II 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 3164 

To state the policy of the United States with respect to religious freedom 

in the People’s Republic of China, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

OCTOBER 30, 2023 

Mr. BUDD (for himself and Mr. TILLIS) introduced the following bill; which 

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

A BILL 

To state the policy of the United States with respect to 

religious freedom in the People’s Republic of China, and 

for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Combatting the Perse5 cution of Religious Groups in China Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress makes the following findings: 

8 (1) According to estimates included in Inter9 national Religious Freedom reports issued by the 

10 Department of State, Buddhists comprise 18.2 perVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:11 Nov 02, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3164.IS S3164

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1 cent of the total population in the People’s Republic 

2 of China, Christians, 5.1 percent, Muslims, 1.8 per3 cent, followers of folk religions, 21 percent, and 

4 atheists or unaffiliated persons, 52.12 percent, with 

5 Hindus, Jews, and Taoists comprising less than 1 

6 percent. 

7 (2) The Government of the People’s Republic of 

8 China recognizes 5 official religions, Buddhism, Tao9 ism, Islam, Protestantism, and Catholicism (accord10 ing to an International Religious Freedom report 

11 issued by the Department of State), and only reli12 gious groups belonging to 1 of the 5 sanctioned ‘‘pa13 triotic religious associations’’ representing those reli14 gions are permitted to register with the Government 

15 and hold worship service, excluding all other faiths 

16 and denying the ability to worship without being 

17 registered with the Government. 

18 (3) The activities of state-sanctioned religious 

19 organizations in the People’s Republic of China are 

20 regulated by the Chinese Communist Party, which 

21 manages all aspects of religious life in the country. 

22 (4) The Chinese Communist Party is actively 

23 seeking to control, govern, and manipulate all as24 pects of faith through the ‘‘Sinicization of Religion’’, 

25 a process intended to shape religious traditions so 


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1 they conform with the objectives of the Chinese 

2 Communist Party. 

3 (5) On February 1, 2018, the Government of 

4 the People’s Republic of China implemented new re5 ligious regulations that imposed restrictions on Chi6 nese contacts with overseas religious organizations, 

7 required Government approval for religious schools, 

8 websites, and any online religious service, and effec9 tively banned unauthorized religious gatherings and 

10 teachings. 

11 (6) There are numerous reports that authorities 

12 in the People’s Republic of China have forced clo13 sures of Buddhist, Christian, Islamic, and Taoist 

14 houses of worship and destroyed public displays of 

15 religious symbols throughout the country. 

16 (7) Authorities of the People’s Republic of 

17 China have arrested and detained religious leaders 

18 trying to hold services online. 

19 (8) There are credible reports of Chinese au20 thorities raiding house churches and other places of 

21 religious worship, removing and confiscating reli22 gious paraphernalia, installing surveillance cameras 

23 on religious property, pressuring congregations to 

24 sing songs of the Chinese Communist Party and dis25 play the national flag during worship, forcing 


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1 churches to replace images of Jesus Christ or the 

2 Virgin Mary with pictures of General Secretary Xi 

3 Jinping, and banning children and students from at4 tending religious services. 

5 (9) It has been reported that the Government 

6 of the People’s Republic of China is rewriting and 

7 will issue a version of the Bible with the ‘‘correct 

8 understanding’’ of the text according to the Chinese 

9 Communist Party. Authorities continue to restrict 

10 the printing and distribution of the Bible, Quran, 

11 and other religious literature and penalize publishing 

12 and copying businesses that handle religious mate13 rials. 

14 (10) According to International Religious Free15 dom reports issued by the Department of State, the 

16 Government of the People’s Republic of China has 

17 imprisoned thousands of individuals of all faiths for 

18 practicing their religious beliefs and often labels 

19 groups of those individuals as ‘‘cults’’. 

20 (11) According to the Department of Labor, the 

21 Government of the People’s Republic of China has 

22 arbitrarily detained more than 1,000,000 Uyghurs 

23 and other mostly Muslim minorities in China’s far 

24 western Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. 


