’s tone changed. He told me nervously that I must stop my advocacy for 

human rights in China, or else he would have no choice but to sever contact with 

me. I understand my father was visited by Chinese security agents, who forced him 

to apply pressure on me in this way. 

Over the past several years, I have taken on roles in several independent film and 

television programs that depict human rights abuses in China. My job requires me 

to be intimately familiar with the stories of those who have suffered unspeakable 

horrors, including a number of Falun Gong practitioners who were imprisoned and 

tortured for their beliefs. 

Prison guards put bamboo sticks under their fingernails. Women are tortured 

with electric batons on their private parts and raped. Hundreds of thousands have 

been jailed for a belief. These are not criminals. They are simply people who wanted 

to meditate and improve themselves by following the values of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. 

I have studied these stories and performed them. In Bleeding Edge, a film to be 

released this Winter, I play a woman imprisoned for practicing Falun Gong. Like 

so many millions, she is tortured. But it is the scene where her family members 

are brought before her, made to kneel and beg her to give up her belief, that is the 

hardest to bear. 

Because it is not just her body and her mind that are battered; the Communist 

Party makes her family suffer. This is the regime’s policy of guilt by association. 

It is why my father was threatened by security forces. Nevermind that I am a Canadian citizen, upholding Canadian values, on the other side of the world. 

I can’t understand what it is like to be tortured or face the inhuman violations 

of prison guards. But I now understand what it means to feel deep fear that my 

convictions could be paid for by the people I love the most in the world. 

I wish I could tell you that I didn’t waver, that I didn’t question if I wasn’t being 

too selfish and putting my family at risk, but I did. Then I remembered, this isn’t 

about me. 

Through my encounters with persecution victims and their family members, I 

have found that these practitioners of Falun Gong—who have been marginalized, 

defamed and vilified in China for the past sixteen years—are noble people. Despite 

the constant threat of arbitrary detention, torture, psychiatric abuse, or death, they 

have been steadfast in their commitment to their principles, and have always 

sought peaceful means to resist and generate public awareness of the persecution. 

In China today, our traditional values have buried under the moral scars of endless political campaigns. Material wealth and the pursuit of self-interest are foremost in many people’s minds. The courage of Falun Gong practitioners, and of other 

dissidents and human rights lawyers, stand in stark contrast to these trends and 

this is what gives me hope for China’s future. There are still people of integrity 

there. 

And yet, it is these people that suffer the most. Good people like my father, a law 

abiding and contributing citizen, an honest businessman now too afraid to talk to 

his daughter, who once supported her in everything she did, who now must leave 

her to face the world alone. 

33 

Mr. Chairman, I hope you understand this is a common experience for so many 

American and Canadian citizens. Those Chinese who dare to speak their minds do 

so knowing that those still within the regime’s reach in China could pay the price 

for it. 

We have a saying these days, being ‘‘invited to tea.’’ It is when the Chinese security agents ask you to come with them to remind you who has the baton and that 

they don’t mind using it. 

For myself, I know silence is more dangerous. If you don’t speak up, those security 

personnel will know that their tactic work, and they will never stop. That’s why I 

told the world what happened to my dad. I hope he understands. I hope he knows 

how much I love him. 

I also hope that people will pay attention to stories so much more tragic than my 

own. Like that of Paul Li who, like me, is also a Canadian citizen in Toronto. 

Three months ago, Paul’s father Li Xiaobo was sentenced to his second 8-year 

prison term. Mr. Li is 60-years-old and in Chengdu, China. He was once a highly 

respected county magistrate, and because he followed Falun Gong’s teachings of 

truth, compassion and tolerance, he and sought to be fair in all his dealings. He 

didn’t use his position to gain wealth and personal advantage. That is very rare 

among chinese officials. 

After the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999, Mr. Li wrote essays criticizing 

the Communist Party’s actions. He spent 8 years in prison for these words. In order 

to try to force him to renounce his beliefs and embrace the Party’s doctrine of atheism, authorities tortured him brutally, making him blind in one eye. 

After being released from prison, he continued to publicize cases of torture and 

abuse, and again wrote and distributed literature to inform his compatriots about 

the persecution of Falun Gong. 

I could never claim to have that kind of courage and unbending integrity. This 

is the kind of person that China needs, the kind of person the world needs. 

Last year, while Mr. Li and his son were out distributing information, he was 

again arrested. Paul, who is a Canadian citizen, was eventually deported back to 

Canada. But in April of this year, Mr. Li was again sentenced to eight years in prison. His deeds are heroic, and yet unlike myself, when Paul Li tried to get the media 

to pay attention to his case, he met with silence. 

Maybe nobody paid attention because Mr. Li’s story is just too common. 

The persecution on Falun Gong is among the worst most widespread and the brutal human rights violations in history. After the end of 1998, the Chinese Communist government estimated that the number of people who practiced Falun Gong 

was about 70 million. 

Since the persecution began in 1999, millions have been arbitrarily detained, arrested, imprisoned, tortured, sexually assaulted or murdered. 

Thousands of Falun Gong practitioners continue to be sentenced to prison every 

year, often after show trials where they have no chance of justice, and where decisions are made by Communist Party authorities rather than independent judges. 

Lawyers who try to represent Falun Gong practitioners—including many of the 

lawyers targeted in the most recent crackdown—have faced harassment, disbarment, beatings, and imprisonment. 

Historically, most Falun Gong practitioners have been detained in reeducationthrough-labor camps (RTL). In a 2013 study, Amnesty International reported that 

Falun Gong detainees comprise between one third to 100 percent of the prisoners 

in the labor camps it studied. 

Freedom House recently reported that ‘‘hundreds of thousands’’ of practitioners 

had been sent to these camps, where they face an elevated risk of torture and death 

in custody. Common torture methods include beatings; shocks with electric batons; 

violent forced-feedings that often puncture the esophagus or lungs; suspension in 

stress position; and sexual humiliation and abuse. 

Facing growing international and domestic pressure, the Chinese government 

closed the reeducation-through-labor system in 2013. But this was mainly a cosmetic change, as many camps were simply renamed as prisons, rehabilitation centers, or reeducation centers. For Falun Gong practitioners, it did nothing to improve 

their circumstances. In fact, between 2013 and 2014, the reported number of abductions and arrests of Falun Gong practitioners rose by nearly a third (29.8%), from 

4,942 to 6,415 per year. 

While Falun Gong practitioners have the names and stories of some 3800 practitioners who have been killed in the persecution, multiple independent investigators 

estimate that tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been killed so 

their vital organs could be extracted and sold for organ transplantation—a lucrative 

business in China. 

34 

I’d like to remind you all that there are so many people in China facing unspeakable suffering, not because they did anything wrong, but because they are people 

of faith and morality. They are people any country would be fortunate to have. I 

hope China realizes that before too many more of them have been jailed or killed 

for possessing the kind of conviction and virtue China so desperately needs. 

I want to finish by telling you about my father. He is a successful and decent 

businessman. He’s also uniquely generous. For many years, he has been contributing to villages to build roads and donating money to people that can’t get work. 

He brings his children out to the street to give out red envelopes of money every 

New Year to people less fortunate than himself. He has really inspired me throughout my life to think of others. 

I don’t get to talk to him anymore. Here I am doing something I think he should 

be so proud of, something I think is so important for the country I was born in, and 

he and I can’t even speak. I also have to question if my testimony here today may 

make him angry with me, or worried for his business and family in China. 

These threats are how American and Canadian citizens with family in China feel 

the weight of the regime’s repression even here, on the other side of the world. 

Human rights and religious freedom in China don’t just affect the people they live 

there, they affect every person of Chinese ethnicity around the world that still have 

loved ones there. 

I hope that you can help Chinese people gain a voice, to support them in their 

wish to believe what they want to believe and talk to whoever they want to talk 

to about any topic they wish. I hope this can happen soon. I miss my dad. 

Thank you. 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF BOB FU

JULY 23, 2015

Honorable Chairman Congressman Smith, Co-Chairman Senator Rubio, Members 

of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, and distinguished guests: 

This is the third year of President Xi Jinping’s Administration in China, whose 

policies and actions have raised alarm, and in some cases astonished the international community. Domestically, Xi has purged his political rivals through a ‘‘selective anti-corruption campaign’’ and monopolized power within the leadership of 

the Communist party, the government and the military. In foreign policy, Xi has 

adopted a dangerous and aggressive agenda, challenging existing international law 

and creating his own when deemed necessary, including the national security law, 

which is being viewed by may as a pretext for human rights abuses. This antagonistic and arrogant approach to governance over the past two and half years has 

earned Xi the nickname ‘‘Chairman Mao Junior’’ and ‘‘Xi-tler.’’ 

