IV 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 493 
Condemning the persecution of Christians in China. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 16, 2019 
Mrs. HARTZLER (for herself and Ms. SPEIER) submitted the following resolu-
tion; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in ad-
dition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be subse-
quently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
RESOLUTION 
Condemning the persecution of Christians in China. 
Whereas, according to the Department of State, there are an 
estimated 12,000,000 Chinese Catholics and 60,000,000 
to 80,000,000 Chinese Protestants worshipping in both 
officially registered and unregistered churches in China; 
Whereas the activities of state-sanctioned religious organiza-
tions are regulated by the Chinese Communist Party, 
which manages all aspects of religious life; 
Whereas the practice of Christianity is overseen by four 
major entities: The-Self Patriotic Movement, the China 
Christian Council, the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Associa-
tion, and the Bishops Conference of Catholic Church in 
China; 
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•HRES 493 IH 
Whereas the Chinese government is actively seeking to con-
trol, govern, and manipulate all aspects of faith through 
the ‘‘Sinicization of Religion’’, a process intended to 
shape religious traditions and doctrines so they conform 
with the objectives of the Chinese government and Com-
munist Party; 
Whereas, on February 1, 2018, the Chinese government im-
plemented new religious regulations that imposed restric-
tions on Chinese contacts with overseas religious organi-
zations, required government approval for religious 
schools, websites, and any online religious services, and 
effectively banned unauthorized religious gatherings and 
teachings; 
Whereas, since February 1, 2018, forced closures of church-
es, arbitrary detention, and arrests of unregistered Chris-
tian clergy and practitioners have steadily increased; 
Whereas Chinese authorities actively harass, arrest, interro-
gate, and detain unregistered and registered Christian 
clergy and practitioners; 
Whereas Chinese authorities raid house churches and con-
fiscate religious paraphernalia, including crosses and bi-
bles; 
Whereas, according to the Department of State, churches ex-
perience increased restrictions and surveillance by the 
Chinese government, including efforts to install security 
cameras on church property; 
Whereas in Zhejiang Province, home to one of China’s largest 
Christian populations, crosses have been torn down from 
1,200 to 1,700 churches since 2015; 
Whereas, as part of China’s ‘‘Sinicization of Religion’’ cam-
paign, Beijing’s Zion Church was shut down as well as 
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•HRES 493 IH 
other ‘‘unauthorized churches’’ in Henan, Jiangxi, 
Zhejiang, Guangdong, Liaoning, and Hebei Provinces; 
Whereas while the Holy See’s recent deal with the Chinese 
government reportedly provides a Papal veto over Catho-
lic bishops nominated by the government-supported 
Bishops Conference and was intended to protect religious 
freedom, persecution of Chinese Catholics has intensified 
and new restrictions on religious practice have been in 
place since the agreement was signed; 
Whereas a Catholic church in Xingjiang city of Yining had 
its three crosses, two bell towers, and two statues demol-
ished by authorities, and religious features on the 
church’s exterior walls and mosaics were covered with 
paint; 
Whereas two Marian shrines were destroyed including the 
Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows in Dongergo, Shanxi 
Province, and Our Lady of Bliss in Anlong, Guizhou 
Province; 
Whereas, in June of 2019, Fujian Province officials issued 
requirements requiring Catholic priests to ban minors 
from church and education, to stop relationships with 
foreign Catholics, to end any missionary efforts, and to 
prohibit posting religious topics online; 
Whereas a Chinese official in Luoning county, Henan Prov-
ince, recently erased the First Commandment from a list 
of the Ten Commandments hanging on a wall inside a 
church; 
Whereas it has been reported that China is going to ‘‘re- 
write’’ and issue a version of the Bible with the ‘‘correct 
understanding’’ of the text according to the government; 
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•HRES 493 IH 
Whereas Chinese authorities have banned children and stu-
dents from attending church services; 
Whereas, in January 2018, Chinese authorities destroyed the 
50,000-member Linfen Golden Lampstand Church; 
Whereas Chinese authorities have attempted to remove 
crosses and replace them with the Chinese flag and slo-
gans praising the Communist Party and President Xi 
Jinping; 
Whereas state-sanctioned Protestant churches have also faced 