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1 (12) It has been reported that the Government 

2 of the People’s Republic of China engages in 

3 transnational repression activities such as relent4 lessly intimidating diaspora religious communities 

5 and others with ties to China. 

6 (13) As of October 11, 2019, the Political Pris7 oner Database maintained by the Congressional-Ex8 ecutive Commission on China counted 1,598 cases 

9 with information on political and religious prisoners 

10 known or believed to be detained or imprisoned in 

11 China. 

12 (14) As of June 30, 2023, the Political Pris13 oner Database maintained by the human rights non14 governmental organization Dui Hua Foundation 

15 counted 2,897 individuals imprisoned in China for 

16 ‘‘organizing or using a ‘cult’ to undermine imple17 mentation of the law’’. 

18 (15) The United States Commission on Inter19 national Religious Freedom (USCIRF) maintains a 

20 list of religious prisoners of conscience who were im21 prisoned in China for their religious belief or non22 belief, religious activity, religious freedom advocacy, 

23 and other related issues. Those prisoners of con24 science include— 


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1 (A) the 11th Panchen Lama, Gedun 

2 Choekyi Nyima, who has been held captive 

3 along with his parents since May 17, 1995; 

4 (B) Pastor Zhang Shaojie, a Three-Self 

5 church pastor from Nanle County in central 

6 Henan, who was sentenced in July 2014 to 12 

7 years in prison for ‘‘gathering a crowd to dis8 rupt the public order’’; 

9 (C) Pastor John Cao, a United States per10 manent resident from Greensboro, North Caro11 lina, who was sentenced to 7 years in prison in 

12 March 2018 under contrived charges of orga13 nizing illegal border crossings; and 

14 (D) Pastor Wang Yi of the Early Rain 

15 Covenant Church, who was arrested and sen16 tenced to 9 years in prison for ‘‘inciting to sub17 vert state power’’ and ‘‘illegal business oper18 ations’’. 

19 (16) Authorities of the People’s Republic of 

20 China continue to detain Falun Gong practitioners 

21 and subject them to harsh and inhumane treatment. 

22 (17) Since 1999, the Department of State has 

23 designated the People’s Republic of China as a coun24 try of particular concern for religious freedom under 


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1 the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 

2 (22 U.S.C. 6401 et seq.). 

3 (18) On June 17, 2020, the Uyghur Human 

4 Rights Policy Act of 2020 (Public Law 116–145) 

5 came into force, requiring reporting on human rights 

6 violations and abuses committed by the Government 

7 of the People’s Republic of China against Uyghurs 

8 and other Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang 

9 Uyghur Autonomous Region and calling for the use 

10 of targeted sanctions against officials of the People’s 

11 Republic of China found to have engaged in such 

12 violations. 

13 (19) On June 21, 2022, section 3 of Public 

14 Law 117–78 (22 U.S.C. 6901 note) (commonly re15 ferred to as the ‘‘Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention 

16 Act’’) came into force, blocking products, goods, and 

17 material originating from the Xinjiang Uyghur Au18 tonomous Region from entering the United States 

19 due to the risk that such items were produced using 

20 forced labor. 

21 (20) The National Security Strategy of the 

22 United States, issued in 2017, 2015, 2006, 2002, 

23 1999, 1998, and 1997, committed the United States 

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1 vance the security, economic, and other national in2 terests of the United States. 

3 SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 

4 (a) HOLDING SENIOR OFFICIALS OF THE PEOPLE’S

5 REPUBLIC OF CHINA RESPONSIBLE FOR RELIGIOUS

6 FREEDOM ATROCITIES.—It is the policy of the United 

7 States to consider any senior official of the Government 

8 of the People’s Republic of China who is responsible for 

9 or has directly carried out, at any time, atrocities includ10 ing arbitrary imprisonment, forced sterilization, torture, 

11 forced labor, and draconian restrictions on freedom of reli12 gion, expression, and movement against religious minori13 ties, including Christians, Uyghurs, and Falun Gong, in 

14 the People’s Republic of China to have committed— 

15 (1) a gross violation of internationally recog16 nized human rights for purposes of imposing sanc17 tions with respect to such official under the Global 

18 Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (22 

19 U.S.C. 10101 et seq.); and 

20 (2) a particularly severe violation of religious 

21 freedom for purposes of applying section 

22 212(a)(2)(G) of the Immigration and Nationality 

23 Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(2)(G)) with respect to such 

24 official. 