In the past two years, human rights and rule of law in China have rapidly deteriorated. The number of dissidents taken into police custody, arrested and convicted 

since Xi took power has exceeded the total number that occurred during the 10-year 

reign of President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao. Chinese citizens who peacefully criticize the government or defend the rights of citizens; lawyers who dare to 

represent ‘‘sensitive cases’’ without cooperating with the government; and activists 

who assemble in a peaceful manner, attempt to request the government’s permission 

to establish a non-governmental organization (NGO), or peacefully protest against 

government policies or judicial injustices are subsequently ‘‘invited to drink tea,’’ 

summoned for interrogation, detained or arrested, and eventually tried in a corrupt 

judicial system. To be sure, the Chinese government has intensified its harassment 

of NGOs, civil society organizations, law firms representing human rights cases, 

charitable organizations, and political organizations such as the ‘‘New Citizen Movement.’’ 

During the Xi Administration, and particularly in the past 18 months, religious 

freedom abuses have reached a level not seen since the Cultural Revolution. Not 

only have house churches continued to experience intensifying persecution, but now 

‘‘Three-Self’’ churches, that is, government-sanctioned churches are being subjected 

to government-sponsored persecution campaigns. The Chinese government’s persecution of Tibetan Buddhists, Uyghur Muslims, and Falun Gong practitioners has 

also worsened. The Chinese government perceives religious practitioners as being 

guided by ‘‘foreign influence’’ and has subsequently pursued absolute control over 

religious communities. 

Finally, China’s newly passed national security law will expand the management, 

oversight, and suppression of religious activity under the guise of national security. 

Specifically, Article 27 states that ‘‘The State lawfully protects citizens’ freedom of 

35 

religious belief and normal religious activities, upholds the principle of religions 

managing themselves, preventing, stopping and lawfully punishing the exploitation 

of religion’s name to conduct illegal and criminal activities that endanger national 

security, and opposes foreign influences interference with domestic religious affairs, 

maintaining normal order of religious activities. The State shuts down cult organizations in accordance with law, preventing, stopping, lawfully punishing and correcting illegal and criminal cult activities.’’ The last clause regarding so called 

‘‘cults’’ is especially concerning noting the Chinese government’s use of this term to 

persecute both Falun Gong practitioners and most recently house churches. To be 

sure, the new national security law is expected to embolden the Chinese government 

to intensify its harassment of religious practitioners and organizations in order to 

control all aspects of religious life. 

I will testify on religious freedom, human rights and rule of law in China and 

focus specifically on the forced demolitions of churches and crosses in Zhejiang province, the ongoing persecution of the house church, and the treatment of human 

rights defenders and the rule of law in China. 

I will then offer related observations and recommendations for U.S. foreign policy 

on China. 

I. FORCED DEMOLITIONS

In the past year, the government of Zhejiang province has demolished churches 

and crosses under the pretext of implementing standards for buildings. Based on 

China Aid’s research during 2014 and the first six months of 2015, the Chinese government’s suppression of house churches and ‘‘Three-Self,’’ that is, government sanctioned churches have escalated significantly compared to previous years. In 2014, 

the comprehensive intensity of the government’s persecution of Christian churches 

and Christians overall in China increased dramatically. In comparing the total number of religious persecution cases, the number of religious practitioners persecuted, 

the number of citizens detained and sentenced, the number of severe rights abuse 

cases, and the number of individuals in severe abuse cases with China Aid statistics 

from 2013, the totals of these six categories increased by 152.74 percent. In comparison with China Aid statistics from previous annual reports, there is a trend of increased persecution over the past eight years, which averages an annual increase 

of 166.47 percent. 

In 2014, the Communist Party Committee and the government of Zhejiang province destroyed churches and crosses under the guise of a campaign entitled ‘‘three 

rectifications and one demolition,’’ which attempted to regulate so-called ‘‘illegally 

constructed buildings.’’ By the end of 2014, more than 30 churches were forcibly demolished throughout the province, over 300 individuals were interrogated by police, 

more than 150 religious practitioners were physically injured, more than 60 individuals were administratively or criminally detained, and more than 10 pastors and 

church leaders were arrested. According to information collected by China Aid, by 

the end of June of this year, more than 1,500 churches had their crosses forcibly 

demolished or removed in Zhejiang province, at least 50 of which were house 

churches in rural areas, with more than 1,300 Christians having been interrogated, 

arrested, or held in custody for protesting or attempting to prevent the destruction 

of their churches or crosses. 

Just in the past month, both Protestant and Catholic government sanctioned 

churches in the cities of Hangzhou and Jinhua had their crosses forcibly demolished 

or removed. A few members of these churches peacefully protested and in some 

cases hired lawyers to defend their rights. In addition, both the Chinese Catholic 

Patriotic Association and China Christian Council representing Zhejiang province 

sent letters to the provincial and central government authorities demanding they 

cease from forcibly demolishing their church’s crosses. The government sponsored 

campaign to destroy the crosses of predominately government sanctioned churches 

reflects a new development in religious persecution in China. 

II. PERSECUTION AGAINST THE HOUSE CHURCH

The Chinese government’s persecution campaign against the house church movement continues to escalate as a continuation of the 2011 government mandate to 

‘‘eradicate house churches within 10 years.’’ During the past 18 months, the Chinese 

government has orchestrated a systematic campaign to persecute house churches in 

China. The larger urban house churches such as the Shouwang Church in Beijing 

and Wanbang Church in Shanghai continue to remain prohibited by the Chinese 

government, while house churches such as Chengdu’s Xiuyuzhifu Church, 

Guangzhou’s Liangren Church, and Guiyang’s Huoshi Church are subjected to strict 

36 

control and harassment by public security and religious affairs bureaus. House 

churches in rural areas also continue to experience increased levels of persecution. 

Unlike previous years, the Chinse government began to persecute house churches 

under the guise of ‘‘eradicating cults’’ in 2014. The Chinese government consistently 

cites ‘‘attacking cults’’ as a pretext to launch large-scale persecution campaigns 

against house churches. Details of religious freedom cases reveals that the CPC regularly cited Clause 300 of the Criminal Law, defined as ‘‘organizing cults and sects 

and using superstition to undermine law enforcement,’’ in an attempt to harass and 

persecute house church pastors, elders, and church members. 

The Chinese government’s persecution of house churches under the pretext of 

‘‘eradicating cults’’ and through other means is detailed in China Aid’s 2014 Annual 

Report on Religious and Human Rights Persecution in China. Unfortunately, the 

persecution of the house church continues to worsen in 2015, here is a sampling of 

the reports we have received this year: 

• January 20, 2015: Over 20 church members from Sichuan’s Langzhong 

Church were taken into police custody, and nine were administratively detained 

for 10–15 days. 

• March 20, 2015: 10 Christians in Jiangsu province were detained for attending a worship service. 

• March 23, 2015: Yongxing Christian Church in Anhui province was forcibly 

demolished. 

• April 14, 2015: A church in Anhui province was forcibly demolished. • April 16, 2015: Approximately 10 Christians in two regions of Xinjiang Uygur 

Autonomous Region were taken into police custody. 

• April 24, 2015: Two religious practitioners in Xinjiang were administratively 

detained for gathering in a house to worship. 

• April 24, 2015: Three Christians were sentenced to two years in prison and 

a contractor was sentenced to one year and nine months in prison for ‘‘illegal 

business operations’’ for printing character improvement textbooks that included references to Christian values. 

• April 26, 2015: Five members of the Discipleship Church in Shandong province were sentenced to three to four years in prison. 

• April 30, 2015: Bethany Church Jilin province was forcibly closed. 

• May 10, 2015: Over 30 Christians in Xinjiang were detained by police and 

their church was forcibly closed. 

• May 20, 2015: Three house churches in Guangdong province were forcibly 

closed. 

• May 26, 2015: Twelve members of Qianxi Church in Guizhou province were 

administratively detained, and seven were later placed under criminal detention. 

• May 28, 2015: In Liaoning province, the wife of Pastor Wang Zhongliang was 

bound and gagged by public security officers for several hours prior to the interrogation of her husband. 

• June 1, 2015: Pu’er Church in Yunnan province was raided by the government. 

• June 13, 2015: Beijing’s Yahebo Church was raided. 

• June 16, 2015: Members of Sichuan’s Langzhong Church were detained for 

10 days, and members of Shuiguanzhen Church were detained for 15 days. 

• June 29, 2015: 8 members of the Daguan Church in Guizhou province were 

criminally detained. 

