{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415120", "CatholicVote article on Smith's CECC hearing on religious freedom in China'Catholic congressman: Why China's war on religion matters'", "2025-11-21", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Elise Winland\n\nPublished November 21, 2025\n\nRep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., opened a Nov. 20 congressional hearing with a stark assessment of Beijing\u2019s campaign against faith: China\u2019s escalating assault on religious believers is both a moral crisis and a direct threat to U.S. national security.\n\nSmith began the hearing \u2014 titled \u201cChina\u2019s War on Religion: The Threat to Religious Freedom and Why It Matters to the United States\u201d \u2014 by underscoring the immediacy of the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s (CCP) repression.\n\n\u201cAs we speak, the Chinese Communist Party, directed by General Secretary Xi Jinping, is engaged in one of the most extensive crackdowns on a Protestant Christian house church in 40 years,\u201d he said, referencing the detention of dozens of Christian leaders of the underground Zion Church.\n\nIn October, the U.S. State Department condemned Beijing after agents detained roughly 30 Zion Church leaders, including prominent Beijing pastor Mingri \u201cEzra\u201d Jin. His family holds U.S. citizenship, and his daughter attended the congressional hearing.\n\nSmith pointed to several families in the room with \u201cloved ones languishing in Chinese prisons,\u201d adding that their suffering \u201cis pressing, and we must act and pray with urgency.\u201d\n\nOne of those imprisoned is Catholic Chinese dissident Jimmy Lai, who has spent roughly five years in a Hong Kong prison and now awaits sentencing.\n\nSmith, a Catholic, framed the conflict as a fundamental struggle over the \u201cright of conscience \u2014 what George Washington called \u2018that little spark of celestial fire\u2019 \u2014 which is the inviolable domain in the heart of every human being.\u201d\n\nReligious freedom is not a Western invention, he argued, but a universal right bestowed upon all men by God. He said it is \u201cguaranteed by a sovereign God who created human beings in His own Image and Likeness and imbued them with inalienable dignity and worth, whether they were born in Washington or Wuhan.\u201d\n\nWhy Beijing fears faith\n\nSmith argued that Xi \u2014 whom he labeled \u201cthe leader of the world\u2019s largest atheistic state\u201d \u2014 seeks to replace religion with loyalty to the Party.\n\n\u201c[Xi] would have the Chinese people believe that religious freedom is not for them, that religion itself is not for them, because he, and the Party he leads, are terrified of religious faith,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThey fear any moral or spiritual authority outside the control of the Party, and they punish worship of anyone but Xi Jinping.\u201d\n\nThe CCP aims for \u201ctotal control over the heart, mind, and spirit of each citizen of China,\u201d he said.\n\nSmith pointed to the CCP\u2019s increasingly intrusive policing of private thought \u2014 including a recent \u201cClear and Bright\u201d campaign that treated online \u201cpessimism\u201d and \u201cnegative emotions\u201d as so-called \u201cthought crimes.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis is totalitarianism, pure and simple,\u201d Smith said, \u201cand totalitarian governments cannot abide freedom of religion or belief. And yet \u2014 neither can they extinguish it.\u201d\n\nSmith highlighted small but potent acts of defiance against the regime: Christians continuing services online after Zion Church was shut down, Tibetans sharing a banned song honoring the Dalai Lama, and Hui Muslims protesting mosque demolitions.\n\nSmith praised the quiet heroism of underground Bishop Guo Xijin, who recently marked his 40th priestly anniversary by offering the Holy Eucharist to local Catholics and pilgrims \u201cthrough the bars of the chained gate outside his home.\u201d Authorities have kept Bishop Guo confined to his residence, targeting him for refusing to place his flock under the Communist-controlled Patriotic Catholic Association (CCPA). As CatholicVote previously reported, the CCPA requires clergy to pledge \u201cindependence\u201d from the Vatican.\n\nWhy it matters to the U.S.\n\nSmith argued that defending global religious freedom in China is not only a moral duty but a national-security imperative for the U.S.\n\n\u201cRobust religious freedom diplomacy is critical for U.S. national security,\u201d he said, noting research that links religious freedom to economic growth, democratic stability, and trustworthy institutions.\n\nChina\u2019s systematic repression of believers, he warned, would destabilize the region and distort fair markets for American businesses.\n\nHe expanded on that point in a recent Washington Times op-ed, arguing that countries that suppress believers tend to become more brittle, corrupt, and prone to internal unrest. These dynamics, he said, spill across borders and give Beijing tools to pressure diaspora communities, police speech on U.S. universities, and coerce supply chains abroad.", 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=415120"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0482189245522022, "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"}