Washington, A joint House Foreign Affairs hearing on defending religious freedom delivered a stark warning that authoritarian regimes and extremist violence are accelerating a worldwide crackdown on faith communities, while US policy tools and enforcement mechanisms lag behind the scale of the crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At a hearing titled \u201cDefending Religious Freedom Around the World,\u201d Congressman Christopher Smith said religious liberty \u2014 often described as \u201cAmerica\u2019s first freedom\u201d \u2014 is deteriorating globally, with \u201cbillions of human beings\u201d living under severe restrictions that can lead to \u201cincarceration torture, and execution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Citing the Open Doors 2025 World Watch List, Smith said, \u201cMore than 380 million Christians suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith,\u201d adding that \u201cantisemitism is exploding, not just in the Middle East but throughout Western democracies, including in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Smith said \u201cbrutal dictatorships like China, Russia, Nicaragua, North Korea, Belarus, and Cuba\u201d are seeking to suppress faith communities, arguing that such regimes are \u201cterrified of letting their people speak out and to practice their faith.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former US ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom Sam Brownback told lawmakers that an emerging alliance of authoritarian states now views faith as \u201cthe greatest internal threat to their dictatorial control.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis alliance of communist authoritarian totalitarian regimes will literally stop at nothing to control people of faith,\u201d Brownback said, urging Congress to see religious freedom not as a peripheral human rights concern but as a strategic security issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf we will look at religious freedom not as some sort of a side humanitarian issue,\u201d he said, \u201cbut would see it as a major global security issue\u2026 this represents the best tool I believe that we have to go at these regimes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brownback alleged that China is at the center of this repression, saying Beijing has invested \u201cbillions of dollars in creating the most sophisticated surveillance technology mankind has ever known by far\u201d and has shared it with other authoritarian governments to help them control religious communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A central moment of the hearing came from Grace Jin Drexel, daughter of detained Chinese pastor Ezra Jin, who described what she called the largest crackdown on an independent Christian congregation in China since the Cultural Revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOn October 10, 2025, my father Pastor Ezra Jin was arrested by the Chinese authorities along with 27 other pastors and church leaders from Zion Church,\u201d she said. \u201cEighteen remain imprisoned today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Drexel said many church leaders were detained \u201cin front of their young children\u201d and urged lawmakers to demand the immediate and unconditional release of all detainees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said the crackdown is part of a broader campaign under President Xi Jinping to bring all religious life under state control, including forcing churches to install surveillance equipment, removing religious symbols, and replacing them with portraits of Communist Party leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSinicization in practice means facial recognition cameras, monitoring who is worshiping, and the government selecting church leaders and dictating theology,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Drexel also described what she called transnational repression linked to her advocacy, including threats, surveillance, and harassment targeting her family in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former US Commission on International Religious Freedom chairman Stephen Schneck warned that the global crisis is closely tied to the retreat of liberal democracy and the rise of authoritarianism, saying religious freedom has increasingly been \u201csubordinated to transactional foregn policy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Schneck warned that cuts to foreign assistance programs have weakened support for civil society and religious freedom defenders, undermining US credibility abroad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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