The Chinese government restricts independent religious expression. We hear alarming reports of the detention of worshippers and religious leaders. Churches and mosques have been vandalized or demolished. Traditional religious practices in Tibet have long been the target of especially harsh and unjust persecution. And most recently, adherents of the Falun Gong spiritual movement have been singled out for arrest and abuse.
China aspires to national strength and greatness.
No one is a better witness to the transience of tyranny than the children of Abraham. Forty centuries ago, the Jewish people were entrusted with a truth more enduring than any power of man. It is not an accident that freedom of religion is one of the central freedoms in our Bill of Rights. We must stand for that freedom in our country. We must speak for that freedom in the world.