WASHINGTON—The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is waging a “war on God” in its repression of faith, and capitulating to the Party will only invite greater aggression on the world stage, former Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback said at a packed congressional hearing on Feb. 4.
Brownback, testifying before the House Subcommittee on Africa, cast religious freedom as a “stabilizing force” to ensure lasting peace and threats against it as a “major global security issue.”
“Religious persecution is not an isolated human rights concern,” Brownback said. “It is a warning sign that freedom itself is under siege, and when regimes crush faith, they are rehearsing the suppression of every other liberty that follows.”
Communist China, he said, is leading an “alliance of communist, authoritarian, totalitarian regimes” that “literally stop at nothing to control people of faith.”
“They see people of faith as a threat,” he said. “The people of faith are the ones that will be first attacked and the last ones left standing.”
The scale of the issue can be seen in the dollars spent, Brownback said.
“Communist China will spend billions of dollars this year alone to suppress every faith that exists in that country,” he said. “They‘ll suppress the Uyghur Muslims, they’ll suppress the Tibetan Buddhists. They'll suppress the Christians, and they save their greatest anger and bile for the Falun Gong, a domestically grown group.”
In 2025, more than 4,800 Falun Gong practitioners are confirmed to have been subject to arbitrary arrest or police harassment, and more than 750 people were sentenced for refusing to give up their faith, according to Minghui.org, a U.S. website dedicated to tracking the persecution. It recorded 124 deaths in 2025.
Chinese officials have framed the persecution as being about “making religion more Chinese,” but Jin Drexel called it “propaganda designed to obscure repression.”
“Let me be clear, Chinese Christians have been Chinese for generations. We use Chinese Bibles translated by Chinese scholars. We sing indigenous hymns composed by Chinese believers. Our house churches were led by Chinese pastors,” she said, noting that both her father and his congregation are Chinese.
Freedom Before Trade
The CCP’s suppression of religion in China was front and center throughout the hearing and at an earlier event at the Capitol.“China remains the world’s most sophisticated persecutor,” Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) said at the morning event, pointing to forced organ harvesting as one example.
Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), who spoke at the morning gathering, concurred on the importance of more concrete countermeasures.
“Sanctions are definitely one tool that countries of the world should use against those countries that suppress religious freedom, whether it’s China or any other country in the world,” Harris told The Epoch Times. “It should be opposed, and we should use every tool we have.”
“How a country deals with religious freedom should be part of any negotiation with any country on any level, including trade,” he said.
Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) also expressed concern about the oppressive environment in China.
“I uphold the American system of democracy where we have a First Amendment right to talk about anything that we want, and I certainly wish that all countries would do the same, but we know that’s not the case in China,” she told The Epoch Times.
Brownback, speaking later in an interview, said that the religious freedom issue in China is so glaring that it’s hard to look away.
“You’ve got three genocides going on in China right now, of the Uyghurs, Falun Gong, and cultural genocide of the Tibetans,” he said.
Jin Drexel said that since she began advocating for her father, her mother has received threatening phone calls from individuals impersonating federal agents, her husband has suffered several hacking attempts, and she has been watched and stalked in Washington.
Jin Drexel said the Chinese regime “wants the world to know that speaking out carries consequences, even in America.”
She said she’s sometimes fearful but that as a Christian, she is “called to courage,” trusting that God stands with her.
“I believe God is also testing us during this time, like refining silver, painful, but full of love, and that God has not abandoned us,” she added.
The persecuted groups are “our greatest ally,” Brownback said.
“These are people behind enemy lines that will stand up to the regime, that will stand up to the oppressors, because they overcome their fear with their interior faith, they will fight, even if it means their life,“ he said. ”And often it does mean their life.”
