Faith Leaders Call Out Persecution in China: ‘Communism Is Not Compatible With Religious Freedom’

‘Silence is the oxygen for tyranny,’ a Uyghur activist said.

The U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 22, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

WASHINGTON—Lawmakers and faith leaders called for action against the continuing persecution in China, with several describing communism as fundamentally at odds with religious freedom.

“Communism is not compatible with religious freedom, because communism is worship of the state, and so it takes the place of God,” Rep.  Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) told The Epoch Times. “And it’s really sad, because communism has failed everywhere it’s tried.”

Wilson had just finished speaking in a packed hall at the U.S. Capitol complex, where hundreds had convened for a conference to discuss challenges for religious freedom worldwide.

In an earlier speech, Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.), chair of the Congressional International Religious Freedom Caucus, warned the audience not to take religious freedom in America for granted.

Persecution “breeds in the vacuum of silence,” he said. “We must elevate religious freedom. This issue must be a permanent pillar of our foreign policy.”

He flagged Beijing’s high-tech powered repression targeting people who practice the spiritual faith Falun Gong, as well as Uyghur Muslims in China’s northwestern region Xinjiang.

“They’re just practicing their faith, their religion; in some cases, it’s meditation,” said Bilirakis. “This is happening, folks. It’s happening every day. China currently leads the world in the arrest and sentencing of believers.”

Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that features meditation and principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, drew more than 70 million people during the 1990s, before the regime began a systematic effort to eliminate the faith nationwide. Authorities in Xinjiang have detained more than one million Muslims in internment camps. Both groups have faced forced labor, sexual abuse, and other forms of torture.

Uyghur activist Rushan Abbas witnessed the abuses first hand. In 2018, she spoke at a public panel about mass incarceration in China as a U.S. citizen.

Rushan Abbas, Campaign for Uyghurs executive director, speaks during the China Forum at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in Washington on Oct. 27, 2025. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

Days later, Chinese authorities arrested her sister, a retired medical doctor, who remains in jail.

“Our religion, our language. Our names, our identity, our faith—everything is being erased,” said Abbas, who founded Campaign for Uyghurs to raise awareness on the issue.

Janice Trey, board chair of The Epoch Times, shared her experience growing up in a labor camp during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), a tumultuous 10-year communist campaign marked by violence, deaths, and destruction of valuable cultural heritage.

Living through a variety of political persecutions, she said, motivates her to “give a voice to the voiceless.”

Part of that is about countering information censorship in China, she said.

Janice Trey, board chair of The Epoch Times and NTD, speaks during the International Interfaith Conference, “United in Liberty: The Rise of Spiritual Diplomats,” on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Jan. 22, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

She pointed to state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting targeting prisoners of conscience like Falun Gong practitioners—a taboo topic in China. The human rights violation, which has drawn alarm from the State Department and Congress, has been “used as an instrument for religious persecution,” she said. “And this still goes on today.”

Trey and Abbas both warned that the repression does not stop at China’s borders.

“Under Xi Jinping’s order, transnational repression has spread globally through subversion, deception, unrestricted warfare, and the erosion of moral and religious traditions abroad,” said Trey, referring to a secret meeting where the Chinese leader escalated strategy to target Falun Gong.

Abbas said that the Chinese Communist Party has “perfected the system of total control” in her homeland for export to authoritarian regimes worldwide.

“We stand at a turning point here,” she said. “Silence is the oxygen for tyranny. Unless we hold China accountable, it will be your children and grandchildren who will pay the consequences.

“We are all responsible for what happens next.”