"The Holy See has a unique capacity and duty to focus the world's attention on human rights violations, especially those perpetrated by totalitarian regimes like Beijing's," Pompeo asserted, noting that the "same power of moral witness" that inspired the fight against 20th-century communist and authoritarian regimes "should be deployed today with respect to the Chinese Communist Party." "Two years on, it's clear that the Sino-Vatican agreement has not shielded Catholics from the Party's depredations, to say nothing of the Party's horrific treatment of Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong devotees and other religious believers," Pompeo noted.