Chris Smith: “Let us focus on exactly what kind of religious persecution this bill seeks to address. We are not talking about…”

“Let us focus on exactly what kind of religious persecution this bill seeks to address. We are not talking about discrimination or harassment, although these are very bad things. This bill punishes only the worst of the worst: governments that engage in widespread, ongoing persecution that includes murder, torture and other particularly shocking forms of persecution. Let us look at what we mean by this. To my left in the photograph is Palden Gyatso, a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Palden Gyatso testified at one of our subcommittee hearings and told us that the Chinese Government routinely uses electric shock guns, serrated and hooked knives, handcuffs and thumbcuffs treatment and other forms of torture. He showed us some of the torture implements that have been used against himself and other prisoners of conscience in Tibet. Other witnesses at the hearing included Harry Wu and Katherine Ho who corroborated the monk's testimony. Their witness to torture brought tears to my eyes. On October 10, the second picture, a mob destroyed several Christian churches in Situbondo, Indonesia.”