China provides a “clear example” of how governments persecution of religious minoritiessaid a US official, as the State Department released its annual report on religious freedom around the world.
Rashad Hussain, the United States’ general ambassador for international religious freedom, said at a news conference on Thursday that “too many governments remain undaunted about persecuting their citizens.”
“It’s not surprising that the People’s Republic of China is a prime example here,” he told reporters.
“Government of the People’s Republic of China continues[s] commit genocide and crimes against humanity Uighurspredominantly Muslim, and members of other ethnic and religious groups. “
The day before US President Joe Biden took office, Washington announced it has determined that Beijing is committing “genocide and crimes against humanity” against the Uighurs in the western province of Xinjiang, where human rights groups and witnesses say more than a million people are being tortured. detained in internment camps.
Initially, China denied the existence of any detention camps in Xinjiang, but in 2018 it said it had set up “vocational training centers“Necessary to curb what they say is terrorism, separatism and religious extremism in the region.
The Chinese government has denied the allegations of abusecriticized “slanderous attacks” over conditions on the Uighurs and other religious minorities in Xinjiang.
“China continues to genocide and persecute primarily Muslim Uighurs and other religious minorities,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday at a news conference to release the Religious Freedom Report. International Education in 2021.
“Since April 2017, more than one million Uighurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and others have been detained in internment camp in Xinjiang“I said.
The State Department report also accuses the Chinese government of asserting its right to control and restrict “the activities and personal freedoms of religious people that it considers threatening the state or the state.” [Chinese Community Party] interests “.
“Non-governmental organizations and the media continue to report on deaths in custody and government torture, physical abuse, arrest, disappearance, detention, prison sentences, forced labor and forced labor to spread CCP ideology, and harass adherents of both registered and unregistered religious groups for activities related to their religious beliefs and practices,” it reads.
India
The State Department report also details religious freedom in India, a longtime US ally and the world’s largest democracy – but a country that experts and rights watchdogs say saw. worsening human rights conditions In recent years.
“Assaults on members of religious minority communities, including murder, assault and intimidation, occurred throughout the year,” the report found, pointing to incidents of “domestic violence.” cow vigilance” against non-Hindus, as well as threats, attacks and incitements against Christians. and followers of Islam.
It also said Hindu and Sikh civilians were killed in Indian-administered Kashmir in attacks that “caused widespread fear” and forcing hundreds of people to flee.
“Ten out of 28 states have laws restricting religious conversion. Four state governments have laws that impose penalties on so-called forced religious conversion for the purpose of marriage,” the report found.
The findings come weeks after a separate US panel urge The State Department for the third year in a row ranked India on the US list of “countries of particular concern”, saying that religious freedom has “remarkably worsened” in the country by 2021.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) accused India of “participating in and tolerating systematic, persistent, and serious violations of religious freedom” and pursuing policies “negatively affects Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits and other religious minorities” (PDF).
Ambassador Hussain also voice concerns in February about a controversial ban on headscarves in schools and colleges in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.
That criticism has led to a strong rebuttal from the Indian government, which has also denied the US reports on human rights and religious freedom in India in the past as interference in the internal affairs of the country.
Since coming to power, the Biden administration has emphasize the importance Washington’s relationship with New Delhi, and senior US officials have held virtual talk with their Indian counterparts in April.
However, the relationship has been tested most recently by India’s purchase of Russian energy supplies amid the war in Ukraine, with Biden speak Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the US can help India diversify its oil supply – but to avoid increasing Russian imports.
