The US government estimates in a report that since April 2017, Beijing has arbitrarily detained a million Uighurs
Washington:
An annual report on freedom of religion published by the US State Department accuses China of intensifying religious repression against its minority groups, in particular the Uighurs of northwestern Xinjiang province, Christians, Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists and Falun Gong practitioners.
In the annual International Religious Freedom (IRF), a study on the state of religious freedom in the world, submitted to the United States Congress, the State Department considers that in China, citizens have the freedom of religious belief, but the State limits the protection of religious in practice to “normal religious activities” and does not define “normal”.
According to the report, despite President Xi Jinping’s decree that all members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) must be “inflexible Marxist atheists”, the government “continued to exercise control over religion and restrict activities and the personal freedom of the faithful which is perceived to threaten the interests of the state or the CCP, “according to religious groups, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and international media.
He added that Beijing recognizes only five official religions – Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Protestantism and Catholicism. And these only religious groups belonging to the five “sanctioned religious associations” sanctioned by the State and representing these religions are authorized to register with the government and officially authorized to organize cults.
The US government estimated in the report that since April 2017, Beijing had arbitrarily detained more than one million Uyghurs, Kazakh ethnic groups, Hui and members of other Muslim groups, as well as Uighur Christians, in internment camps specially built or converted in Xinjiang and subjected to forced disappearance, political indoctrination, torture, physical and psychological abuse, including forced sterilization and sexual abuse, forced labor and to prolonged detention without trial because of their religion and ethnicity.
The State Department also cited a third document, the “Karakax List”, which was originally released in November and then made public, presented evidence that the Chinese government had initially interned or extended the internment of people for religious reasons in four re-education centers in Karakax county, in Hotan Prefecture. Xinjiang authorities have restricted access to mosques and banned young people from participating in religious activities, including fasting during Ramadan.
According to human rights groups and international media, the authorities have maintained extensive and invasive security and surveillance, in part to obtain information on individuals’ adherence and religious practices. Satellite imagery and other sources indicate that the government has destroyed mosques, cemeteries and other religious sites.
Since 1999, according to the report, China has been designated as a “Country of Special Concern” (CPC) under the 1998 International Religious Freedom Law for committing or tolerating particularly serious violations of religious freedom.
On December 18, the Secretary of State redesignated China as CPC and identified the following sanction that accompanied the designation: the current restriction in effect on exports to China of instruments and equipment for the control and detection of crime, under the Foreign Relations Authorization Act of 1990 and 1991 (Public Law 101-246), pursuant to section 402 (c) (5) of the Act.
The report comes after US President Donald Trump signed a decree on June 2 to advance international religious freedom, directing the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development to “develop a plan to prioritize international religious freedom “and” budget at least US $ 50 million per fiscal year for programs that advance international religious freedom. ”
