The State Department on Wednesday warned that China is an “exporter” of its methods and technologies used in repressing Uighur Muslims to other countries seeking to persecute religious minorities.
At a joint press conference, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback highlighted China as a consistent threat to religious freedom not only within its own borders but in every other country where it exerts influence.
“Maybe it sounds like a broken record, but China is such a big player in this space in such a negative way that it’s hard to overlook,” Brownback said. “They’re an exporter of their ways and technology. If they weren’t an exporter, if they just did it to their own people, which is terrible in and of its self, but this is something we just can’t take our eyes off.”
Brownback said that the Chinese regime’s practice of detaining Uighurs in camps in the Xinjiang province, while concerning, is only the beginning of its policy of persecution. He said that once Uighurs are released, their every move is tracked, and they are repressed through the Chinese government’s technological surveillance state.
“If you want to practice your faith, that’s a no-go,” he said. “If you do, there were will be consequences for you and anyone else who pings you on your cellphone. These are the things that is the virtual police state that we’re very worried about for the future.”
Reports on the treatment of Uighurs over the past several years have revealed that China has undertaken an effort to persecute and imprison the Muslim minority, as well as members of Falun Gong, Christians, and Tibetan Buddhists. A report released earlier this year by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a federally sponsored watchdog, recommended that U.S. officials boycott the 2022 Chinese Winter Olympics because of the regime’s treatment of Uighurs.
Brownback added that China’s sphere of influence in Africa could lead to an extension of these policies among other countries. He also expressed a concern that because of the coronavirus pandemic, leaders in many authoritarian regimes will take advantage of church closures to keep churches closed indefinitely. He noted that this in particular was a “deep concern” that the State Department was working with U.S. allies to combat.
Both Brownback and Pompeo praised President Trump for an executive order signed last week that makes international religious freedom an official part of U.S. foreign policy. The order, which Trump signed amid a furor over his visits to two churches in Washington, D.C., calls religious freedom a “moral and national security imperative.”
