Pompeo, US Officials Criticize Chinese Regime’s Right Abuses on International Religious Freedom Day

Xi Stirs up Nationalistic, Anti-Us Sentiment During Korean War Anniversary Speech

Chinese leader Xi Jinping delivered a lengthy, high-profile address at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing to mark the 70th anniversary of the Korean War. The Chinese regime refers to it as the “War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea.” Xi’s speech came after China’s state broadcaster CCTV finished airing a 20-episode documentary series on the conflict.   Major Cleveland of the 2nd Inf. Division points out Communist-led North Korean position to his machine gun crew on Nov. 20, 1950, during the Korean War. (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration)Xi began his speech on Oct. 23 by repeating the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda that the United States first invaded North Korea, and Chinese troops sacrificed themselves to resist U.S. aggression. In fact, the conflict ignited when Pyongyang…

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo led a group of U.S. officials in criticizing China’s continued human rights abuses on Oct. 27, which marks International Religious Freedom Day.

“Three of the world’s most egregious religious freedom abusers–the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Iran, and North Korea–have tightened their coercive measures to silence their own people,” said Pompeo in a statement.

“Worse, the PRC has sought to eradicate all forms of faith and belief that don’t align with Chinese Communist Party doctrine,” Pompeo added.

The U.S. government designated Oct. 27 as International Religious Freedom Day to commemorate the signing of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, which ensures that promoting religious freedom is a priority of U.S. foreign policy.

Signed into law by former U.S. President Bill Clinton in October 1998, it established an independent, bipartisan federal commission known as the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), and a position called ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, currently occupied by Sam Brownback.

Brownback took to Twitter to commemorate the occasion, saying that freedom of religion enjoyed in the United States must be “promoted & protected around the world.”

The U.S. ambassador also singled out the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for launching “the most sophisticated surveillance and indoctrination system to repress religious freedom we’ve ever seen.”

The Chinese regime was recently named the worst abuser of digital freedom for the sixth consecutive year, in rights group Freedom House’s annual report.

Last week, Brownback highlighted China’s “war on faith” in an interview to mark the Religious Freedom Day with ShareAmerica, a U.S. State Department platform for communicating American foreign policy.

“We share reports…that Chinese authorities have subjected prisoners of conscience, including Falun Gong, Uyghurs, Tibetan Buddhists and underground Christians, to forcible organ harvesting. This should shock everyone’s conscience,” Brownback said.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a meditation practice with moral teachings centered on the tenets of “truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance,” that grew extremely popular in China during the 1990s. In July 1999, the Chinese regime deemed this a threat and launched a nationwide persecution campaign.

According to the Falun Dafa Information Center, millions have been detained inside prisons, labor camps, and other facilities, with hundreds of thousands tortured while incarcerated. There are over 4,000 documented deaths as a result of persecution, though experts say the true figure is likely much higher.

A London-based people’s tribunal concluded in June 2019 that the state-sanctioned practice of forced organ harvesting was happening on a “significant scale” in China, with Falun Gong practitioners being the main source of organs.

During an October press briefing, State Department officials also raised concerns about the atrocity and urged those with information about such practices in China to come forward.

USCIRF’s chair Gayle Manchin applauded recent U.S. sanctions against Chinese and Iranian officials responsible for severe religious freedom violations.

“These sanctions send the strong message that the U.S. government is committed to ensuring accountability for violations of our most fundamental right,” she said in a statement to commemorate International Religious Freedom Day.

The U.S. government has sanctioned six Chinese officials and one CCP entity over human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims in China’s far-western region of Xinjiang, where an estimated one million Uyghurs are being detained in internment camps.

U.S. Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia also spotlighted the CCP’s forced labor practices in a statement.

Religious and ethnic minorities are forced into state-sponsored labor and re-education camps in China, he noted. A Labor Department report last month ranked China first among 77 countries, for the most goods produced by child labor and forced labor.

According to the report, U.S. authorities found that China produced 17 types of goods with forced labor, including Christmas decorations, electronics, footwear, garments, toys, gloves, and hair products.

Focus News: Pompeo, US Officials Criticize Chinese Regime’s Right Abuses on International Religious Freedom Day

China Insider: Evidence of Genocide Exposed by CCP’s Internal Documents

The Epoch Times recently obtained a document classified as “top secret” by Chinese authorities. It exposed that China’s judicial and public security systems have been committing the crime of genocide against Falun Gong practitioners for nearly 20 years. The document is a “judicial opinion” jointly issued on Nov. 30, 2000 by five departments: the Supreme Court, the Supreme Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of National Security, and the Ministry of Justice. It clearly stipulated that “political and legal departments at all levels must resolutely implement the important instructions of” then Party leader Jiang Zemin to crack down on Falun Gong, and listed various charges and punishments targeting different actions of Falun Gong practitioners. For instance, when Falun Gong practitioners print and distribute Falun Gong flyers, the charge…