property destruction, cross removal, and closure by Chi-
nese authorities; 
Whereas according to the United States Commission on 
International Religious Freedom, more than 5,000 Chris-
tians and 1,000 church leaders were arrested in 2018 be-
cause of their faith or religious practices; 
Whereas Chinese authorities torture lawyers, human rights 
defenders, and other prisoners of conscience of all faiths; 
Whereas, according to the Department of State, the Chinese 
government has imprisoned thousands of individuals of 
all faiths for practicing their religious beliefs and often 
labels them as ‘‘cults’’; 
Whereas, as part of its crackdown, the Chinese government 
arbitrarily detained Pastor Wang Yi of Early Rain Cov-
enant Church along with numerous church members, and 
blocked worshippers from entering the building; 
Whereas many Early Rain Covenant Church members were 
forced to renounce their faith and tortured in order to 
give confessions accusing Pastor Yi of making statements 
against the Chinese Communist Party; 
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•HRES 493 IH 
Whereas Pastor John Cao, a United States permanent resi-
dent from Greensboro, North Carolina, has been detained 
in a Chinese prison since March 2017 for his humani-
tarian and missionary work in Burma under contrived 
charges of organizing illegal border crossings; 
Whereas, since 1999, the Department of State has designated 
China as a country of particular concern under the Inter-
national Religious Freedom Act; 
Whereas the Department of State has hosted Ministerials to 
Advance International Religious Freedom in 2018 and 
again in 2019 to engage like-minded allies to advance re-
ligious freedom protections globally, including by pro-
tecting vulnerable religious minorities; and 
Whereas, as the 2017 National Security Strategy of the 
United States explains, we must seek to ‘‘advance Amer-
ican influence’’ by ‘‘protect[ing] religious freedom’’: Now, 
therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) reaffirms the commitment of the United 
States to promoting religious freedom in China and 
calls on the President and the Secretary of State to 
strengthen United States religious freedom diplo-
macy on behalf of Christians facing restrictions in 
China; 
(2) calls on the President, the Secretary of 
State, and the United States Trade Representative 
to ensure that trade negotiations include religious 
freedom conditions as mandated by the Bipartisan 
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•HRES 493 IH 
Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability 
Act of 2015 (19 U.S.C. 4201 et seq.); 
(3) encourages the President to use the authori-
ties available under the International Religious Free-
dom Act of 1998 (22 U.S.C. 6401 et seq.), the 
Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom Act of 
2016 (Public Law 114–281; 130 Stat. 1426), and 
the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability 
Act (subtitle F of title XII of the National Defense 
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017; 22 U.S.C. 
2656 note) to address particularly severe religious 
freedom restrictions in China by holding Chinese of-
ficials accountable for their complicity in egregious 
violations 
of 
internationally 
recognized 
human 
rights; 
(4) calls on the President, the Secretary of 
State, the Ambassador at Large for International 
Religious Freedom, and Members of Congress to le-
verage the growing network of foreign international 
religious freedom focused institutions and parliamen-
tary groups; 
(5) urges the Ambassador at Large for Inter-
national Religious Freedom to develop an action 
plan to creatively employ religious freedom program-
ming; 
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•HRES 493 IH 
(6) calls on the President and Secretary of 
State to raise cases relating to religious or political 
prisoners at the highest levels with Chinese officials, 
such as the case of Pastor Wang Yi of the Early 
Rain Church, because experience demonstrates that 
consistently raising prisoner cases can result in im-
proved treatment, reduced sentences, or in some 
cases, release from custody, detention, or imprison-
ment; 
(7) encourages Members of Congress to 
‘‘adopt’’ a prisoner of conscience in China through 
the Lantos Human Rights Commission’s ‘‘Defending 
Freedom Project’’, raise the case with Chinese offi-
cials, and work publicly for their release; 
(8) calls on the Chinese government to uncondi-
tionally release religious and political prisoners or, at 
the very least, ensure that detainees are treated hu-
manely with access to family, the lawyer of their 
choice, independent medical care, and the ability to 
practice their faith while in detention; and 
(9) encourages the global faith community to 
speak in solidarity with the persecuted Christians in 
China. 
Æ 
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