Every year since 1999, the State Department has designated China a “country of particular concern” for its ongoing and egregious abuses of religious freedom based on recommendations of the USCIRF.
In recent months, the U.S. government has taken a stronger role in addressing China’s religious freedom problem.
In April, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution urging the government of China to reinstate all licenses of Gao Zhisheng and his law firm and revise law and practice in China to observe international standards.
Moreover, US President Bush for the first time met with three Chinese Christian rights activists in May to discuss the difficulties faced by unregistered house churches in China.
The three Chinese activists were among the speakers at the Freedom in China Summit in Washington held a few days prior to the meeting with Bush. Seven high-profile Chinese activists were invited to speak at the Summit and all accepted the invitation.
However, three invitees were detained due to “direct intervention by the Chinese government,” including intense harassment, government notification of a dubious court hearing, and an ambiguous conference, according to the Summit’s organisers. Gao Zhisheng was among the three detained.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, Secretary of State, and Congress.