China listed as a top offender in annual State Department freedom of religion report
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A new State Department report on religious freedoms finds China is one of the worst offenders worldwide. Other countries including Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan and India.
"Governments in many parts of the world continue to target religious minorities using a host of methods, including torture, beatings, unlawful surveillance and so-called re-education camps," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday.
He added that human rights groups have stepped up their efforts "often at great personal risk," to document "the genocide and crimes against humanity, predominately Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang, China."
The survey, which focused on religious freedom around the world during 2022, found that China’s religious oppression progressively broadened over the last year.
Beijing pushed back on the findings and on Tuesday said Washington’s assertions "lack[ed] factual basis and distort[ed] China’s ethnic and religious policies."
"These remarks are entirely driven by ideological bias with no respect for truth or rationality. We do not accept it and categorically reject it," spokesman for the foreign ministry, Wang Webin, told reporters in his daily press briefing.
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