The following is the second place winner of the Center for Human Rights’s annual essay contest, written by Sarah Thomas.
China is on the rise, destined to become a global power. Though some point to a loss in economic dynamism, other aspects are driving China’s success. For instance, China has been on the vanguard in its response to the environmental crisis facing the global community. The Chinese government was among the first to declare a commitment to becoming an ecological civilization, a notion “consistent with ancient Chinese Taoist philosophy” and affirmed by Pope Francis in Laudato Si’ as well as by thinkers inspired by Alfred North Whitehead’s concept of world-loyalty.1
For all China’s progress, there remain areas for improvement, especially in human rights. China has a troubling record with religious freedom, a human right enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and widely considered “the first freedom in a constitutional democracy” and a basic good integral to human flourishing.2 Notably, Article 36 of the Chinese Constitution allows for religious freedom.3 However, this value is “not consistent with the Chinese social reality.”4 Religious belief or the forum internum is protected constitutionally, while full religious practice is not, as the Chinese Constitution gives the government freedom to deem certain practices as abnormal and beyond protection.5 As such, religious freedom in the Chinese Constitution is a “limited and conditional freedom,” a mere legal right rather than a “fundamental” or “inalienable” human right.6 The deficiency of religious freedom in China, besides impacting religious Chinese individuals, “undermines economic development and social order” and proves an obstacle to democratization.7
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) exercises “comprehensive and extensive control over religion in China through a complex web of state laws, regulations, and policies.”8 The party “espouses and promotes atheism” and requires members to “be atheists and unremittingly propagate atheism,” influencing its approach to religion.9 While the CCP does permit some religious expression, this is through “patriotic religious associations” encompassing Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islam.10 Yet these are state-controlled religions, only permitting forms of religion aligned with Xi Jinping’s “blend of Marxism and nationalism” as well as China’s program of Sinicization.11 This is not a recipe for the full flowering of religious freedom.
Restrictions on religious freedom in China are vast. The Chinese government has persecuted “more than a million” Uyghur Muslims in internment camps.12 The government has also persecuted new religious movements such as the Falun Gong which depart from its vision of religion.13 And the CCP regularly persecutes Christian clergy and missionaries. For example, in March 2024 after seven years China finally released Pastor John Cao, a Christian pastor and missionary who positively impacted the lives of thousands of Chinese children through education and poverty-alleviating initiatives. Nevertheless, the Chinese state imprisoned Cao in 2017 for “organizing illegal border crossings.”14 Chinese government officials also routinely raid worship services, demonstrating the lack of constitutional protection for religious practice in China. For example, in January 2024, police raided the Sunday service of Guangzhou Bible Reformed Church in Xinhui District, Jiangmen City.15 Other churches have met similar fates, and believers find themselves impelled to congregate in secret.
Furthermore, China’s approach to religion interacts with other human rights including speech and press. This is particularly evident in propaganda efforts by an anti-cult Chinese government agency called the China Anti-Xie-Jiao Association, directed against the magazine Bitter Winter which it alleges promotes cults in China.16 On the contrary, Bitter Winter’s mission is sound: it promotes human rights in China, particularly the right to religious freedom.17
In response to problems facing religious freedom in China, some initiatives are working to draw awareness. Globally, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has been vocal, successfully calling for the release of Pastor Cao. The U.S. State Department has drawn awareness to the CCP’s “profound hostility” to religion and deemed China’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims “crimes against humanity” and “genocide,” calling for their release and drawing Americans’ attention to this critical issue.18 Additionally, in 2019 the U.S. Department of Commerce blacklisted 28 Chinese entities for their association with “human rights violations and abuses in the implementation of China’s campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other members of the Muslim minority groups.”19 Furthermore, USCIRF, the IRF Summit, Freedom House, Pew Research Center, and other NGOs have issued reports and organized panels calling attention to China’s record on religious freedom.20
What can Americans do to support Chinese people affected by lack of religious freedom? First, we must never despair. As I learned recently from Dr. Kent Hill, a religious freedom advocate, “people seemingly motivated by evil can be transformed by encountering truth, goodness, and generosity.” If Americans witness to the goodness and interior freedom that comes from religious faith, we can chart a path to a more promising future for religious freedom in China. In terms of concrete action, one area for improvement concerns scholarly research.
Religious freedom in China has attracted the attention of international news, governments, and NGOs, but “has been understudied by academic scholars both inside and outside China,” largely due to fears of retaliation.21 Scholars must be brave and willing to call attention to China’s abuses in a systematic way that engages questions of law, policy, and religion.
Other courses of action include speaking with one’s congressional representatives to influence greater action on religious freedom in China. Americans could also spearhead petitions and convenings on China through the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Roundtable. At the highest level of change, Americans might work with advocacy organizations to advance an amendment to the Chinese Constitution which protects full religious practice and not solely religious belief.22 Most fundamentally, however, our response to China calls for an attitude change. If Americans genuinely seek to change the hearts and minds of the Chinese government regarding religious freedom, they must alter their rhetoric. This calls for fewer wholesale condemnations of China and greater acknowledgements that China is complex, balancing both positive aspects, such as the drive for ecological civilization, with problematic aspects, such as government restrictions on religious freedom. Doing so is the first step to a more promising future.
