(TibetanReview.net, May03’24) —Releasing its 2024 report on May 1, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has recommended that China be again listed as a “country of particular concern”, along with 16 others, for reasons that include its move to assimilate Tibetan Buddhism to bring it in line with the prevailing values and policy priorities of the atheist Chinese Communist Party (CCP) dictatorship.
Speaking at a virtual launch of the report, the commission’s vice-chair, Frederick A Davie, has referred to the report’s recommendation that the US State Department designate China with the status of a “country of particular concern” (CPC) in terms of religious freedom violations.
The commission’s main findings highlight increased surveillance and security measures on Tibetan Buddhists, leading to restrictions on their peaceful religious activities. These were stated to have led to Tibetan Buddhists being arrested and imprisoned for engaging in such activities or for possessing materials related to the Dalai Lama. Some have been reported placed in “political re-education” camps to prevent self-immolation, with Tibetan Buddhist monks dying in prison.
The report’s Freedom of Religion or Belief Victims List, an online database, includes 93 Tibetans.
The Commission has identified the Chinese government’s multifaceted “Sinicization of religion” policy as the significant factor in the deterioration of religious freedom under which all major religious groups are forced to obey the CCP and its ideology and policies.
On the Sinicization-of-Tibet drive, which includes the Sinicization of Tibetan Buddhism, the report criticizes China for its forced separation of over 1 million Tibetan children from their families by placing them in state-run boarding schools where the curriculum marginalizes the teaching and practice of Tibetan language and culture.
Besides, the report notes, some local authorities had banned parents from teaching religion to Tibetan children; that the government has controlled the ordination of Tibetan monks and reiterated its intent to interfere in the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation by appointing his successor.
As regards what entails the implementation of China’s Sinicization of religion policy, the report states: “Sinicization requires groups to follow the CCP’s Marxist interpretation of religion, including by altering religious scriptures and doctrines to conform to that interpretation.”
In Tibet, the commission states, “Sinicization entailed forced assimilation of local populations that threatened their religious and cultural identities.”
The USCIRF is a federal government commission created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor religious freedom in other countries and to advise the US president, secretary of state and Congress on how best to promote it.
Commissioner Nury Turkel has spotlighted the fact that the Chinese government’s continued targeting of diaspora ethnic and religious communities with ties to China, including Uyghurs, Tibetans, Christians and Falun Gong practitioners in 2023. Also, the commission’s report expresses concern over the fact that “the Chinese government used its economic and geopolitical influence to pressure foreign countries, including Turkey, Morocco, Thailand, Nepal, and Pakistan, to repatriate Uyghur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, and Protestant Christian refugees to China, where they could face severe human rights abuses.”