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1 (b) DEPARTMENT OF STATE PROGRAMMING TO PRO2 MOTE RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC

3 OF CHINA.—It is the policy of the United States— 

4 (1) that the Ambassador at Large for Inter5 national Religious Freedom should support efforts to 

6 protect and promote international religious freedom 

7 in the People’s Republic of China; and 

8 (2) for programs of the Department of State to 

9 protect religious minorities in the People’s Republic 

10 of China and combat transnational repression en11 gaged in by the People’s Republic of China. 

12 (c) DESIGNATION OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF

13 CHINA AS A COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN FOR RE14 LIGIOUS FREEDOM.—It is the policy of the United States 

15 to continue to designate the People’s Republic of China 

16 as a country of particular concern for religious freedom 

17 under section 402(b)(1)(A)(ii) of the International Reli18 gious Freedom Act of 1998 (22 U.S.C. 6442(b)(1)(A)(ii)) 

19 as long as the Government of the People’s Republic of 

20 China continues to engage in particularly severe violations 

21 of religious freedom (as defined in section 3 of such Act 

22 (22 U.S.C. 6402)). 


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1 SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING PROMOTION OF 

2 RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN THE PEOPLE’S RE3 PUBLIC OF CHINA. 

4 It is the sense of Congress that the United States 

5 should promote religious freedom in the People’s Republic 

6 of China by— 

7 (1) strengthening diplomacy relating to reli8 gious freedom on behalf of Christians and other reli9 gious minorities facing restrictions in the People’s 

10 Republic of China, including through the widespread 

11 engagement of international partners to combat the 

12 violations against religious freedom committed by 

13 the Government of the People’s Republic of China; 

14 (2) raising the cases of religious and political 

15 prisoners at the highest levels with officials of the 

16 People’s Republic of China because experience dem17 onstrates that consistently raising prisoner cases can 

18 result in reduced sentences, or in some cases, release 

19 from custody, detention, or imprisonment; 

20 (3) encouraging Members of Congress to be21 come advocates for prisoners of conscience in the 

22 People’s Republic of China through the Defending 

23 Freedoms Project of the Tom Lantos Human Rights 

24 Commission, raise the cases of those prisoners with 

25 officials of the People’s Republic of China, and work 

26 publicly for their release; 


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1 (4) calling on the Government of the People’s 

2 Republic of China to unconditionally release reli3 gious and political prisoners and ensure that detain4 ees who have not yet been released are treated hu5 manely with— 

6 (A) access to family, the lawyer of their 

7 choice, independent medical care, and inter8 national monitoring mechanisms; and 

9 (B) the ability to practice their faith while 

10 in detention; 

11 (5) encouraging the global faith community to 

12 speak in solidarity with the persecuted religious 

13 groups in the People’s Republic of China; and 

14 (6) hosting, once every 2 years, the Ministerial 

15 to Advance Religious Freedom organized by the De16 partment of State in order to bring together leaders 

17 from around the world to discuss the challenges fac18 ing religious freedom, identify means to address reli19 gious persecution and discrimination worldwide, and 

20 promote great respect for and preservation of reli21 gious liberty. 

22 SEC. 5. SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING ACTION BY THE 

23 UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL. 

24 It is the sense of Congress that the United Nations 

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1 tion of the People’s Republic of China for the ongoing 

2 genocide against Uyghurs and other religious and ethnic 

3 minority groups and the persecution of Christians, Falun 

4 Gong, and other religious groups. 

Æ 


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