Washington: The US should support communities who are working to preserve their faith, families, language and culture in the face of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) control. According to former US Senator Sam Brownback, lawmakers should openly engage with Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama and Tibet’s democratically elected government in exile, pressurise China to end its persecution of Uyghur Muslims, Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetans and Christians, and hold Chinese officials accountable for severe violations of religious freedom.
The ties between the US and China gained renewed attention during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent visit to Washington. The meeting between Xi and US President Donald Trump should have drawn attention to the millions of people in China who face government pressure on their faith and how they worship. Under Xi, the CCP has intensified its campaign to “sinicize” religion in China, forcing religious leaders to conform their teachings, leadership and institutions to CCP ideology, Brownback’s wrote in an opinion piece for ‘Deseret News’.
Christians in China have been facing pressure to keep loyalty to the CCP above the tenets of their faith. The authorities have directed churches to display CCP propaganda and rewrite religious texts to conform to party ideology. Pastors who resist the Chinese government’s efforts risk imprisonment, such as Pastor Ezra Jin of the Zion Church, who remained in detention for about a year and was recently released while eight additional leaders of Zion Church remain imprisoned, according to Brownback.
Uyghur Muslims in China have faced an assault on their faith and cultural life, with Chinese authorities destroying mosques, restricting prayer, fasting, religious and cultural dress. Falun Gong practitioners have been arrested and even killed in China.
According to the report, after forcing the Dalai Lama and over 80,000 Tibetans into exile in 1959, the Chinese government has destroyed monasteries, taken action against clergy and criminalised expressions of Tibetan faith. The CCP has also started separating around one million Tibetan children from their families through a boarding school system to weaken their connection to their language, culture and faith, the former US Senator mentioned.
“The United States should sustain support for communities working to preserve their faith, language, families and culture in the face of Communist Party control. Religious leaders across America can raise their voices together, recognising that an attack on the conscience of one community threatens the freedom of all,” said Brownback.
“American leaders should engage openly with the Dalai Lama and Tibet’s democratically elected government in exile, press Beijing to end its persecution of Uyghur Muslims, Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetans and Christians, and hold Chinese officials accountable for severe violations of religious freedom,” he added.
(IANS)