In reviewing religious freedom abuses perpetrated against the house church during both 2014 and 2015, the following characteristics emerged: the abuse of administrative penalties and regulations regarding the length of administrative or criminal 

detention of church members and leaders; persecuting churches and church members under the guise of ‘‘eradicating cults;’’ confiscating house church possessions, 

religious materials, and books; banning and harassing Sunday schools and their use 

of religious publications; forcibly collecting and documenting information about 

house churches and church members; forcing house church members to join the government sanctioned Three-Self church; detaining and sending house church leaders 

to labor camps on the pretext of ‘‘suspicion of organizing and using a cult to undermine law enforcement;’’ and restricting religious teaching to minors and college students. 

III. HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS AND THE RULE OF LAW

Ironically, Xi Jinping shouted the slogan ‘‘govern the country according to law’’ 

when he took office, but the rule of law in China has perhaps regressed to a time 

of reminiscent of the Cultural Revolution. In the less than three years of Xi’s presiVerDate Mar 15 2010 16:55 Feb 04, 2016 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00040 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6621 U:\DOCS\95782.TXT DEIDRE
37 

dency, human rights conditions and the rule of law in China has deteriorated significantly. The Chinese government has increased its interrogation, detention, and 

arrest of dissidents, human rights advocates, NGO leaders, feminist activists, 

human rights lawyers, and other civil society actors. The Chinese government also 

continues to abuse Article 73 of China’s criminal procedural law, known as ‘‘residential surveillance,’’ which allows for the arbitrary detention of Chinese citizens, which 

has been used against human rights lawyers, dissidents, religious practitioners, and 

journalists. 

The Xi Administration continues to harass, intimidate, and arrest NGO and think 

tank leaders, such as Dr. Xu Zhiyong of the New Citizen Movement, whose campaigns to promote equal access to education and the public disclosure of government 

official’s financial records have been banned by the Chinese government. The leaders of the Beijing-based non-governmental think tank ‘‘Transition Institution,’’ 

namely Guo Yushan and He Zhengjun have been arrested on the charge of ‘‘illegal 

business operations’’ and are awaiting trial. 

The Chinese government continues to arrest influential public intellectuals and 

journalists who dare to criticize the government and disseminate information on 

constitutionalism, including the veteran journalist Gao Yu, 71, who was unjustly 

sentenced to seven years in prison for the crime of ‘‘illegally providing state secrets 

to (institutions) outside (China’s) borders.’’ 

To be sure, human rights lawyers in China are among the bravest Chinese citizens seeking justice and promoting the rule of law in China. Unfortunately, the reward for courageously defending Falun Gong practitioners, political dissidents, and 

human rights advocates is to be labeled a ‘‘trouble maker’’ by the government and 

subsequently subjected to harassment from local government public security agencies and government officials in the judicial system. 

The Chinese government has intensified it persecution of human rights lawyers, 

including the arrest and detention of prominent lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, who has been 

in detention for over one year and still awaits trial. Pu represented numerous Chinese citizens whose basic rights had been violated by the government, and expressed his views on public issues via the Internet, including criticizing the government’s policies on the treatment of ethnic minorities. 

Sadly, the internationally recognized human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng is still 

being denied freedom of movement and access to medical treatment since being released from prison in August of 2014 after serving a 5-year prison sentence. 

In March of 2014, human rights lawyers Tang Jitian, Jiang Tianyong, Wang 

Cheng and Zhang Junjie, and nine family members of their clients, visited the 

‘‘Jiansanjiang Rule of Law Education Center’’ in China’s northeastern Heilongjiang 

province and demanded the release of illegally detained citizens. These lawyers and 

family members were all arrested by the local public security agent and subsequently placed under administrative detention for ‘‘utilizing cult activities to harm 

society.’’ The four detained human rights lawyers were beaten and tortured resulting in collectively having 24 of their ribs broken. The ‘‘Jiansanjiang’’ incident became well known throughout China among both human rights lawyers and citizens 

alike causing many to travel to Jiansanjiang to show their support. In the end, the 

local public security bureau kidnapped and beat more than 100 individuals that 

were peacefully protesting. 

Unfortunately, there are a hundreds of these incidents in which human rights 

lawyers are harassed or worse, beaten. Here is a sampling of the reports we have 

received this year: 

• In February, during a trial in the city of Liuzhou attorneys Wen Yu and Sui 

Muqing were expelled from the court by the presiding judge and physically injured by judicial police. 

• In April, Beijing-based attorneys Wang Fu, Liu Jinping and Zhang Lei were 

surrounded and assaulted at the gate of Hengyang Intermediate Court by judicial police. 

• In June, attorney Zhang Kai, Li Guisheng and six other human rights lawyers traveled to Guizhou province to represent a human rights case and were 

beaten by local police. 

• On July 10th, the Chinese government began interrogating and detaining 

human rights lawyers and advocates, and legal professionals, which continues 

today. As of July 21st, 242 human rights lawyers and advocates, and legal professionals have either been interrogated, detained, or have gone missing into police custody, of which 11 human rights lawyers and 3 human rights advocates 

have been criminally detained, and 6 remain missing. 

There are many who fear that the July 10th crackdown on human rights defenders may be under the pretext of China’s new national security law, including the 

38 

State department, which made the the following statement last week: ‘‘Over the last 

few days we have noted with growing alarm reports that Chinese public security 

forces have systematically detained individuals who share the common attribute of 

peacefully defending the rights of others, including those who lawfully challenge official policies. We are deeply concerned that the broad scope of the new National 

Security Law is being used as a legal facade to commit human rights abuses. We 

strongly urge China to respect the rights of all of its citizens and to release all those 

who have recently been detained for seeking to protect the rights of Chinese citizens.’’ 

In April of this year, the 14th Plenary of the 12th National People’s Congress 

Standing Committee reviewed the Foreign NGO Management Law, which many 

fear will further suppress civil society. The eventual enactment of this law and the 

national security law recently passed on July 1st indicate that the Chinese government aims to comprehensively exercise unconstrained control over its citizens, including limiting access to information, and controlling every aspect of civil and political life, which is a dangerous and alarming trend that should be viewed as both 

a United States foreign policy and national security priority. 

In gauging U.S. foreign policy towards China, I’d like to make the following 

observations: 

The U.S. government must carefully evaluate the effectiveness of its foreign policy 

with China over the past few years. The United States has numerous exchanges and 

partnerships with the Chinese government on economic, military, and political 

issues, but has yet to produce any positive outcome in advancing human rights, religious freedom or rule of law in China. In fact, the over the last decade, the United 

States has done little more that expressed its concern over China’s deteriorating 

human rights record. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo still remains in prison, 

and prominent political prisoners of conscience Wang Bingzhang and Peng Ming 

who peacefully advocated for China’s democratization are still serving life sentences. 

In the past decade, the Chinese government has both openly and secretly executed 

more than one thousand prisoners of conscience. The Chinese government’s persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetan Buddhists, Uyghur Muslims, and Christians both within house churches and government sanctioned TSPM churches has 

reached an unprecedented level. To be sure, religious freedom and related human 

rights remain an empty promise for Chinese citizens, and President Xi’s suppression 

of freedom of speech on university campuses, and arrest and detention of dissidents, 

human rights lawyers, and civil society actors appears to be becoming the norm in 

China. Yet, every year, Congressional leaders and human rights organizations make 

strong appeals to the Obama administration, hoping that the U.S. government will 

take stronger and more effective measures to pressure the Chinese government to 

adhere to basic human rights as defined by international law. To be sure, the current approach of our U.S. foreign policy with the Chinese government has not 

worked, and there are consequences to this failed foreign policy, namely the lives 

of those Chinese citizens working at their peril to advocate for the basic freedoms 

we too often take for granted here in the United States. 

Thus the U.S. government must have a new policy with China that clearly defines 

human rights as a priority in ongoing and future dialogues and identifies opportunities to pressure the Chinese government to respect their citizen’s access to basic 

human dignity, freedom, and civil and political rights. U.S. foreign policy must link 

the improvement of human rights and rule of law in China with ongoing and future 

cooperation in the economic, political, and military sectors. 

Therefore, I would offer the following recommendations for U.S. foreign 

policy on China: 

• Noting that the annual U.S.-China Human Rights Dialogue has yet to make 

any significant gains, many within the human rights community, including myself, believe the dialogue should be cancelled indefinitely. However, if the dialogue should continue, there should be strict preconditions, such as clearly defined and measureable outcomes and the inclusion of human rights advocates 

and Chinese civil society representatives. 

