U.S.-China Summit Must Address China’s Religious Freedom Repression

U.S.-China Summit Must Address China's Religious Freedom Repression

Washington, DC - The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has reported for years that China's violations of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) have been too numerous to count and too heinous to ignore. USCIRF asks President Donald J. Trump to directly raise with President Xi Jinping China's systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of FoRB during the U.S.-China summit in Washington, D.C. on September 24, 2026.

"The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), under the leadership of President Xi, has undertaken a genocidal campaign against Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities. It has attempted to eliminate or take complete control of Tibetan Buddhism, and it threatens the free succession of the Dalai Lama," said Commissioner David A. Anderson. "It has arrested independent Protestant church leaders and breached China's protocols with the Catholic Church. It has attempted to separate ethnic Mongolians from their religious and cultural traditions. It has harassed and imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners, Church of Almighty God members, and followers of other religious and belief communities. And it has carried out a campaign of transnational repression far beyond its borders, including within the United States of America."

In July, a wide-ranging Ethnic Unity and Progress Law, which represents the forced imposition of CCP ideology and ethnonationalist supremacy over all of China's diverse ethnic and religious groups, took effect across China. It codifies into Chinese law an even more comprehensive and totalitarian system of repression of religious freedom while declaring that the CCP has the authority to pursue organizations and individuals outside of China for undermining the new law.

"The Ethnic Unity and Progress Law has raised alarms across the international community, requests for clarification from UN special rapporteurs, and concerns from U.S. lawmakers," said Commissioner Gene Mills. "USCIRF asks President Trump to use this crucial opportunity of direct talks with his Chinese counterpart, President Xi, to bolster U.S. interests and priorities by advancing religious freedom for all of China's people."

USCIRF recommended in its 2026 Annual Report that the U.S. Department of State redesignate China as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom. USCIRF raised China's abysmal religious freedom conditions during its "FoRB Violations Against Christians Abroad" hearing in January and in its "China's Codification and Escalation of the 'Sinicization of Religion'" publication in May.

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The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an independent, bipartisan federal government entity established by the U.S. Congress to monitor, analyze and report on religious freedom abroad. USCIRF makes foreign policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and Congress intended to deter religious persecution and promote freedom of religion or belief. To interview a Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected].