Chinese dissident says Beijing pays off $2 bn to Vatican for its silence on atrocities

An exiled Chinese dissident has claimed that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) allocates up to $2 billion to the Vatican every year for its silence on atrocities committed by Beijing. In an interview on The War Room, Guo Wengui alleged that CCP buys off allegiance of foreign countries including the Vatican, Italy, and Australia, by paying a huge sum every year.

Guo said that the Chinese Communist Party allocates the amount to influence the Vatican’s internal policymaking and to pay for its silence on the CCP’s repression of religious freedom. Several leaked documents from China have revealed Beijing’s brutal and systematic crackdown on Uighurs Muslims which they allegedly call “struggle against terrorism, infiltration and separatism”.

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On June 17, US President Donald Trump signed “Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020” into law which condemns gross human rights violations of the ethnic Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang region in China. It is aimed at holding accountable perpetrators of human rights violations and abuses such as the systematic use of indoctrination camps, forced labour, and intrusive surveillance to eradicate the ethnic identity and religious beliefs of Uighurs and other minorities in China.

The bill, introduced by Senator Marco Rubio, calls for sanctions against those involved in the oppression of Uighur Muslims. Calling China’s alleged effort to wipe out the ethnic identities of Uighurs “horrific”, Rubio had said that it will be a stain on humanity if the US refuses to act. However, Trump released a statement saying he holds the discretion to decide on the measures against such perpetrators.

China's global ambitions

Speaking on the Chinese Communist Party’s ideology and its global ambitions, US National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien recently said that the political ideology which was discarded by Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union has remained fundamental to the Chinese Communist Party. He noted that the Chinese Communist Party seeks total control over people’s lives including economic control, political control, physical control, and, “perhaps most importantly, it means thought control”.

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