Howard M. Friedman (LexBlog China)

In Doe I v. Cisco Systems, Inc., (9th Cir., July 7, 2023), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in a 93-page opinion, held that Falun Gong victims of human rights abuses carried out by China can move ahead with claims against Cisco Systems and its executives for their assistance that enabled China to carry...

The International Religious Freedom Summit was held on Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington, D.C. Among the numerous speakers and panelists was Beth Van Schaack, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice. In her remarks (full text), she said in part: Today, several million Muslims are the victims of two contemporary genocides. One such genocide is being...

Yesterday was Human Rights Day and this week is Human Rights Week.  On Friday, President Biden issued a Presidential Proclamation (full text) recognizing the dates. December 10 is the anniversary of the U.N.’s adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Presidential Proclamation reads in part: Around the world — from China to Burma,...

On Wednesday, the United Nations Human Rights Office issued a report on human rights concerns in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. (Full text of report.) A portion of the report focuses on restrictions on religious expression, and says in part: The “Strike Hard” campaign has led to the adoption or amendment of various legal instruments to...

On Monday, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced (full text of press statement) that the U.S. is imposing new sanctions on Chinese officials for human rights violations. He said in part: The Department of State is taking action against PRC officials for their involvement in repressive acts against members of ethnic and religious minority groups...

Radio Free Asia reports that yesterday China imposed sanctions on the chair, vice-chair and two commissioners of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. They will be barred from entering China, and any assets they hold in China will be frozen.  The move comes in response to recent sanctions imposed on Chinese officials by the...

On Thursday, the U.S. Senate gave final passage to H.R. 6256, The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (full text). The bill now goes to President Biden for his signature. It calls for development of a strategy: to ensure that goods mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part with forced labor in the People’s Republic...

On Thursday, the U.S. Senate gave final passage to H.R. 6256, The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (full text). The bill now goes to President Biden for his signature. It calls for development of a strategy: to ensure that goods mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part with forced labor in the People’s Republic...

The Uyghur Tribunal, an independent People’s Tribunal set up last year in Britain to investigate China’s actions against Uyghur, Kazakh and other Turkic Muslim populations, yesterday issued a 63-page Summary Judgment (full text). It concluded: 180. Torture of Uyghurs attributable to the PRC is established beyond reasonable doubt. 181. Crimes against humanity attributable to the...

Yesterday the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a joint subcommittee hearing on atrocities against the Uyghurs in China’s  Xinjiang province. A video of the hearing titled Atrocities in Xinjiang: Where Do We Go From Here? is available online from the Committee’s website. Prepared written testimony of committee witnesses is also available at the website.

Britain’s House of Commons yesterday adopted a resolution (full text of debate and resolution) declaring that China has committed genocide in its treatment of the Uyghurs. the Resolution reads: That this House believes that Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region are suffering crimes against humanity and genocide; and...

Yesterday President Biden issued a Statement on the Beginning of Ramadan (full text), saying in part: On my first day as President, I was proud to end the shameful Muslim travel ban, and I will continue to stand up for human rights everywhere, including for Uyghurs in China, Rohingya in Burma, and Muslim communities all...

Newlines Institute for Policy and Strategy, a D.C. think tank, this week issued a 55-page report (full text) titled The Uyghur Genocide: An Examination of China’s Breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention. According to the Report’s Introduction: This report concludes that the People’s Republic of China … is committing an ongoing genocide against the Uyghur ethnic group,...

China’s State Administration of Religious Affairs, part of its Ministry of Justice, last week published for comment new draft rules for the Administration of Foreign Religious Activities in the People’s Republic of China. (Full text in Chinese). (Full unofficial English translation via Google Translate).  CNN summarizes the proposed rules: Though the draft rules affirm China’s...

Congress yesterday gave final passage to the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 (full text). The bill now goes to the President for his signature. The bill addresses China’s human rights violations targeted at Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. It calls on the President and the State Department...

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issued a press release yesterday reading in part:: Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced the appointment of Nury Turkel, a lawyer and Uyghur rights advocate, to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)…. Turkel was born in a re-education camp [in China] at...

From SSRN: Rafael Domingo, Toward the Spiritualization of Politics, (April 9, 2020). Beatrice Jessie Hill, The Deliberative Privacy Principle: Abortion, Free Speech, and Religious Freedom, (William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal, Vol. 28, 2019). Jason A. Cade, ‘Water is Life!’ (and Speech!): Death, Dissent and Democracy in the Borderlands, (Indiana Law Journal, Vol. 96...

A Fact Sheet issued last week by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom summarizes China’s 2019 Administrative Measures for Religious Groups which became effective on February 1, 2020. Bitter Winter magazine provides a full translation of the Measures. Among the provisions are the following: Religious organizations must support the leadership of the Communist Party...

On Tuesday, Congress gave final passage to S.178, the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2019 (full text). In part, the bill finds that: The Government of the People’s Republic of China has a long history of repressing approximately 13,000,000 Turkic, moderate Sunni Muslims, particularly Uyghurs, in the nominally autonomous Xinjiang region. These actions are in...

On Tuesday, Congress gave final passage to S.178, the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2019 (full text). In part, the bill finds that: The Government of the People’s Republic of China has a long history of repressing approximately 13,000,000 Turkic, moderate Sunni Muslims, particularly Uyghurs, in the nominally autonomous Xinjiang region. These actions are in...

In a press release yesterday, he U.S. Department of Commerce announced that it is imposing sanctions on 28 Chinese governmental and commercial organizations because they have been implicated in China’s human rights abuses of Uighurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. Thompson Reuters reports on these developments.

Christianity Today reported last week that Bibles and other religious books have been removed from the list of items produced in China that will be subject to U.S. tariffs. Printing companies in China are the world’s largest supplier of Bibles, publishing millions of copies each year. A statement from SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission points...

AP reports that the Trump Administration’s proposed 25% tariffs on imports from China will make Bibles more expensive and impact Christian evangelical organizations that give away Bibles as part of their religious activity. Imposition of those tariffs is now on hold as trade negotiations have resumed. Over half of the Bibles printed worldwide come from...

As White House trade negotiations with China continue, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom today issued a release urging the Trump administration to discuss China’s persecution of religious communities with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He who is in Washington, DC for negotiations. USCIRF is particularly concerned with China’s treatment of Uighur and other Muslims in Xinjiang....