As indicated in its 2015 Annual Report released on April 30, 2015, the The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended that the U.S. Secretary of State re-designate Communist China as a “country of particular concern (CPC). The report stated that “unprecedented violations” against religious groups were a result of the Chinese government’s strategy to further its control.

Specifically the USCIRF stated: “In 2014, the Chinese government took steps to consolidate further its authoritarian monopoly of power over all aspects of its citizens’ lives. For religious freedom, this has meant unprecedented violations against Uighur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, Catholics, Protestants, and Falun Gong practitioners. People of faith continue to face arrests, fines, denials of justice, lengthy prison sentences, and in some cases, the closing or bulldozing of places of worship. Based on the alarming increase in systematic, egregious, and ongoing abuses, USCIRF again recommends China be designated a “country of particular concern,” or CPC, under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA). The State Department has designated China as a CPC since 1999, most recently in July 2014.”