I 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4821 
To hold accountable senior officials of the Government of the People’s Repub-
lic of China who are responsible for, complicit in, or have directly per-
secuted Christians in China, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 29, 2021 
Mrs. HARTZLER (for herself, Mr. DUNCAN, Mr. GALLAGHER, Mr. LAMBORN, 
Mr. ADERHOLT, Mr. LATTA, Mr. BILIRAKIS, Mr. WEBER of Texas, Ms. 
SALAZAR, Mr. TIMMONS, Mr. GOOD of Virginia, Mr. HICE of Georgia, 
Mr. BUDD, Mr. HARRIS, Mr. STEUBE, Mr. GUEST, Mr. GOHMERT, Mrs. 
MILLER-MEEKS, Mr. GAETZ, Mr. BABIN, Mr. MULLIN, Mr. BROOKS, 
Mrs. WAGNER, Mr. PFLUGER, Mr. RESCHENTHALER, Mr. GROTHMAN, 
Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio, Ms. LETLOW, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Mr. 
MANN, Mr. WALTZ, Mr. ALLEN, Mr. OWENS, Mr. BUCK, Mrs. MILLER 
of Illinois, and Ms. STEFANIK) introduced the following bill; which was 
referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the 
Committees on the Judiciary, and Ways and Means, for a period to be 
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration 
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee con-
cerned 
A BILL 
To hold accountable senior officials of the Government of 
the People’s Republic of China who are responsible for, 
complicit in, or have directly persecuted Christians in 
China, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Combating the Perse-
cution of Christians in China Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) According to the Department of State’s 
International Religious Freedom reports, there are 
an estimated 12,000,000 Chinese Catholics and 
60,000,000 to 80,000,000 Chinese Protestants wor-
shiping in both officially registered and unregistered 
churches in China. 
(2) The practice of Christianity is overseen by 
four major entities: Three-Self Patriotic Movement, 
the China Christian Council, the Chinese Patriotic 
Catholic Association, and the Bishops Conference of 
Catholic Church in China. 
(3) The activities of state-sanctioned religious 
organizations are regulated by the Chinese Com-
munist Party, which manages all aspects of religious 
life. 
(4) The Chinese Communist Party is actively 
seeking to control, govern, and manipulate all as-
pects 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 Communist Party. 
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(5) On February 1, 2018, the Chinese govern-
ment implemented new religious regulations that im-
posed restrictions on Chinese contacts with overseas 
religious organizations, required government ap-
proval for religious schools, websites, and any online 
religious service, and effectively banned unauthorized 
religious gatherings and teachings. 
(6) Since February 1, 2018, forced closures of 
churches, arbitrary detention, and arrest of Chris-
tian clergy and practitioners have steadily increased, 
including the arrest and 9-year prison sentence of 
Pastor Wang Yi of the Early Rain Covenant 
Church. 
(7) In September 2018, the Holy See an-
nounced that a Provisional Agreement on the ap-
pointment of bishops had been signed with the Chi-
nese government; however, several news sources have 
reported that since the agreement was signed Chi-
nese authorities have detained clergy, pressured 
them to join an ‘‘independent church’’, closed unreg-
istered churches, and removed children from church-
es. 
(8) There are credible reports of Chinese au-
thorities raiding house churches, removing crosses, 
confiscating religious paraphernalia, installing sur-
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veillance cameras on church property, pressuring 
churches to sing songs of the Chinese Communist 
Party and display the national flag during commu-
nity worship, forcing churches to replace images of 
Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary with pictures of 
President Xi Jinping, and banning children and stu-
dents from attending church services. 
(9) It has been reported that China is rewriting 
and will issue a version of the Bible with the ‘‘cor-
rect understanding’’ of the text according to the Chi-
nese Communist Party. 
(10) According to the Department of State’s 
International Religious Freedom reports, the Chi-
nese government has imprisoned thousands of indi-
viduals of all faiths for practicing their religious be-
liefs and often labels them as ‘‘cults’’. 