• Human rights should play a more central role during annual U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogues (S&ED) and include a review mechanism to ensure progress on human rights is made during each year’s meeting. This year’s 

discussions of human rights at the S&ED was extremely disappointing, which 

included no reference of specific human rights cases, such as those prisoners of 

conscience listed among the China 18, or others. 

• The U.S. Congress must periodically evaluate the efficacy of U.S. foreign policy towards China regarding human rights and when necessary enact legislation 

that addresses the unique challenges of confronting China on its human rights 

39 

record. The United States’ foreign policy must send a strong and consistent 

message to the Chinese government that it must reverse its trajectory of denying basic human rights to its citizens or face specific consequences. 

• The U.S. State Department should strongly consider posting an officer at the 

U.S. Embassy in China with the sole responsibility of monitoring and reporting 

on religious freedom and related human rights abuses within China, including 

in the areas of Tibet and Xinjiang. 

• The State Department’s office of the International Religious Freedom and the 

U.S. Commission International Religious Freedom should attempt to visit China 

each year to conduct field work and communicate with Chinese religious communities directly. 

• The U.S. State Department should make an official public statement condemning the forced demolition of churches and crosses in Zhejiang province and 

throughout China. 

• The U.S. State Department should raise publicly and at all levels of exchanges with the Chinese government the cases of prisoners of conscience included in the China 18 and others. 

• The U.S. government must reconsider its invitation to President Xi to visit 

the United States in September, which should either be cancelled, postponed or 

preconditioned on the following: (1)the release of prisoners of conscience listed 

among the China 18 and others such as Gao Yu, Pu Zhiqiang, Guo Yushan, and 

Ilham Tohti; 92) the release of human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng from house 

arrest; 93) ending the harassment and detention of human rights lawyers, including releasing currently detained lawyers and legal professionals; and 94) 

ending the forcible demolition of churches and crosses in Zhejiang province and 

throughout China. 

ADDENDUM: 

1. China Aid’s 2014 Annual Report on Religious and Human Rights Persecution in 

China 

2. China 18 Prisoners of Conscience: http://www.china18.org 

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1See: http://docs.uyghuramerican.org/Sacred-Right-Defiled-Chinas-Iron-Fisted-Repression-ofUyghur-Religious-Freedom.pdf 2http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/hunger-04252014152239.html 

3http://www.cecc.gov/pages/virtualAcad/index.phpd?showsingle=125102 

4See: http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/02/asia/china-xinjiang-ramadan/ and http:// 

www.ibtimes.com/ramadan-2015-fasting-banned-china-muslim-government-employees-studentsteachers-1975294 5See: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/06/china-bans-ramadan-fasting-muslim-region150618070016245.html 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF REBIYA KADEER

JULY 23, 2015

I am very honored to be here today and I wish to express my profound appreciation to Representative Chris Smith and Senator Marco Rubio for inviting me to testify. 

Uyghurs perceive their belief in Islam not only as a personal expression of faith, 

but also as a statement of their cultural distinctiveness. For many Uyghurs, the incursion of the state into this private aspect of their lives and the role it plays in 

establishing a broader identity is viewed as part of an assimilative process. 

In East Turkestan, the twofold implementation of strict national and regional regulations concerning religious belief and practice mean the Uyghur people are subjected to the harshest conditions governing religious life in the People’s Republic of 

China (PRC). This occurs even though China’s domestic laws, such as the Constitution and the Regional Ethnic Autonomy Law, guarantee religious freedom. 

Rather than simply forbid religious practice, Chinese authorities have implemented regulations that progressively narrow the definition of lawful activity. As a 

result, many Uyghurs often discover traditional religious customs are increasingly 

not permitted. However, Chinese officials justify many of the restrictions through 

claims that outlawed practices have been imported from overseas and that it faces 

an organized threat to public security in the form of the ‘‘three evil forces’’ of terrorism, separatism and religious extremism. 

China’s highly politicized criminal-legal system, as well as the state apparatus 

governing and monitoring religion, have ensured the government is the ultimate arbiter in the interpretation of religious affairs. In effect, the bodies established by the 

Chinese state to oversee administration in China do little to protect religious believers, but assist the government’s repression of religious freedom by helping to formulate and promote restrictive regulations. 

Religious leaders, such as imams, are required to attend political education classes to ensure compliance with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regulations and policies; only state-approved versions of the Koran and sermons are permitted, with all 

unapproved religious texts treated as ‘‘illegal’’ publications liable to confiscation and 

criminal charges against whoever was found in possession of them; any outward expression of faith in government workplaces, hospitals and some private businesses, 

such as men wearing beards or women wearing headscarves, is forbidden; no state 

employees and no one under the age of 18 can enter a mosque, a measure not in 

force in the rest of China; organized private religious education is proscribed and 

facilitators of private classes in Islam are frequently charged with conducting ‘‘illegal’’ religious activities; and students, teachers and government workers are prohibited from fasting during Ramadan. In addition, Uyghurs are not permitted to undertake Hajj, unless it is with an expensive official tour, in which state officials carefully vet applicants.1

Uyghurs found to have contravened religious regulations are punished severely. 

In a disturbing number of cases, Uyghurs have been given long prison sentences for 

‘‘illegal’’ religious activities for actions considered normal by international human 

rights standards.2 An area of considerable concern is the open discrimination 

against Uyghurs, especially women, who choose to lead religious lives publicly.3

In the 2015, restrictions placed on Uyghurs’ ability to observe the Ramadan fast 

were widely reported. As detailed by the overseas media, government work units 

outright denied Uyghurs the right to follow their religious customs. For example, 

middle schools in Bortala, Tarbaghatay and Tumshuq informed their employees and 

students that they were not permitted to fast.4 In Jing County, restaurant owners 

were mandated by the local Food and Drug Administration to remain open during 

fasting hours.5 Reports also surfaced on social media that Uyghurs were being compelled to eat watermelon in public to demonstrate non-observance of the fast. Although these reports remain unconfirmed, they are consistent with numerous accounts I have heard from Uyghurs, particularly students, who are required to drink 

61 

6See: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/ramadan-06242015084626.html 

7www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/22/us-ramadan-china-idUSKBN0P20L620150622 

8See: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/religious-04302014155256.html 

9See: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/china0405/china0405.pdf 

10See: http://docs.uyghuramerican.org/Sacred-Right-Defiled-Chinas-Iron-Fisted-Repression-ofUyghur-Religious-Freedom.pdf 11http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/836495.shtml#.U2KfFa1dWi4 12http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012–03/06/content—14766900.htm 13http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/29/us-china-xinjiang-idUSBREA3S03D20140429 14See: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/registration-05022013112851.html; http:// 

www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/hijab-05312013175617.html/; http://www.rfa.org/english/news/ 

uyghur/uchturpan-08052013173737.html; http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/imam04232014162941.html; http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/hunger-04252014152239.html 

and http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/delegate-03192014174510.html 

water at school in front of their teachers to ‘‘prove’’ they are following school and 

local government regulations. 

Ramadan in 2015 was particularly tense. In an article dated June 24, 2015, Radio 

Free Asia described how government workers were being put on alert prior to the 

holy month. The report was an alarming indication of the suspicion with which the 

state views Uyghurs who continue with their religious practices. Furthermore, according to Radio Free Asia, one county issued ‘‘guidelines calling for the intrusive 

searches of convenience stores, repair shops, and mosques.’’ 6 These restrictions create an atmosphere of distrust; however, 2015 witnessed provocations against the Islamic faith previously not seen. Reports that a beer drinking contest had been organized in Niya, a predominately Uyghur settlement, on the eve of Ramadan was a 

humiliation of the Islamic faith.7

Religious repression of Uyghurs has been long documented by the State Department, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom and several human rights organizations. In 2014 USCIRF called for China to remain a Country of Particular Concern 

on the US State Department’s blacklist of religious freedom violators. USCIRF vice 

chair, Katrina Lantos Swett told reporters: ‘‘Any independent religious expression 

is targeted in China . . . unless practitioners of whatever faith basically submit to 

government-controlled religious organizations and religious worship, they are at risk 

of becoming a target.’’ 8

A report published by Human Rights Watch in 2005 described the close relationship between the Uyghur identity and Islam. The authors of the report accurately 

state: ‘‘Islam is perceived as feeding Uighur ethnic identity, and so the subordination of Islam to the state is used as a means to ensure the subordination of Uighurs 

as well.’’ 9 A report issued by the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) in 2013 

found a sharp deterioration in Uyghur religious rights in the period following 

2005.10

Since the publication of UHRP’s report in April 2013, the evidence of China’s denial of the Uyghurs’ right to freedom of religion has not abated. The increased repression of religious practices and belief underway corresponds with Chinese president, Xi Jinping’s determination to implement a ‘‘major strategic shift’’ in East 

