US report on global religious freedom criticises China’s vetting of clergy, other hardline policies
- Beijing ‘continues to harass adherents of religions that it deems out of line with Chinese Communist Party doctrine’, says Antony Blinken
- The government ‘uses sophisticated emerging technologies such as AI and facial recognition to surveil and maintain control of its open-air prison in Xinjiang’
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused authorities in China of a campaign to “harass” religious practitioners and destroy houses of worship, as he unveiled the State Department’s annual report on global religious freedoms on Thursday.
The bleak assessment echoed what US officials considered a global phenomenon: beyond China, citizens’ religious rights were under attack in other countries such as Saudi Arabia, Eritrea and Myanmar, Blinken said.
The report’s 140-page China section highlighted government regulations imposed last year that expand the vetting process for religious clergy within the five state-sanctioned religions of Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Protestantism and Catholicism.
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Issued by Beijing’s State Administration for Religious Affairs, the regulations demand patriotism and allegiance to Chinese Communist Party leadership and include broadly defined provisions prohibiting “illegal religious activities” and “foreign infiltration using religion”.
