The International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) is deeply concerned about the Chinese government’s egregious and ongoing violations of religious freedom in Tibet as documented by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in their 2026 report, which was released on March 4, 2026.
Asserting that the Chinese government “perpetuated particularly severe violations of religious freedom” during 2025 and urging the US State Department to again designate the PRC as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), the report recommends sanctioning Chinese government agencies, entities and officials including the United Front Work Department and the security apparatus who are responsible for the repression of religion.
“The 2026 USCIRF report lays bare the repression that Tibetans endure under a government that sees Tibetan Buddhism as a threat and denies the basic fundamental right of religion or belief to Tibetans every day,” said ICT President Tencho Gyatso. “I ask the international community to do more to pressure Beijing to end its campaign to destroy Tibet’s unique religious heritage.”
USCIRF further asks the US Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute Chinese government actors who engage in transnational repression of religious minorities and activists. The US government should allocate funds to programming that documents religious freedom violations in China, e.g. Radio Free Asia and the National Endowment for Democracy, the report urges, and export controls should be tightened on surveillance and related technologies that enable the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s denial of religious freedom.
The report documents the CCP’s pervasive “Sinicization of religion” policy and notes President Xi Jinping’s touting of its success during his 2025 visit to Tibet. Detailing PRC crackdowns on Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and on monks who publicly or privately honor the Dalai Lama, USCIRF notes the intentional destruction of 300 Tibetan Buddhist stupas and statues in eastern Tibet and spotlights the CCP’s continued enforced disappearance of the 11th Panchen Lama and explicit intention to interfere in the Dalai Lama’s succession.
USCIRF calls on Congress to ban lobbying on behalf of CPCs and in particular “agents representing the Chinese government and its state-affiliated commercial entities that undermine religious freedom.”
In a positive development outside of Tibet, the US State Department implemented USCIRF’s 2025 and 2026 recommendation to appoint a US Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues, Assistant Secretary of State Riley M. Barnes. USCIRF specifically recommends that the Special Coordinator “address Tibetan religious freedom issues and combat China’s attempts to interfere in the Dalai Lama’s succession.”
The full text of the USCIRF 2026 annual report can be found here. USCIRF maintains a separate fact sheet on China’s persecution of religious leaders here. The USCIRF, an independent and bipartisan US federal government commission established by the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, monitors global religious freedom violations, advises the US President, Secretary of State, and Congress and recommends policy to defend freedom of religion or belief abroad.