Turkestan that prioritizes security policies in the region.11 State rhetoric regarding 

the tightening of security is often accompanied by crackdowns on the ‘‘three evil 

forces of separatism, extremism and terrorism,’’ which frequently target peaceful religious expression.12 A trip to East Turkestan by Xi Jinping concluded on April 30, 

2014 reinforced the call for enhanced security measures. Xi visited People’s Liberation Army soldiers and the People’s Armed Police in Kashgar, a Uyghur majority 

city that he claimed was the frontline of counterterrorism.13

Radio Free Asia reported a series of cases involving limits placed on Uyghur religious expression across East Turkestan in 2013 and 2014, including: Balaqsu, near 

Kashgar in May 2013; Beshtugmen and Igerchi, near Aksu City in May 2013; 

Uchturpan, in Aksu Prefecture in August 2013; Shihezi in November 2013; Turpan 

in April 2014; and in April 2014, the fourth extension to an original 12-year jail 

term handed down to Uyghur religious leader, Abdukiram Abduveli. In an extraordinary move, the harshness of the religious policies prompted a Uyghur delegate to 

the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference to speak out during a March 

2014 session.14

A further sign that regulations governing religion hardened since Xi’s announcement is an April 14, 2014 notice issued by the Chinese Communist Party committee 

of Qartal Bazaar in Aksu City regarding the holding of an ‘‘unlawful’’ funeral ceremony for Nurdin Turdi, a loyal party official distinguished by the state. The notice, 

widely circulated on social media, states that as Nurdin Turdi’s funeral was held 

at a mosque and not at his home, his family was in contravention of regulations 

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15http://docs.uyghuramerican.org/5–8-14—Briefing-Religious—Restrictions.pdf 16http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/3/30/activists-call-chinas-jailing-of-muslim-overbeard-absurd.html 17http://www.latrobe.edu.au/news/articles/2015/opinion/why-china-is-banning-islamic-veils 

on funerals for individuals holding Turdi’s status. As a consequence of the infraction, the funeral fees normally paid by the state to such individuals were rescinded 

and six months of benefits to the family withheld. Customarily, the state used to 

permit Islamic burials for any Uyghur who wished to have one.15

Prior to Ramadan in 2015, reports surfaced of the harsh sentencing of a Uyghur 

from Kashgar to six years in jail because he had grown a beard in accordance with 

his religious beliefs. The man’s wife was handed a two year sentence for ‘‘veiling 

herself.’’ 16 The ban on Islamic veiling in Urumchi in 2015 was described by scholars 

James Leibold and Timothy Grose as a sign of ‘‘a deepening rift of mistrust between 

the Uighur and the Han-dominated Communist Party.’’ 17

Universal religious freedom is protected under Article 18 of the normative human 

rights standards outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Other 

international instruments whose standards China is obliged to meet also ensure the 

right of religious freedom, such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child and 

the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. 

China’s domestic laws, such as the Constitution and the Regional Ethnic Autonomy 

Law, have strong provisions on freedom of religious belief. Despite this international 

and domestic legal framework, restrictions on religious freedom are deemed ‘‘lawful’’ 

by Chinese authorities through the strict implementation of regulations that contradict China’s own laws and international obligations. 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF LOSANG GYATSO

JULY 23, 2015

Since problems facing religion, religious institutions, and religious teachers in 

Tibet is widely known and well documented by this Commission and many other 

governmental and non-governmental organizations in the US and abroad, I won’t 

take up too much of your time going over examples. 

I would like to however touch on two events that took place this month which 

may serve to highlight the degree to which the Chinese Communist Party is willing 

to carry out actions that cause enormous suffering for Tibetans, and that create an 

environment of oppression in monasteries and in the personal lives of Tibetans that 

have triggered the self-immolation protests by over 140 Tibetans since 2009. 

The latest such protest took place in the afternoon of July 9. A young monk 

named Sonam Topgyal set himself on fire at a public square in Kyegudo, the prefectural capital of what China today refers to as Yulshul Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai province. Photos and videos showing Sonam Topgyal on the ground 

in flames have emerged since then, and once again as in many previous cases, 

Sonam Topgyal was taken from the site by Chinese security and is believed to have 

died in a Xining hospital. 

A note he wrote one week earlier has surfaced and in it he says, ‘‘I am a twentyseven-year-old son of Tashitsang of Nangchen, Yulshul in Tsongon region. Currently, I am a monk studying at Dzongsar Institute. As people within the country 

and outside are aware, the Chinese government does not look at the true and real 

situation of the minorities but practices only harsh and repressive policies on them. 

At a time when the government is carrying out policies to stamp out our religion, 

tradition and culture, and destroy our natural environment, there is absolutely no 

freedom of expression for the people, and there is no channel to appeal our situation. ’’ 

The other development this month which has been particularly difficult for Tibetans is the prison death of a widely respected Lama and political prisoner on July 

12. Tenzin Delek Rinpoche’s family and monastic community had not been allowed 

to see him since 2013, and were not allowed to see him on the day that Chinese 

authorities claim he died of a heart attack, nor for several more days as they pleaded to have his body returned to them in order to conduct a funeral fitting for a high 

Lama. Tibetans pleading for the return of his body were beaten severely by security 

forces on July 13 in Nyagchu county, Sichuan. Several days after the announcement 

of his death, his family and some monks were allowed to see his body in the detention center where he was then incinerated in the prison crematorium. The Chinese 

have been in Tibet since 1951, long enough to understand that a prison cremation 

for a highly regarded spiritual teacher will be seen by Tibetans as a humiliating 

and degrading act, and therefore understand it to be an added punishment for those 

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who had been pleading his innocence for 13 years, and then pleading for his remains 

after his death. Further troubling is the fact that his sister and niece went missing 

since July 17. A relative of Rinpoche in exile that VOA interviewed, suspected that 

the two women had been detained for possibly persisting in demanding a proper investigation into the cause of his sudden death. 

On July 14, House members at a hearing on Tibet by the Tom Lantos Human 

Rights Commission had urged the Chinese authorities to return the body of Tenzin 

Delek Rinpoche to his family members, and as back as 2004, the US Senate passed 

a resolution by unanimous consent calling for Tulku Tenzin Delek Rinpoche’s release. Both calls have gone unheeded. 

Tenzin Delek Rinpoche’s story is neither unique nor rare when you look back over 

the last six decades of Chinese rule of Tibet. Today, there are many known and 

probably many more unknown Tibetans languishing in China’s prisons for simply 

expressing their dissent with the oppressive rules and regulations governing Tibetan lives and the institutions and figures of Tibetan Buddhism. Writers and artists are imprisoned for simply writing or singing about their love for Tibet’s mountains and lakes, culture, or history. Many more are detained for refusing to denounce their religious heads, such as the Dalai Lama, during reeducation campaigns 

at temples and monasteries. All of the above seemingly innocuous acts can today 

be categorized as separatist acts according to recent regulations targeting Tibetans. 

And once in prison, the Tibetans are accused of acting at the instigation of the Dalai 

Lama, and or foreign anti-China forces, by which most Tibetans understand the 

Chinese to mean the United States, and are then subjected to torture and prolonged 

mistreatment with the sole purpose of extracting confessions that correspond to the 

accusations. This process, repeated across Tibet for 50 years has created immeasurable suffering for the Tibetan people, and deeply disturbed their psychological 

wellbeing for decades. 

As I mentioned earlier, the Chinese government’s attack on religion and religious 

institutions and figures in Tibet is not a recent development, nor are they random 

aberrations in their rule of Tibet since 1951. The Chinese Communist Party has 

been purposefully and methodically working to dismantle the very fabric of Tibetan 

spirituality and religious traditions since 1955. Between 1955 and 1965, almost 

every single religious institution in Tibet, estimated to number over six thousand 

monasteries and temples, had been aerial bombed, artillery shelled, and razed to the 

ground. Tens of thousands of Lamas, monks and nuns were imprisoned, executed, 

or disrobed. Public humiliation and torturing of respected reincarnated Lamas, often 

to the death, took place across Tibet in the 1950s and 60s in order to ridicule religion and prove that religious figures were powerless. Attacks on religion during that 

period was the reason why all of the heads of the five major schools of Tibetan Buddhism went into exile in 1959 before the fall of the Tibetan government, and remain 

so to this day. The highest ranking Lama remaining inside Tibet was the Panchen 

Lama, who spent 13 years in solitary prison for speaking against what the Chinese 

had done in Tibet. After his sudden death in 1989, the Chinese installed their own 

choice of the predecessor’s reincarnation, a child whose parents are Party members. 

