Prepared Remarks by USCIRF Chair Tony Perkins
United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
Thursday, February 6, 2020

 

Good afternoon, and thank you for the kind introduction.

I am honored to join you today representing the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, or USCIRF. Before I begin, I wish to extend USCIRF’s sincere thanks to Administrator Green and to the team at USAID’s Center for Faith & Opportunity Initiatives for hosting this panel. Unfortunately, because of a prior commitment, I will need to leave right after I give my remarks, but I wanted to join you all—however briefly—because the issue of China’s digital authoritarianism has become one of USCIRF’s highest priorities.

USCIRF has been warning about religious freedom violations in China since our commission was created in 1998. In the past few years, the violations have reached a new extreme: Under President Xi Jinping, the Chinese government has detained more than one million Uighur and other Muslims in internment camps; expelled thousands of Tibetan monks and nuns from their monasteries; arrested hundreds of priests, pastors, and parishioners who refused to join one of the state-sanctioned churches; and intensified a campaign to eradicate the Falun Gong.

Even within this context, the Chinese government’s high-tech surveillance state presents a significant escalation in its war on religion. The government is reportedly using artificial intelligence systems that can combine information from video surveillance, facial and voice recognition, GPS tracking, and other data to track religious communities. During the past decade, it has installed hundreds of millions of surveillance cameras across the country, particularly in Xinjiang and Tibet, where facial recognition systems are used distinguish Uighurs and Tibetans from other ethnic groups. According to experts, this is the first time a government has intentionally used artificial intelligence for racial profiling. USCIRF has received reports that Chinese authorities even installed cameras on the pulpits of some churches, allowing authorities to identify and monitor anyone who attends services.

Last September, USCIRF published a brief report about the Chinese government’s use of surveillance technology to target religious minorities. Our goal was to raise awareness of this issue within the United States government, and also to help start a discussion about how we can collectively respond to this unique threat to religious freedom. Because of the transnational nature of 21st century technology and trade, the United States cannot avoid this issue. Indeed, we have received reports that key components of the technology driving China’s surveillance state come from American businesses and researchers. This should concern us all. The information revolution is one of our country’s greatest contributions to human civilization, but we also have a responsibility to ensure that the fruits of American innovation are not distorted into an Orwellian dystopia.

Fortunately, the U.S. government has taken the lead in confronting the Chinese government’s war on religion. Last October, the Commerce Department promulgated restrictions on exports of certain technological components to 20 Chinese government entities and 8 companies implicated in the persecution of Muslims in Xinjiang. In Congress, there has been strong bipartisan support for a variety of bills that would impose real consequences on the Chinese government for its actions.

This meeting today is especially important because confronting the Chinese government’s digital authoritarianism will require a whole-of-government approach. The complexity of the technology and policy issues involved necessitates that U.S. government agencies share information and coordinate on a wide range of issues. We’ll need to be prepared to adapt and change course quickly in order to keep up with the pace of technological change. We’ll also need to find ways to constructively work with the tech industry and academic researchers in order to harness their expertise.

USCIRF plans to hold a hearing about the Chinese government’s use of surveillance technology to target religious communities sometime later this year. We hope to use that opportunity to reflect on what steps the U.S. government should take next. In the meantime, I look forward to hearing from my staff about the insights you discuss later today on this panel.

On behalf of USCIRF, I thank you all again for your tireless advocacy on behalf of religious freedom in China.