Washington’s most effective weapon against Beijing’s deepest vulnerabilities is elevating religious freedom to a national security priority, according to Sam Brownback, former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom.
Brownback, who served in the role during the first Trump administration, made the remarks on Oct. 28 at the China Forum, an annual conference in Washington hosted by the Victims of Communism Museum Foundation.
Calling the Chinese regime’s persecution of Muslim Uyghurs, Falun Gong practitioners, and Tibetan Buddhists three genocides, Brownback said Washington should offer clear support for people of faith in China.
“For China, religious freedom is an existential threat,” Brownback said. “This should move from being just a human rights issue to a national security issue for us: religious freedom. It is the most potent, powerful tool that we have.”
To accomplish that, Brownback recommended that the U.S. president, vice president, and secretary of state meet with victims of the regime’s religious persecution at the White House and allow them to share their stories. These senior officials could also hold meetings with leaders of these groups, he added.
“We should meet with the founder of Falun Gong in the White House. Li Hongzhi, invite him. Say, ‘Look, we just want to recognize this [persecution],’” Brownback said.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline based on the teachings of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance introduced to the public by Mr. Li in 1992. The practice quickly spread across China, with official estimates saying it had attracted at least 70 million followers by the late 1990s.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) viewed the practice’s popularity as a direct challenge to its authority and responded with a brutal campaign aimed at eradicating it.
Over the past 26 years, many Falun Gong practitioners have been sent to prisons, labor camps, and brainwashing centers, where most have been subjected to inhumane treatment—including torture—leading to many deaths. Others have died after their organs were forcibly harvested as part of China’s state-sanctioned crimes.
Amid the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China, the U.S.-based Falun Dafa Information Center urged President Donald Trump, ahead of his Oct. 30 meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea, to press for the release of those imprisoned.
By Frank Fang