The child that was selected by monks in the Panchen Lama’s own monastery and 

approved by the Dalai Lama, was disappeared along with his entire family in May 

1995 and has not been heard of since then. 

In 2007, China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs introduced measures 

that dictate which Tibetan religious figures may or may not reincarnate, and the 

requirement for the approval of selected reincarnated lamas by offices under the 

communist party. While this may appear simply surreal and bizarre to most people, 

there are two very serious possible consequences from these measures; one that will 

even further diminish human rights in Tibet, and the other that will impact the 

state of religious institutions and the very existence of religious practice as we know 

it in Tibet. 

Firstly, since nearly all expressions critical of conditions in Tibet, and or, in praise 

of aspects of Tibetan culture and identity can be categorized as ‘separatist’ activities 

that are punishable acts today, the following sentence in the measure, ‘‘Living Buddha reincarnations should respect and protect the principles of the unification of the 

state,’’ would mean that all officially sanctioned reincarnated Lamas and the religious institutions affiliated with them would be forced into silence on issues relating 

to human rights, and the state of religious and cultural freedoms in Tibet. 

And secondly, and this may not be fully appreciated by many people at present, 

the interference by the communist party in the selection or deselection of reincarnate spiritual masters undermines Tibetan Buddhism at its most fundamental level 

by aiming to break the trust and faith that Tibetans have invested in their Lamas 

for hundreds of years. Tibetan Buddhist practice, based on ancient Indian traditions, holds at its very core, the sacred relationship between religious teachers with 

64 

pure and direct spiritual lineages, many that go back a thousand years, and the student practitioners who take vows, initiations, and meditation instructions from 

them. The successful guidance through complex psychological states and through 

layers of consciousness in the course of a person’s spiritual practice relies completely 

on this connection between trusted and respected reincarnated Lamas and their followers. 

The measures to control reincarnated Lamas is therefore aimed at this bedrock 

of Tibetan religious practice and could lead to the destruction of thousands of unbroken spiritual lineages of the Lamas, and to the eventual demise of Tibetan Buddhism as it has been practiced since the 13th century. 

As an example and on a much more mundane level, it is as if a government decided that it would select people to practice medicine, surgery, and psychiatry based 

not on their qualifications, but on their political leaning. You can imagine what that 

would do to the state of health care. 

These are just a few examples of how persecution of religion and religious institutions and figures in Tibet are an ongoing feature of Chinese rule of Tibet, and they 

are posing existential challenges for Tibetans in maintaining intellectual rigor and 

spiritual vitality in the monasteries and temples across Tibet. The Dalai Lama says 

in his autobiography that in one of his meetings with Chairman Mao in 1954, Mao 

turned to him, leant forward, and said that, ‘‘religion is poison.’’ That view appears 

to have been and continues to be the guiding principle of Chinese rule in Tibet, 

where its policies since 1955 have gone from destroying religion completely, to 

today, where a small number of monitored monasteries and controlled religious figures are allowed to exist as a show of the government’s tolerance for religion, and 

as tourist destinations, while in reality, the monastic institutions and the system 

of reincarnated Lamas is being controlled and used purely for the perpetuation of 

China’s control of Tibet. 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. CHRISTOPHER SMITH, A U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM

NEW JERSEY; CHAIRMAN, CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA

JULY 23, 2015

The freedom of religion is the key human right. It is clearly the first freedom from 

which all others flow. It allows each citizen the precious right to follow their conscience peacefully and without fear. It protects the critical part of who we are as 

human beings—to seek, to speak, and to act out our fundamental beliefs. When this 

freedom is protected the very well-being of society is enhanced. No government 

should deny or suppress this essential claim to conscience. 

The reality is that governments and terrorist groups do restrict the freedom of 

religion, sometimes in the most brutal and public ways. The freedom of religion is 

under siege in many places of the world, including in China which is the subject 

of today’s hearing. 

Because religious freedom conditions are deteriorating globally, I introduced HR 

1150, the Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom Act. The bill gives the Administration tools to better address religious freedom violations around the world. 

It is why I am also fighting to reauthorize the U.S. Commission on International 

Religious Freedom (USCIRF) which is a bipartisan and independent advisory body. 

USCIRF gives Congress vital recommendations about religious freedom conditions 

globally. 

Several years ago during a visit to the United States, Xi Jinping was interviewed 

by a Chinese reporter on fellowship at a U.S. college. (Some of the details changed 

to protect the identity of the person.) After the interview, President Xi asked a single 

question of this reporter—not about his family, not about his studies, not about 

whether he enjoyed living in America—the one question he asked was ‘‘Why do so 

many Chinese students studying in the United States become Christians? ’’ 

Why one of the world’s most powerful political leaders asked this question may 

never be known. And the student did not have an answer. But religion was on President Xi’s mind that day. Whatever was behind that complex question, religious freedom conditions in China have not improved because of it. Quite the opposite, in fact, 

it has been a punishing year for China’s diverse religious communities. 

China continues to rank up there with Iran, Vietnam, and Saudi Arabia in terms 

of the sheer misery it inflicts on members of its diverse religious communities. This 

is the verdict of the bipartisan and independent U.S. Commission on International 

Religious Freedom. It is the verdict of the State Department, which has designated 

China as a ‘‘Country of Particular Concern’’ since 1999 for being one of the world’s 

65 

worst violators of religious freedom. This is the verdict of human rights organizations. We will hear today if our witnesses share this verdict. 

Chinese authorities are frightened by the simple proposition that individuals have 

the right to live out their beliefs openly and peacefully, without fear or intimidation. 

All we have to do is look at events in the past few weeks to see a coordinated, unnecessary, and often brutal campaign to manage, control, or crush China’s many religious communities. It’s been a very bad month in China: 

• Two days ago, a cross on a Christian church was burned near the city of 

Wenzhou . Over 1,200 crosses, along with 35 church buildings, were demolished 

since 2014. This was done reportedly because they were too prominent, demonstrating the Party’s weakness. 

• During the just-concluded month of Ramadan, Uyghur Muslim students, 

teachers, professors, and government employees were deprived of the freedom 

to fulfill their religious duties. In recent years, officials have shut down religious sites; conducted raids on independent schools, confiscated religious literature, and banned private study of the Koran. A new draft Counterterrorism 

law equates terrorism with ‘‘religious education of minors.’’ 

• The Dalai Lama turned 80 this month and the Chinese government expanded 

attempts to undermine his leadership and control the selection of Tibetan Buddhist leaders. 273 Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns are currently detained. 

Sadly, revered teacher Tenzin Deleg died in prison last week. He was serving 

a life sentence on politically motivated charges. 

• Beijing also continues its relentless 16-year campaign to obliterate the Falun 

Gong, the anniversary which is each year during July. There are reports of torture in detention, deaths in custody, and allegations of the harvesting of organs. 

• Two weeks ago, Chinese Communist Party authorities also launched a massive crackdown on human rights lawyers. The lawyers were accused of being a 

‘‘criminal gang’’ charged with ‘‘creating chaos’’ because they defended the rights 

of Falun Gong, Uyhgurs, Christians, and others persecuted. Many of the lawyers detained are professing Christians, spurred by their faith to defend the 

vulnerable. 

Senator Rubio and I put out a statement about the arrest of human rights lawyers in China. We called the detentions ‘‘unjustified’’ and said the round-up of 

human rights lawyers was ‘‘an undeniable setback in U.S.-China relations.’’ I would 

like to add that statement to the record without objection. 

China’s active suppression of faith communities, its massive repression of rights 

lawyers, and the brutal, and sometimes deadly, way it deals with prisoners of conscience are a sad and black mark on China’s recent history. And it will be remembered by history as brutal, unnecessary, and entirely counterproductive. 

It is counterproductive because religious restrictions makes China less stable, repression can exacerbate extremism and cause instability. Religious freedom, according to the Pew Research Center, can be a powerful and effective antidote to religious 

extremism. 

It is counterproductive because targeting peaceful religious citizens undermines 

the legitimacy of the state, because it reminds even non-believers of the state’s capricious power. 

It is counterproductive because religious persecution marginalizes the persecuted, 

robbing China of their talents, their economic productivity, and their contributions 

to society. 

The issue of religious freedom must be addressed by the Administration during 

a planned September summit. 

But we must ask whether this summit should even take place. There are many 

issues in the U.S.-China relationship that need attention, but does President Xi— 

given his ‘‘bold disregard’’ for human rights and his brutal suppression of dissent— 

deserve to get red carpet treatment in Washington? 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. MARCO RUBIO, A U.S. SENATOR FROM FLORIDA; 

COCHAIRMAN, CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA

JULY 23, 2015

Nearly two weeks ago Chinese Communist Party authorities launched an unprecedented crackdown on human rights lawyers and activists that has been characterized as the most severe since the legal system was reestablished in 1980 after the 

Cultural Revolution. To date, more than 200 have been detained, questioned, or reported missing. 