References
1 Fuwen Wei, et al, “Ecological civilization: China’s effort to build a shared future for all life on Earth,” National Science Review 8, no. 7 (July 2021): 1.
2 Fenggang Yang, “A Research Agenda on Religious Freedom in China,” The Review of Faith & International Affairs 11, no. 2 (Summer 2013): 6; Douglas B. Rasmussen, “Why Individual Rights?,” in Individual Rights Reconsidered, edited by Tibor R. Machan (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 2001), 123.
3 Songfeng Li, “Freedom in Handcuffs: Religious Freedom in the Constitution of China,” Journal of Law and Religion 35, no. 1 (April 2020): 133.
4 Li, “Freedom in Handcuffs,” 115.
5 Li, “Freedom in Handcuffs,” 133, 120.
6 Li, “Freedom in Handcuffs,” 116, 125.
7 Yang, “A Research Agenda,” 6.
8 Mingzhi Chen, “Factsheet: Religious Freedom in China: State-Controlled Religion and Religious Freedom Violations in China,” United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, December 2022, 1.
9 Pew Research Center, “10 things to know about China’s policies on religion,” October 23, 2023; Yang, “A Research Agenda,” 7.
10 Chen, “Factsheet,” 1.
11 Pew Research Center, “10 things.”
12 Lindsay Maizland, “China’s Repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang,” Council on Foreign Relations, September 22, 2022.
13 Li, “Freedom in Handcuffs,” 114; Sarah Cook, “Falun Gong: Religious Freedom in China,” Freedom House,
2017.
14 ChinaAid, “Pastor John Cao Released from Prison after Seven Years,” March 5, 2024.
15 ChinaAid, “Preacher Chen Zuopeng and Three Others from Guangzhou Bible Reformed Church Taken Away During Sunday Service,” February 12, 2024.
16 “Chinese film accuses Italy-based magazine of promoting cult,” UCA News, January 2, 2024.
17 Bitter Winter, “Chinese Ministry of State Security Takes Over the Campaign Against Bitter Winter,” August 3, 2018.
18 Michael Pompeo, “Determination of the Secretary of State on Atrocities in Xinjiang,” U.S. Department of State, January 19, 2021.
19 “Addition of Certain Entities to the Entity List,” U.S. Department of Commerce, October 9, 2019, 4.
20 Radio Free Asia, “China’s Xinjiang Repression Targeted at International Religious Freedom Summit,” July 14, 2021.
21 Yang, “A Research Agenda,” 6.
22 Li, “Freedom in Handcuffs,” 137.
Works Cited
“Addition of Certain Entities to the Entity List.” U.S. Department of Commerce. October 9, 2019.
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/10/09/2019-22210/addition-of-certain- entities-to-the-entity-list
Bitter Winter. “Chinese Ministry of State Security Takes Over the Campaign Against Bitter Winter.” August 3, 2018.
https://bitterwinter.org/state-security-takes-over-campaign-against-bitter-winter/
Chen, Mingzhi. “Factsheet: Religious Freedom in China: State-Controlled Religion and Religious Freedom Violations in China.” United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. December 2022.
ChinaAid. “Pastor John Cao Released from Prison after Seven Years.” March 5, 2024. https://chinaaid.org/news/pastor-john-cao-released-from-prison-after-seven-years/
ChinaAid. “Preacher Chen Zuopeng and Three Others from Guangzhou Bible Reformed Church Taken Away During Sunday Service.” February 12, 2024. https://chinaaid.org/news/preacher-chen-zuopeng-from-guangzhou-bible-reformed-churc h-taken-away/
“Chinese film accuses Italy-based magazine of promoting cult.” UCA News. January 2, 2024. https://www.ucanews.com/news/chinese-film-accuses-italy-based-magazine-of- promoting-cult/103697
Cook, Sarah. “Falun Gong: Religious Freedom in China.” Freedom House. 2017. https://freedomhouse.org/report/2017/battle-china-spirit-falun-gong-religious-freedom
Li, Songfeng. “Freedom in Handcuffs: Religious Freedom in the Constitution of China.” Journal of Law and Religion 35, no. 1 (April 2020): 113-137.
Maizland, Lindsay. “China’s Repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.” Council on Foreign Relations.
September 22, 2022.
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/china-xinjiang-uyghurs-muslims-repression-genocide- human-rights
Pew Research Center. “10 things to know about China’s policies on religion.” October 23, 2023. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/10/23/10-things-to-know-about-chinas-po licies-on-religion/
Pompeo, Michael. “Determination of the Secretary of State on Atrocities in Xinjiang.” U.S. Department of State. January 19, 2021.
https://2017-2021.state.gov/determination-of-the-secretary-of-state-on-atrocities-in-xinjia
ng/
Radio Free Asia. “China’s Xinjiang Repression Targeted at International Religious Freedom Summit.” July 14, 2021.
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/religion-freedom-summit- 07142021183823.html
Rasmussen, Douglas B. “Why Individual Rights?” In Individual Rights Reconsidered, 113-136.
Edited by Tibor R. Machan. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 2001.
Wei, Fuwen, et al. “Ecological civilization: China’s effort to build a shared future for all life on Earth.” National Science Review 8, no. 7 (July 2021): 1-5.
Yang, Fenggang. “A Research Agenda on Religious Freedom in China.” The Review of Faith & International Affairs 11, no. 2 (Summer 2013): 6-17.