President Xi Jinping, set to visit Washington for an official state visit on Friday, is sponsoring the most severe repression of China’s civil society since the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976, according to rights activists who have also criticized the Obama administration’s efforts to become a closer economic partner with Beijing.
Since becoming leader of China’s Communist Party in 2012 and president the following year, Xi has launched a sweeping crackdown against all forms of dissent from the government. Human rights groups estimate that more than 2,000 activists have been harassed, detained for some length of time, or tortured by authorities as a result of their advocacy. Human rights lawyers, journalists, non-government organizations(NGOs), citizen activists, Christians, and minority Tibetans and Uyghurs have all been targeted.
Kody Kness, vice president of the Christian human rights group China Aid, said on Wednesday at a Capitol Hill event that the first three years of Xi’s authoritarian rule “have been the worst three years in decades.”
“It’s an unprecedented crackdown on those seeking religious freedom and those seeking freedom of expression, at a level not seen since the Cultural Revolution,” he said.
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