66 

These ‘‘Black Friday’’ events have rightly garnered widespread international condemnation but Chinese President and Communist Party General Secretary Xi 

Jinping is unbowed and in fact seemingly emboldened. State media reported earlier 

this week that the Party managed to extract so-called ‘‘confessions’’ from some of 

the accused regarding their alleged involvement in a criminal gang suspected of 

interfering with the judicial process and inciting disorder. 

As we examine the situation facing China’s courageous lawyers, men and women 

who have been described as the closest thing China has to a political opposition, an 

interesting thread emerges—namely the role of faith. 

Many of those detained are practicing Christians. Several of the detained have 

taken on high-profile cases of individuals who have earned the ire of the Chinese 

Government for daring to live out their religious and spiritual convictions, including 

Uyghur Muslims, Christian house church leaders, Tibetan Buddhists, and Falun 

Gong practitioners. 

It is precisely this issue of religious freedom which is the focus of today’s Congressional-Executive Commission on China hearing. 

Without question, religious freedom is under assault in China. Irrespective of belief, the government’s oppression knows no bounds. 

In its most recent annual report, the independent, bipartisan U.S. Commission on 

International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) described the situation facing religious 

adherents in China this way: ‘‘In 2014, the Chinese government took steps to consolidate further its authoritarian monopoly of power over all aspects of its citizens’ 

lives. For religious freedom, this has meant unprecedented violations against 

Uighur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, Catholics, Protestants, and Falun Gong practitioners. People of faith continue to face arrests, fines, denials of justice, lengthy prison sentences, and in some cases, the closing or bulldozing of places of worship.’’ 

USCIRF and the U.S. Department of State are of one mind that China is deservedly considered a Country of Particular Concern, a designation reserved for only the 

most severe violators of religious freedom. 

News headlines in just the last year have been dominated by harrowing accounts 

of persecution and repression. Chinese authorities have implemented an extensive 

cross removal campaign resulting in the destruction of hundreds of Christian 

crosses. Thai authorities forcibly repatriated Uyghur Muslims to China where they 

face an uncertain future. Tibetan Buddhists have continued to set themselves on 

fire in desperation at the abuses their people have endured at the hands of the Chinese government. 

The Chinese government has sought, through brutal methods, to restrict the ability of the Chinese people to worship and peacefully live out their faith according to 

the dictates of their conscience. Their misguided efforts have arguably had the unintended consequence of infusing many of these religious adherents with greater vibrancy as evidenced most dramatically by the explosive growth of Christianity in 

China. 

The developments in China, including the crackdown on human rights lawyers 

and the deteriorating situation for religious freedom, are worthy of attention at the 

highest levels of the U.S. Government. With the upcoming human rights and 

counterterrorism dialogues and the pending September visit by Chinese President 

Xi Jinping, the Obama administration must seriously weigh what points of leverage 

exist in our bilateral relationship and seize on them. 

67 

SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD

STATEMENT SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD BY ELLEN BORK, SENIOR FELLOW, FOREIGN

POLICY INITIATIVE; VISITING FELLOW, HENRY JACKSON SOCIETY

JULY 23, 2015

I thank the Chairman, co-chairman and the commission for inviting me to comment on the geopolitical context for China’s religious persecution and to offer 

thoughts on how the United States should respond. 

Even considered in the light of China’s worsening record on human rights, developments over the past several weeks have been disturbing. They include the roundup of over 200 human rights lawyers and activists, the forced repatriation to China 

from Thailand of more than 100 Uighurs, Turkic Muslims from China’s far west, 

the adoption of a new national security law, and the death in prison of a revered 

Tibetan monk, Tenzin Delek Rinpoche. His death was followed by the cruel and suspicious refusal to return his body to his family for funeral rites, which prevented 

independent examination to determine the cause of death. 

These events occur in the context of two geopolitical trends: a decline in democracy around the world and concerted efforts by the most powerful authoritarian regimes to undermine settled democratic norms and the institutions that uphold 

them. At the same time, President Obama has downgraded democracy and human 

rights as priorities in American foreign policy, contradicting the case for American 

leadership in Asia based on democratic values he placed at the heart of his ‘‘pivot’ 

to Asia. 

According to Freedom House’s most recent annual survey, democracy around the 

world has declined for the ninth year in a row. The number of countries that registered declines in political and civil liberties outstripped those with gains by nearly 

two to one. The survey also recorded the lowest number of countries showing improvement in democratic governance in the past nine years. Arch Puddington wrote 

in an essay accompanying the survey: ‘‘acceptance of democracy as the world’s dominant form of government—and of an international system built on democratic 

ideals—is under greater threat than at any point in the last 25 years.’’ 

China is a leading force in this ‘‘democratic recession.’’ Domestically, China’s notorious human rights record has been judged by Chinese Human Rights Defenders to 

be the worst since the mid-1990s, ‘‘especially in terms of abuses aimed at silencing, 

intimidating, and punishing those who promote the protection of fellow Chinese citizens’ rights.’’ Although Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping didn’t start 

the trend, CHRD noted he has accelerated it, including by leading ‘‘an ideological 

shift that harkens back to the Maoist era’’ and stressing ‘‘a CCP orthodoxy that rejects constitutional democracy, human rights, free press, and rule of law as ‘Western 

universal values.’’’ ‘‘Never allow singing to a tune contrary to the party center,’’ Xi 

commented on party and academic websites earlier this year, the New York Times 

reported. ‘‘Never allow eating the Communist Party’s food and then smashing the 

Communist Party’s cooking pots.’’ 

General Secretary Xi uses subtler language in the global assault China is leading 

on democratic norms and multilateral institutions based on them. China, along with 

Russia and other authoritarian countries, is trying to redefine settled norms in 

order to weaken the liberal international order that threatens their external and internal legitimacy. To do this, they are using tools including media and foreign aid 

as well as adopting ‘‘laws’’ to restrict freedoms of assembly, speech, religion and 

other rights. I recommend to the commission the work Alexander J. Cooley of Columbia University and Christopher Walker and the National Endowment for Democracy and Arch Puddington and others at Freedom House have done on the challenge 

of ‘‘resurgent authoritarianism.’’ 

China, writes Professor Cooley, is taking the lead in advancing an ‘‘emerging 

counter norm’’ of ‘‘civilizational diversity’’ and the ‘‘principle of noninterference in 

the domestic affairs of sovereign states.’’ The forced repatriation of the Uighurs from 

Thailand, and other countries, is a perfect example. Beijing has long claimed 

Xinjiang, the former East Turkistan, along with Tibet and Taiwan as a ‘‘core interest,’’ a phrase that conveys these claims and the party’s policies there are beyond 

compromise. Now, in addition to rebuffing unwelcome criticisms of repression inside 

Chinese-held territory, Beijing is pursuing its ‘‘core interests’’ by interfering in other 

countries’ affairs, violating international law on non-refoulement of refugees in the 

process. It seems unlikely that a democratic government in Thailand would have 

done Beijing’s bidding. 

68 

China attempts much the same thing with regard to Tibetans, interfering brazenly in the affairs of Nepal, its much smaller, weaker neighbor that has historically 

provided refuge for Tibetans fleeing Chinese repression. ‘‘Under China’s Shadow: 

Mistreatment of Tibetans in Nepal,’’ a 2014 report by Human Rights Watch details 

intelligence cooperation agreements between Nepal and China, pressures on Nepal 

to restrict rights of Tibetans in Nepal and quotes Tibetans fearful of being returned 

to China from Nepali territory. 

Now it appears China is expanding its ‘‘core interests’’ to encompass new territorial and maritime claims, as well as an ambiguously broad concept of national security. Edward Wong of the New York Times reports the recently adopted national 

security law can be read as defining ‘‘core interests’’ to include ‘‘the political regime; 

the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of the nation; and people’s livelihoods, sustainable economic development of society and other major interests.’’ This 

articulation of ‘‘core interests’’ could extend the concept to islands in the East China 

Sea or to China’s disputed border with India, including in the state of Arunachal 

Pradesh, which Beijing already claims as ‘‘Southern Tibet.’’ A definition of China’s 

‘‘core interests’’ that includes the survival of the party or unity of the nation could 

also make activities of lawyers, including, for example, those defending the rights 

of Uighurs or Tibetans, vulnerable to charges of violating national security. 