(11) Prisoners include Pastor Zhang Shaojie, a 
Three-Self church pastor from Nanle County in Chi-
na’s central Henan was sentenced in July 2014 to 
12 years in prison for ‘‘gathering a crowd to disrupt 
the public order’’, and Pastor John Cao, a United 
States permanent resident from Greensboro, North 
Carolina, who was sentenced for 7 years in prison in 
March 2018 under contrived charges of organizing 
illegal border crossings. 
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(12) Since 1999, the Department of State has 
designated China as a country of particular concern 
under the International Religious Freedom Act of 
1998. 
(13) The Bipartisan Congressional Trade Prior-
ities and Accountability Act of 2015 states that the 
United States overall trade negotiating objectives 
must ‘‘take into account conditions relating to reli-
gious freedom of any party to negotiations for a 
trade agreement with the United States’’. 
(14) The National Security Strategy of the 
United States issued in 2017, 2015, 2006, 2002, 
1999, 1998, and 1997, committed the United States 
to promoting international religious freedom to ad-
vance the security, economic, and other national in-
terests of the United States. 
SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 
(a) HOLDING CHINESE OFFICIALS RESPONSIBLE 
FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM ABUSES TARGETING CHINESE 
CHRISTIANS.—It is the policy of the United States to con-
sider senior officials of the Government of the People’s 
Republic of China who are responsible for, complicit in, 
or have directly persecuted Christians in China to have 
committed— 
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(1) a gross violation of internationally recog-
nized human rights for purposes of imposing sanc-
tions with respect to such officials under the Global 
Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (22 
U.S.C. 2656 note); and 
(2) a particularly severe violation of religious 
freedom 
for 
purposes 
of 
applying 
section 
212(a)(2)(G) of the Immigration and Nationality 
Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(2)(G)) with respect to such 
officials. 
(b) ENSURING TRADE NEGOTIATIONS CONSIDER RE-
LIGIOUS FREEDOM CONDITIONS.—It is the policy of the 
United States to ensure that trade negotiations with 
China include religious freedom conditions as mandated 
by the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Ac-
countability Act of 2015 (19 U.S.C. 4201 et seq.). 
(c) DEPARTMENT OF STATE PROGRAMMING TO PRO-
MOTE
RELIGIOUS
FREEDOM
FOR
CHINESE
CHRIS-
TIANS.—Consistent with section 401 of the Frank R. Wolf 
International Religious Freedom Act (Public Law 114– 
281; 130 Stat. 1436), of the funds available to the Depart-
ment of State for international religious freedom pro-
grams, the Ambassador-at-Large for International Reli-
gious Freedom should support efforts to protect and pro-
mote international religious freedom in China and for pro-
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grams to protect Christians in China and other religious 
groups. 
(d) REDESIGNATION OF CHINA AS A COUNTRY OF 
PARTICULAR CONCERN.—It is the policy of the United 
States to continue to redesignate China as a ‘‘country of 
particular concern’’, as long as China continues to engage 
in systematic and egregious religious freedom violations, 
as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act of 
1998 (Public Law 105–292). 
(e) INTERNATIONAL MINISTERIAL TO ADVANCE RE-
LIGIOUS FREEDOM.—It is the policy of the United States 
that the Department of State will host once every two 
years the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom in 
order to bring together leaders from around the world to 
discuss the challenges facing religious freedom, identify 
means to address religious persecution and discrimination 
worldwide, and promote great respect for and preservation 
of religious liberty. 
SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that the United States 
should promote religious freedom in China by— 
(1) strengthening religious freedom diplomacy 
on behalf of Christians and other religious minorities 
facing restrictions in China; 
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(2) raising cases relating to religious or political 
prisoners at the highest levels with Chinese officials 
because experience demonstrates that consistently 
raising prisoner cases can result in improved treat-
ment, reduced sentences, or in some cases, release 
from custody, detention, or imprisonment; 
(3) encouraging 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; 
(4) calling on the Chinese Government to un-
conditionally release religious and political prisoners 
or, at the very least, ensure that detainees are treat-
ed humanely with access to family, the lawyer of 
their choice, independent medical care, and the abil-
ity to practice their faith while in detention; and 
(5) encouraging the global faith community to 
speak in solidarity with the persecuted religious 
groups in China, including Christians. 
Æ 
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