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Free the Prisoners: Religious Freedom Commission Confronts Obama on China 

CBN

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The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom is urging President Obama to take action against China's increasing religious freedom violations. 

The commission released a report detailing the crumbing state of religious freedom in China. 

The report gives detailed evidence that religious persecution has a very real physical presence in the communist country. Chinese authorities "forcibly remove crosses and bulldoze churches" as well as crack down on major religious leaders. 

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Although China recognizes religion in theory, repeated imprisonment of pastors  "demonstrates that state recognition is no guarantee of protection."

If the churches do not align with state sanctioned ideology they are labeled as cults and immediately shut down. House churches are particularly vulnerable and are often subject to raids and arrests. 

The fate of those who try to fight these injustices is grim as well.  According to the report, "authorities across China undertook a sweeping dragnet rounding up lawyers and human rights defenders, including religious freedom advocates, with nearly 300 arrested, detained, or disappeared."

That is why the commission is calling on President Obama to spearhead a movement to hold China accountable on a global stage at the G20 Summit next week.

"The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) urges President Obama to raise religious freedom concerns with President Xi and urge the release of prisoners of conscience during his visit to China for the G20 Summit," the commission said in a statement.

The commission calls China a "country of particular concern" that needs to be corrected immediately. 

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