US administration of Biden on Wednesday aimed at China and several other countries for repressing religious freedom. US administration comes ahead with their aim of restoring human rights as a primary focus of American foreign policy.
The condemnation was comparable to that lodged by the Trump administration, which had been criticized for prioritizing religious freedom over other rights. It reflected continuity in the US position that China’s crackdown on Muslims and other religious minorities in western Xinjiang constitutes genocide.
Yet, a senior official stated religious freedom is just 1 element in the administration’s broader human rights strategy.
Secretary of State, Antony Blinken used the release of the State Department’s annual International Religious Freedom Report to lambast China for strict restrictions on its citizens’ ability to worship freely. Antony also declared a travel ban on a former senior Chinese official the US accuses of persecuting the Falun Gong religious sect members.
China criminalizes religious expression and continues to perform crimes against humanity and genocide against Muslim Uyghurs and members of other religious and ethnic minority groups,” Blinken said to reporters as he unveiled the report for the calendar year 2020.
The report itself stated the name of religions like Christians, Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, and Falun Gong practitioners of China. They all suffer from harsh societal discrimination in employment, housing, and business opportunities.
While Blinken did not forbear China from criticism, his remarks were less extensive than those of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during previous religious freedom events. Pompeo was individually harsh in his condemnation of China’s treatment of the Uyghurs and other religious minorities, usually devoting whole speeches to the subject.
In his comments, Blinken also mentioned the abuses of religious freedom in Iran, Myanmar, Russia. Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, all of which were recognized in the report as offenders.