The assault on democracy is a direct challenge to the U.S. In an article earlier 

this year in the Journal of Democracy, Robert Kagan traced democracy’s ascendancy 

in the last century to a ‘‘configuration of power and ideas.’’ The victory of democratic 

values was not preordained or inevitable. At different times, other ideologies had 

held sway. The U.S. used a ‘‘variety of tools, including direct military intervention’’ 

– or the threat of it – ‘‘to aid democratic transitions and prevent the undermining 

of existing fragile democracies all across the globe.’’ Europe played an important role 

as well. The norms that emerged Kagan writes ‘‘did not appear out of nowhere or 

as the result of some natural evolution of the human species.’’ They were built and 

defended. They were and remain ‘‘transient.’’ 

Despite its stake in the survival of democratic values and institutions, Washington is on its back foot when it comes to defending them. President Obama has 

made a different approach to democracy and dictatorships, uncritical engagement 

and passivity, the signature of his administration. His ‘‘pivot to Asia’’ initially contained a strong rationale for U.S. leadership based on the advancement of democratic values. He quite rightly presented these as universal rather than American. 

In his speech to the Australian parliament, he rejected other political models, including communism, as failures. 

That ambitious and principled vision has not been sustained. 

In the absence of executive leadership, Congress can play an important role. It 

has done so in the past. Members of Congress led American support for the Helsinki 

movement even when the executive was reluctant. Congress was central to the effort to pressure China on human rights, especially through the annual review of 

China’s trade status, although eventually it too gave way to pressures to pursue 

unconditioned trade and engagement. 

As a first step, Congress can help by carrying this cause to their constituents. 

They should make individual Chinese political prisoners household names just as 

Soviet dissidents were. At a minimum, there is evidence that such attention improves the conditions under which political prisoners are held and protects them 

from torture. Human rights activists welcome international attention. Dissidents 

are already in trouble with the regime, one Chinese intellectual once told me. ‘‘If 

the support is not there it will hurt much more.’’ 

Congress should identify or create leverage to use in pressing Beijing. Congress 

should consider the global application of the visa and financial sanctions regime 

adopted for Russia in 2012. That legislation, known as the Magnitsky Act, after the 

Russian lawyer whose death in jail inspired them, did two things. It replaced the 

historic Jackson-Vanik amendment’s link of free emigration to trade with the Soviet 

Union with a measure tailored to Russia’s current post-Soviet circumstances. Adoption of the Magnitsky sanctions also ensured that there was no lapse in America’s 

support for human rights in Russia. By contrast, China’s MFN process was ended 

and PNTR adopted without something to replace it. Expressing U.S. disapproval of 

human rights abuses through a visa ban or possible financial sanctions would be 

an important step, as would adoption of a pending measure that would enable the 

State Department to make Chinese diplomats’ travel within the U.S. conditional on 

access to Tibet. 

The U.S. must reassert American leadership in defending the liberal democratic 

order against the alternative leading authoritarian countries are trying to establish. 

‘‘Insofar as there is energy in the international system,’’ Kagan wrote, ‘‘it comes 

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from the great-power autocracies.’’ America must match and exceed their efforts. 

There is no doubt we can. As President Obama often says, it is ‘‘who we are.’’ 

STATEMENT BY CECC CHAIRS REPRESENTATIVE CHRIS SMITH AND SENATOR MARCO

RUBIO ON PRESIDENT XI’S ‘‘INCREASINGLY BOLD DISREGARD FOR BASIC HUMAN

RIGHTS’’ 

TUESDAY, JULY 14, 2015

(Washington, DC)—With the recent detentions and interrogations of scores of 

human rights lawyers and the death in detention of Tibetan Buddhist religious leader Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche, the Chairs of the Congressional-Executive Commission 

on China (CECC) issued the following statement. 

‘‘We are deeply alarmed by the recent round-up of scores of human rights lawyers 

and activists in China and believe this wave of repression constitutes an undeniable 

setback in U.S.-China relations. These unjustified detentions and interrogations, 

part of a coordinated nationwide crackdown reaching far beyond Beijing, are just 

the latest example of President Xi Jinping’s intolerance for dissent and mockery of 

the rule of law. President Xi promised a China governed by the rule of law, but is 

instead using the law, particularly an onerous and vague National Security Law, 

as a tool of oppression and control. The detentions come on the heels of a joint statement of solidarity released by 100 lawyers last Friday protesting the disappearance 

of prominent human rights lawyer Wang Yu, who worked at the Fengrui Law Firm, 

which police have labelled a ‘major criminal organization’ for daring to take on dozens of sensitive cases. The detentions coincided with the sad and unnecessary death 

of a prominent 65-year old Tibetan religious leader, Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche, who 

had served thirteen years of a life term based on politically motivated charges. He 

had been repeatedly denied medical parole for his heart condition.’’ 

‘‘President Xi wants a ‘new type’ of relationship with the U.S, but continues to 

pursue repressive policies rooted in China’s past. Sadly, China seems to be closing 

its doors to new ideas and ways of thinking that are essential for the type of economic innovation, political transparency, and diplomatic cooperation needed to 

shape the future of U.S.-China relations. These issues and President Xi’s increasingly bold disregard for basic human rights must necessarily serve as the backdrop 

for the planned September summit. We are compelled to ask whether such treatment of one’s own citizens is deserving of a red carpet welcome in Washington.’’ 

RELIGION WITH ‘‘CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS’’: 

PERSECUTION AND CONTROL IN XI JINPING’S CHINA

JULY 23, 2015

Witnesses 

Anastasia Lin, Human Rights Activist and the Current Miss World Canada 

Ms. Anastasia Lin is a Toronto-based actress. She won the Miss World Canada 

title in 2015. Since her start in acting at the age of seven, Anastasia has appeared 

in over 20 films and television productions, and most prominently played lead actress in several Toronto-based films about human rights themes in China. Her work 

has garnered numerous international awards including the Mexico International 

Film Festival’s Golden Palm Award and California’s Indie Fest Award of Merit. 

Along with her acting and participation in pageants, she is known for her public 

position against human rights abuses in China. Canadian television reports attributed her victory in the 2015 Miss World Canada Pageant in part to her passion for 

human rights. Anastasia will participate in the 2015 Miss World competition to be 

held this December in Sanya city, Hainan province, China. 

Bob Fu, Founder and President, ChinaAid Association 

Pastor Bob Fu was a leader in the 1989 student democracy movement in 

Tiananmen Square and later became a house church pastor. In 1996, authorities arrested and imprisoned Pastor Fu and his wife for their work. After their release, 

they escaped to the United States and, in 2002, he founded ChinaAid Association. 

ChinaAid monitors and reports on religious freedom in China and provides a forum 

for discussion among experts on religion, law, and human rights in China. Pastor 

Fu is frequently interviewed by media outlets around the world and has testified 

at U.S. congressional hearings. He has also appeared before the European Parliament and the United Nations. Pastor Fu holds a double bachelor’s degree from 

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People’s University and the Institute of Foreign Relations, and he has taught at the 

Beijing Communist Party School. In the United States, he earned a master’s degree 

from Westminster Theological Seminary and is now working on his Ph.D. 

Rebiya Kadeer, President, World Uyghur Congress 

Ms. Rebiya Kadeer is a prominent human rights advocate and leader of the 

Uyghur people. She is the mother of 11 children, and a former laundress turned millionaire. She spent six years in a Chinese prison for standing up to the authoritarian Chinese government. Before her arrest in 1999, she was a well-known 

Uyghur businesswoman and at one time among the wealthiest individuals in the 

People’s Republic of China. Ms. Kadeer has been actively campaigning for the 

human rights of the Uyghur people since her release in 2005. She was nominated 

to receive the Nobel Peace Prize several times since 2006. Despite Chinese government efforts to discredit her, Ms. Kadeer remains the pro-democracy Uyghur leader 

and heads the World Uyghur Congress, which represents the collective interest of 

the Uyghur people in the world. 

Losang Gyatso, Tibetan Service Chief, Voice of America 

Mr. Losang Gyatso is the service chief of Voice of America’s Tibetan Service which 

broadcasts news and information into Tibet and is arguably the most influential and 

trusted source of information for the Tibetan people. Before joining VOA, Gyatso 

was a founding director of mechakgallery.com, a non-profit group promoting contemporary Tibetan art through exhibitions, publications, and social media. Prior to that, 

while working as an advertising executive in New York City in the 1980s and 1990s, 

Gyatso was a Tibetan community organizer and one of the most prolific graphic designers for projects carried out by groups such as the International Campaign for 

Tibet, Students for a Free Tibet, and Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy. 

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