COALITION TO ADVANCE RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN CHINA

October 11, 2019

China Coalition welcomes U.S. action sanctioning violators of religious freedom and human rights in the Uyghur Region

The Coalition to Advance Religious Freedom in China issued this statement today:

We warmly welcome the U.S. government’s actions this week in response to the Chinese government’s severe assaults on religious freedom in the Uyghur Region. These massive human rights violations shock the conscience, targeting Uyghurs, other Turkic Muslims, and all religious believers in the Region. The Trump Administration has sent a strong message to perpetrators by imposing consequences for their crimes. Travel to the U.S. is now cut off to officials “believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, the detention or abuse of Uighurs, Kazakhs, or other members of Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang, China.”

In sanctioning 28 entities on Monday, the U.S. Commerce Department found that they “have been implicated in human rights violations and abuses in the implementation of China’s campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other members of Muslim minority groups.”

We continue to ask other governments around the world to take concrete steps to raise their voices in protest, and to impose similar consequences. It is time for a global movement to end these policies of brutal repression, before it is too late.

The Coalition to Advance Religious Freedom in China is a diverse group of NGOs united to promote the universal right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion for all people in China.

Media inquiries:

ChinaAid: Logan Carmichael, l.carmichael@chinaaid.org
Uyghur Human Rights Project: Omer Kanat, kanato@uhrp.org
Campaign for Uyghurs: Rushan Abbas, contact@campaignforuyghurs.org
Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation: Kristina Olney, kristina.olney@victimsofcommunism.org