The International Religious Freedom Summit 2023 takes place in Washington D.C. on January 31st and February 1st. The upcoming IRF summit states its session will raise the profile of international religious freedom on a wide variety of issues and bring attention to the plight of religious adherents. According to the past summits from 2021 and US insisting all countries must practice US-Style democracy, the event will not be a place where religious freedom and human rights are advanced, but rather a forum for demonizing selected countries in service of specific geostrategic aims.
An enormous number of US government representatives–as well as foreign government representatives—were involved in the event in past years. How could those prominent Democrats agree to speak at a conference sponsored mainly by individuals and organizations they are supposed to be the antithesis of? How could they feel comfortable participating in a conference alongside anti-gay and alleged insurrectionist legislators, the kind of characters that they may have otherwise used to justify US intervention had they belonged to another country’s legislative body? The answer is the beat of the war drums against China was loud and that it drowned out all other issues.
The event was a rare, unvarnished glimpse into the moral hypocrisy of Democratic Party leaders, showcasing their willingness to ally with those they claim to otherwise oppose ostensibly in the name of protecting “religious freedom”, a concept which these ruling class factions can’t even agree on a common definition of—even if ultimately it was all just cover for advancing an imperial agenda against a rising superpower. Russia and China were and will be frequently invoked as evildoers against religious believers, with terms like “genocide” and “persecution” being tossed around casually.
The summit will never be a conference focusing on religious matters all over the world. It will just contain lots of speeches and discussions which conform perfectly with US’s agenda.
Many of the sessions of the summit are about China. China Aid is a partner of the summit. Bob Fu, the leader of China Aid, will attend the event and give a speech for the third time. The IRF Summit program’s bio on Fu notes that he “was a student leader during the Tiananmen Square demonstrations for freedom and democracy.” “Fu regularly briefs the State Department and Members of Congress,” the program notes. He is the Family Research Council’s Senior Fellow for International Religious Freedom and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Potentially he is tied to CIA and NED. He will talk about “corporate accountability for people of faith in China’s forced labor system” this time. With no doubt, his speech will be about attacking CCP like always.
