{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415107", "The Washington Times article on Smith's CECC hearing on religious freedom in China'Congress warned that China\u2019s crackdown on religious freedom is a national security threat to U.S.'", "2025-11-20", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Jeff Mordock and Mike Glenn\n\nPublished Thursday, November 20, 2025\n\nChina\u2019s crackdown on religious freedom, including recent arrests of Christian church members, represents a national security threat to the U.S. and must be met with a powerful response, a coalition of experts told lawmakers Thursday on Capitol Hill.\n\nFormer Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, who served as ambassador-at-large for religious freedom in the first Trump administration, urged lawmakers to shift from viewing Beijing\u2019s religious crackdown as a human rights issue and start treating it as a national security issue.\n\nCalling it a \u201cnational security imperative,\u201d he said the atheist Chinese Communist Party\u2019s efforts to eliminate faith are part of its larger ambition to wipe out its enemies.\n\n\u201cChina is at war with faith, and it is at war with us. We should unequivocally and clearly be on the side of their opponents. China fears religious freedom more than they fear our aircraft carriers or our nuclear weapons,\u201d Mr. Brownback said at a hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, a joint House-Senate commission.\n\n\u201cIf the world\u2019s largest authoritarian state can eradicate religious freedom without consequences, it undermines the authority of America\u2019s founding values and global leadership,\u201d he said.\n\nIn this photo released by Xinhua News Agency on Thursday, Oct 23, 2025, Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during the fourth plenary session of the 20th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee in Beijing. (Xie Huanchi/Xinhua via AP)\n\nIn recent weeks, China launched its largest religion eradication effort in nearly seven years.\n\nOn Tuesday, Chinese authorities arrested 18 leaders of an underground church, the first step toward prosecuting them and potentially sending them to prison for three years.\n\nThe 18 were members of the Zion Church, an unofficial Christian \u201chouse church\u201d not sanctioned by the Chinese government. Last month, Chinese authorities detained nearly 30 staff members and pastors belonging to the Zion Church as part of the biggest crackdown on Chinese Christians since 2018.\n\nThe Trump administration has denounced the detention of the Zion Church members. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in October that the move demonstrates China\u2019s hostility toward Christians.\n\nChina has an estimated 96 million Christians, according to Open Doors, an international organization that mobilizes against attacks on Christianity. More than 44 million Christians are registered with state-sanctioned churches, the majority of whom are Protestant, according to official figures. Tens of millions more are estimated to belong to illegal \u201chouse churches\u201d that operate outside the control of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.\n\nZion Church has about 5,000 worshippers in nearly 50 cities. It expanded its reach through Zoom sermons after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was founded in 2007 after its pastor, Ezra Jin, quit as a pastor for a state-controlled Protestant church. Chinese authorities arrested church members in 10 cities.\n\nHe was among those detained Tuesday.\n\nEzra Jin\u2019s daughter, Grace Jin Drexel, said Beijing\u2019s harassment of Zion members followed her in the United States, underscoring for the joint committee how China\u2019s efforts can spread into America.\n\nShe said her mother received a phone call from someone impersonating a U.S. agent, and she has been watched and followed as she moves through Washington.\n\nBob Fu, the founder and president of ChinaAid, an international nonprofit promoting religious freedom, said the persecution of Chinese churches extends around the globe and includes pressure on Chinese Christian churches in the U.S. and Canada to raise the Communist Chinese Party flag.\n\nHe said more than 100 CCP agents surrounded his home and threatened his family in an effort to silence him.\n\n\u201cThe CCP persecution actually does not stop at China\u2019s border. It has already extended its long arm to overseas, especially in the free world,\u201d Mr. Fu said.\n\nChina\u2019s actions are part of a crackdown on Christianity around the globe. On Thursday, the House Foreign Affairs Africa subcommittee held a hearing on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria.\n\nA Catholic prelate from Nigeria, Bishop Wilfred C. Anagbe, told lawmakers that Nigeria remains the deadliest place on earth for Christians. President Trump has designated it \u201ca country of particular concern\u201d over its human rights record, particularly because of what Bishop Anagbe described as genocide.\n\nA recent report from the Nigeria-based International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law says jihadis are destroying at least 100 churches monthly. At least 7,000 Christians in Nigeria have been killed so far this year, according to their study.\n\nOn Tuesday, only days after 25 girls were abducted from a boarding school, gunmen attacked a church in central Nigeria, killing at least two people and kidnapping the pastor and some church members. The assault is under investigation.\n\n\u201cNigeria is ground zero, the focal point of the most brutal and murderous anti-Christian persecution in the world today,\u201d said Rep. Christopher Smith, New Jersey Republican and chairman of the Africa subcommittee. \u201cModerate Muslims who speak out against the radical Islamists or refuse to conform with the serial killers are murdered as well.\u201d\n\nIn China, churches across all faiths have been impacted by Beijing\u2019s tightening control over religious groups. Church buildings have been destroyed, crosses have been removed from public view, religious material has been restricted, and some Christian apps are banned.\n\nIn 2005 and again in 2018, the government adopted more stringent regulations on religious groups. The 2018 rules required churches to obtain government approval for public worship. The Chinese Communist Party was stringent in issuing approvals, forcing many churches to stop public activities and shut down.\n\nIn 2016, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for the \u201cSinicization\u201d of religion.\n\nSigns in recent months indicate that Chinese authorities are again clamping down on religion, especially Christianity.\n\nPastor Gao Quanfu of the Light of Zion Church in Xi\u2019an was detained in May and accused of \u201cusing superstitious activities to undermine the implementation of law.\u201d A month later, several members of the Linfen Golden Lampstand Church in Shanxi were sentenced to years in prison for fraud, which religious groups have denounced as politically motivated charges.\n\nIn September, the Chinese Communist Party announced a new code of conduct for religious leaders, allowing only online sermons conducted by licensed groups. The rules have been widely condemned as an attempt to curtail the online services of underground churches.\n\n\u201cThey are afraid of losing control,\u201d Mr. Brownback said. \u201cThey\u2019re not acting like a confident country.\u201d\n\nMr. Brownback and lawmakers on the commission called for U.S. officials to adopt a national security strategy that supports religious freedom within China. He suggested imposing stronger economic sanctions on China to ramp up pressure.\n\nSeveral commission members agreed that the U.S. needs to do more.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415107"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8514830842614174, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}