Defending Religious Freedom Around the World

[Gavel sounds.] The subcommittees on Africa and Western Hemisphere, this hearing called Defending Religious Freedom Around the World will come to order, and I want to welcome each and every one of you here today, especially our very distinguished witnesses. Thank them in advance for not only their testimony but their extraordinary leadership. I do want to express my heartfelt congratulations and thanks to Ambassador Sam Brownback and Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, who are the co-chairs of the International Religious Freedom Summit just concluded here in Washington for an extraordinarily powerful, comprehensive call to action for global religious liberty. With incisive commentary and analysis from a broad swath of faith leaders, we have all been challenged once again to do more to mitigate and hopefully end religious persecution. In the United States, I think as we all know here, but many know it around the world, religious freedom is often called America's first freedom since it's listed first in our Bill of Rights. The founders wrote, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The establishment clause and the free exercise clause protect the right of conscience of every American, that inviolable domain of the heart of every human being. And of course, religious freedom is not at all an American right alone. It's one that belongs to every human being on the face of the earth. Yet all around the world today, religious persecution is festering and exploding. What has been unconscionable for decades and centuries has actually gotten worse in many parts of the world. Billions of human beings made in the image and likeness of God live in countries where the God-given right to freely exercise their religion is severely restricted, many to the point of incarceration, torture, and execution. According to Open Doors 2025 World Watch List, "more than 380 million Christians suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith." Anti-Semitism is exploding not just in the Middle East but throughout Western democracies, including in the United States. Brutal dictatorships like China, Russia, Nicaragua, North Korea, Belarus, and Cuba, and we had a, I chaired a hearing on Belarus yesterday, and we heard from several very, very important people, many of whom were incarcerated for a long time. In one case, it was the man that would have won the election, his wife did, Svetlana. And in Belarus, they're crushing or trying to crush the church and the faith community under Lukashenko. Brutal dictatorships, like I said, are terrified of their people. It shows an innate weakness. They cannot stand a competition when it comes to the heart, minds, and souls of their people. And so again, we have China, Russia, Nicaragua, North Korea, Belarus, and Cuba and many others are terrified of letting their people speak out and to practice their faith. In many other parts of the world, authorities heavily restrict independent religious activity that does not accord with strict Islamic law. For example, in Afghanistan and Iran, Pakistan, and in many parts of Nigeria, which have death penalty blasphemy laws, and unfortunately increasingly in Syria, where under the new authorities, Christians, Kurds, Yazidis, Druze, and Alawites are facing increasing religious violence. Anything outside of the ubiquitous state, especially the search for deeper spiritual truths that speak directly to the human soul, is automatically a threat to these regimes. In China, and I do chair the China Commission, and I've been on that commission for years and worked on that for many, many years, as has Sam Brownback, people of all faiths are subjected to deplorable treatment by the Chinese Communist Party. As we speak, Uyghur Muslims in China are suffering genocide. Today, they are still brutally repressed. Many are shipped off to labor camps. I've asked them, they told me we have nothing to hide, they being the Chinese, the foreign minister put out a statement. So as chairman of the China Commission, I wrote them a letter immediately, I've been calling them ever since. I said, I want to lead a delegation to go to Xinjiang, to go to the camps. [Crosstalk.] Nothing. They won't get back to us. They have everything to hide, and they are not even close to being transparent. Many are shipped off of the individuals there to camps, their mosques are destroyed, and their children are forced to speak Mandarin instead of Uyghur. When unleashing terror on the Uyghurs, and again, this is the president, or he's not a president, he's a dictator, Xi Jinping, he said, "We will show no mercy." And I've looked at all of those statements that he has made, and despite the pervasive use of torture, murder, and rape, much of the world looks askance and kowtows to Beijing. In May of last year, as part of its ongoing sinicization campaign, China issued a decree effectively banning foreign missionaries from evangelizing within China. That includes the mere bringing of Bibles into the country. And just a few months ago, the Chinese Communist Party began a massive new crackdown to build on the old of Chinese Christians. Today, we have testifying before us Grace Drexel, the daughter of Pastor Ezra Jin, who is one of dozens of church leaders, very brave church leaders, who are now being wrongfully detained, harassed, and horribly mistreated. You know, just in my case, on one trip to China, and I've been there many times, I'm barred from going now, as is Sam, I know, we're on their list, I had the awesome privilege of meeting with Bishop Su Zhimin. Bishop Su is a leader of the underground Catholic Church. As we spoke and then prayed, he had been in prison for about 30 years up to that point. The bishop prayed for the persecutors. I mean, that is right out of our scriptures, to love those who hate you, do good to those who persecute you. There I am talking to a man who bears scars on his body and certainly in his soul of having been incarcerated for 30 years till then, and he was praying for those who did it. I was just, you know, I get mad when I get a bad editorial, as do a lot of politicians. Here he is standing there, sitting there, telling us he prays for them. His witness absolutely amazed me. Love those who hate you, as I said, as Christ did from the cross. Unfortunately, only a few years later, he was arrested again and disappeared. He has not been heard from since. Xi Jinping is crushing people with faith, torture, jailing, rape, and murder, and we must act. Our business community has been complicit in all of this, and we need to get them to say, "Stop it, Xi Jinping." You know, he ought to be at The Hague for crimes against humanity and for genocide, not being kowtowed to by so many. We of course, North Korea has the same kinds of problems, 30,000 Christians are being held in their camps. And then on the topic of Nigeria, President Trump, his country of particular concern designation in October was necessary, long overdue, and bold. In his first administration, with the strong backing of our Ambassador at Large Sam Brownback, President Trump recognized that the mass killings by Boko Haram, ISIS West Africa, and armed Fulani terrorists against Christians in the Middle Belt, which are clearly motivated by ethnic and religious animus, meant Nigeria met the need for being designated CPC and was so designated. Genocide Watch has called Nigeria a killing field of defenseless Christians. And now, you know, the International Religious Freedom Act, brilliantly written by our former colleague Frank Wolf, a true champion of religious freedom, and that bill was opposed vigorously. He got it passed into law in 1988, and it has made a major difference globally, including now in Nigeria. We can't take our eyes off of that. I just want to say to my colleagues, to all of us, I'm deeply concerned that Nigeria has hired the K Street lobbying firm DCI to the tune of $9 million, $750,000 a month. And a Nigerian billionaire has entered into a $120,000 a month contract with Valcour to influence Congress and the executive branch. And Ambassador, you know as well as I over these many years because you have fought this fight, they hire these firms, they come up with their very well-written talking points to say, "Nothing to see here," whether it be Haiti, China does it better than anyone else, or worse really is what it is. We saw it with Romania. I remember during the years of Nicolae Ceausescu, and I led the effort on that along with Frank and you, Sam, Mr. Ambassador, and they always had these lobbying firms to say Ceausescu is a good guy, he has all these churches that he has open, but he was torturing Christians. And the book that got me into religious freedom myself was Tortured for Christ by Richard Wurmbrand, who talked about the duplicity and unfortunately how these firms are just so good at advocating for their client. Well, advocate for freedom and religious and end to religious persecution. I have many other things I'd say, but I want to cut it off here. And I do want to thank again all of you for being here, and I'd like to yield to my good friend, Ranking Member Jacobs, for any comments she might have.