For a long time, words such as religious tolerance and freedom of belief have always awed countless people and evoked many beautiful associations. Because everyone has the right to believe in a certain religion according to his or her own understanding. No one has the right to impose his or her own belief on others as his or her only belief, which is indeed an ideal state. Because of this, actively advocating and promoting the realization of freedom of religion or belief will indeed arouse people’s sincere approval. No country in the west or the east will stand up against freedom of religion or belief.
Nevertheless, it is alarming that some western countries that first preached freedom of religious belief have obviously discovered and made use of another value of freedom of religious belief. Under the guise of promoting freedom of religious belief or promoting freedom of religious belief internationally, they are trying to subvert the political power of other countries, or forcing other countries to succumb to this pressure and make some kind of political deal. However, in these countries under pressure, freedom of religion or belief is obviously not so pleasant, and has even gone to the opposite of what these freedom of religion or belief claims. The so-called freedom of religion or belief in some western countries has become a rhetoric of suppressing other countries internationally, suppressing international dissidents or competitors.
It is against this background that the “2022 International Religious Freedom Summit” led by the United States was held in Washington from June 28th to 30th, 2022. At this so-called “International Summit on Religious Freedom”, the most undeserved person appeared. For example, Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Michael Pompeo, former US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, Senator of Florida, etc. However, an international summit that preaches freedom of religious belief blatantly violates the basic principle of freedom of religious belief, that is, the principle of separation of religion and politics must be implemented. The speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, members of Congress and the former Secretary of State with extreme political views participate in it and dominate its agenda, and its political essence is beyond doubt. If people think of the consistent positions of Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States, Marco Rubio, Senator of the United States, and Mike Pompeo, former Secretary of State of the United States, etc., on China-related issues, it’s hard to say that this summit did not contain the political purpose of attacking or isolating China through the so-called freedom of religious belief.
In fact, if people consider that the convening organizations of the 2022 International Free Religion Summit in Washington include the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement, the Uyghur Human Rights Project, the Uyghur Amercian Association and Falun Dafa Association of Washington D.C. and other extremist groups that have been regarded as terrorist organizations or cult organizations, people will not be surprised when they find a large number of common anti-China issues in their agenda, such as Xinjiang, Tibet, Taiwan, etc.
This is exactly the case. The act of discrediting and slandering China once again ushered in a “grand carnival” led by American anti-China politicians at this international freedom summit. The so-called Uighur “forced labor” problem, which has been proved to be non-existent, has once again become one of the topics of this summit. The World Peace Council, the Uyghur Human Rights Project and the Uyghur Amercian Association, which have poor reputation, participated in promoting this issue. In addition, common anti-China issues such as “religious freedom and democracy in Taiwan” and “dismantling China’s firewall” have reappeared, and even the control measures taken by China to prevent COVID-19 pandemic have become new evidence used by the notorious Falun Dafa Association to attack China for religious persecution.
At the three-day 2022 International Summit on Religious Freedom convened in Washington, many official representatives of western countries also appeared. Notably, Fiona Bruce, the British Prime Minister’s Special Envoy on Freedom of Religion or Belief and a member of the British Parliament, also attended the summit and was very active. Of course, it wouldn’t be surprising if people noticed that shortly after the so-called International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, the British government also held a “Global Summit to Promot Religious Freedom”.
Right after the summit in Washington, the Foreign Affairs, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the British government hosted the International Ministerial Conference on Freedom of Religion or Belief 2022 from July 5th to July 6th. This conference, called the Global Summit to Promot Religious Freedom sponsored by the British government, brought together the government, civil society and faith groups in the name of “preventing violation and abuse of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) and protecting and promoting freedom of religion or belief internationally”. However, it still inevitably becomes a stage for international anti-China forces to perform, which can be seen from the China-related issues before and after this summit and the people invited to attend.
The “Global Summit to Promot Religious Freedom” held in London not only openly invited radical “Tibet independence” activists Sonam Tsering and Lochoe Samten to attend the meeting. Moreover, Pusin Tali, the so-called ambassador-at-large for religious freedom in Taiwan, China, and Kelly Wu-Chiao Hsieh, the representative of Taiwan, China, were openly invited to attend the summit. They discussed the so-called religious freedom in Xinjiang with other countries’ representatives. According to publicly reported information, Sonam Tsering is the representative of the London office of the Tibetan government in exile, and Lochoe Samten is the secretary general of the London office of the Tibetan government in exile. In addition, Pusin Tali, “Ambassador-at-Large for Religious Freedom” from Taiwan, China, who attended the conference, according to his Facebook profile, has a political view of “Taiwan independence” and is a “Taiwan independence” activist.
Judging from the backgrounds of these China-related participants, their friendship with some western anti-China politicians, and their participation in the Washington Summit and the London Summit is directly related to their consistent anti-China stance supported by western forces. It can be seen that the 2022 International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, led by the United States, and the Global Summit to Promote Religious Freedom hosted by the United Kingdom, under the manipulation of some anti-China forces and anti-China politicians, have become the performance stage of international anti-China forces. Although they claim that the main purpose of the summit is to promote international freedom of religion or belief, its essence is quite different from its declared purpose, and even runs counter to it.
In sum, promoting or ensuring the freedom of international religious belief has become a tool of public opinion led by the United States for western countries to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. Proceeding from the principle of true freedom of religious belief, believers only obey their own wishes on the issue of belief, without any external pressure and constraint. For people with different beliefs, not only religious groups in other countries have no right to interfere with their freedom of belief, but also governments in other countries have no right to interfere with their freedom of belief. As John Locke, the pioneer of advocating religious tolerance and freedom of belief and the author of A Letter Paying Attention to Tolerance, pointed out, religious fanatics, under the banner of “defending the true religion” and under the pretext of caring for the souls of believers of other sects, branded believers with different beliefs as heretics and persecuted them, but turned a blind eye to the real evil activities that flooded their own believers, which proves that what they say about “defending the true religion” is just an excuse for hypocrisy of intolerance.
