HR5838-119

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Combatting the Persecution of Religious Groups in China Act.

2. Statement of policy It is the policy of the United States to consider that any official of the Government of the People’s Republic of China who is responsible for or has directly carried out abuses of religious freedom, including those involving arbitrary detention, forced sterilization, torture, forced labor, and serious restrictions on freedom of religion or belief, expression, and movement against religious minorities, including Protestant Christians, Catholics, Buddhists, Muslims, and Falun Gong practitioners, in the People’s Republic of China may have committed a gross violation of internationally recognized human rights for purposes of imposing sanctions with respect to such official under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (22 U.S.C. 10101 et seq.). It is the policy of the United States— that the relevant bureaus of the Department of State, including the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, should support efforts to promote international religious freedom in the People’s Republic of China; and for programs of the Department of State to promote religious freedom in the People’s Republic of China and monitor transnational repression of religious minority groups engaged in by the Government of the People’s Republic of China.

3. Sense of Congress regarding promotion of religious freedom in the People’s Republic of China It is the sense of Congress that the United States should promote religious freedom in the People’s Republic of China by— designating the People’s Republic of China as a country of particular concern for religious freedom under section 402(b)(1)(A)(ii) of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (22 U.S.C. 6442(b)(1)(A)(ii)) as long as the Government of the People’s Republic of China continues to engage in particularly severe violations of religious freedom (as defined in section 3 of such Act (22 U.S.C. 6402)); strengthening diplomacy relating to religious freedom on behalf of Christians and other religious minorities facing restrictions in the People’s Republic of China, including through the widespread engagement of international partners to combat abuses of religious freedom committed by the Government of the People’s Republic of China; raising the cases of religious and political prisoners at the highest levels with officials of the People’s Republic of China; calling on the Government of the People’s Republic of China to unconditionally release all unjustly detained religious and political prisoners and ensure that detainees who have not yet been released are treated humanely with— access to family, the legal counsel of their choice, independent medical care, and international monitoring mechanisms; and the ability to practice their faith while in detention; and encouraging the global faith community to speak in solidarity with oppressed religious groups in the People’s Republic of China.