USCIRF Chair blames international community for allowing Chinese regime to increase human rights violations.

The Western Strategy of Decoupling Trade Negotiations from Human Rights Abuses: A Strategic Blunder

Introduction

The Chinese communist regime has been able to escalate its repressive policies against religions and people of faith due to the Western strategy of decoupling trade negotiations from human rights abuses. This policy has been called a “strategic blunder” by Nury Turkel, chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). The commission’s 2023 annual report on international religious freedom (pdf) highlights China once again for violations of religious freedom and religious persecution.

China’s Deteriorating Record on Religious Freedom

Since 1999, China has been recommended by USCIRF to the State Department for designation as a “country of particular concern”(CPC) due to its deteriorating record on religious freedom. This CPC status is assigned by the State Department to countries that “commit systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom,” according to the commission’s website. The State Department can impose sanctions or take other action on a designated country.

Delinking Human Rights from Trade Negotiations: A Strategic Blunder

Turkel believes that an essential factor that contributed to the escalation of religious repressions in China was delinking human rights from the 1990s trade negotiations facilitating China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). “It’s a strategic blunder in multiple ways,” the chairman said.

The War on Faith

One reason for the war on people of faith carried out by the CCP is that the “Chinese communist leadership sees people of faith as a potential threat for political upheaval,” Turkel said. The second reason is the CCP perceives religious practitioners as a group of people “showing signs of disloyalty to the party,” which makes the CCP leadership believe that they will eventually undermine the Communist Party’s power.

Need for Strategy Change

Turkel recommended that the United States, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and the European Union should revisit their China policies and come up with coherent strategic policies to stop these egregious human rights violations in China. When a country respects people’s rights to practice their religion or adhere to their spiritual beliefs, it will naturally achieve social stability, harmony, and peace. When a country suppresses religious freedom, it needs to spend money on domestic security and police forces, China spends more money on domestic security than on the national defense.

Persecution Methods

Among the groups specifically targeted by the Chinese regime, Turkel listed Uyghur Muslims, who are being subjected to indoctrination or so-called “reeducation.” “The reeducation is a code word for human reengineering. And this is how they have been accomplishing that preemptive treatment method.”