The US Congress has voted to demand access for US diplomats, journalists and tourists to Tibet, threatening to bar the Chinese officials responsible for the policy from the United States if the region remained walled off to foreigners.

The bill, which passed with bipartisan support, comes after years of concern over human rights violations in the predominantly Buddhist region, where foreigners are generally required to obtain a special permit to visit.

Congress voted to require the State Department to verify each year whether China has granted access to Tibet and ethnically Tibetan areas in line with how it treats the rest of the country.

If restrictions remain in place on Americans seeking to enter Tibet, the State Department would then be compelled to ban Chinese officials responsible for the policy from entering the United States.

Senator Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the bill was "about fundamental fairness."

"Chinese citizens enjoy broad access to the United States, and I think that is terrific," he said.

"But it is unacceptable that the same is not true for US students, journalists or diplomats going to Tibet, including our Tibetan-American constituents just trying to visit their country of origin."

The bill passed without objections by a voice vote this week after similar passage in the House of Representatives.

The legislation needs the signature of President Donald Trump, which appears likely as it has wide support within his Republican Party.

The bill comes amid frictions between the United States and China over trade and the arrest in Canada on a US request of an executive with Chinese tech giant Huawei on charges of violating US sanctions on Iran.

A recent op-ed piece in China's state-run Global Times denounced the Tibet bill and accused the United States of "double standards or even multiple standards on human rights," pointing to how Washington pulled out of the UN Human Rights Council over the body's criticism of Israel.

Matteo Mecacci -- the president of the International Campaign for Tibet, an advocacy group close to the exiled Dalai Lama that has pressed for the legislation -- said the measure was different from trade tensions as it will become part of US law.

"Certainly this is a major step forward because now it is clearly on the agenda of the Chinese government," said Mecacci, a former Italian MP.

"Our goal is not to stop Chinese officials from coming here. It is to open up Tibet to the world," he told AFP.

"If they choose to scrap this system of additional permits, that would be, as they would say, a win-win."

Chinese pastor detained for 'inciting subversion': church
Beijing (AFP) Dec 13, 2018 - The pastor of a prominent unofficial Chinese Protestant church who was detained in a police raid last weekend is facing allegations of subverting state power, the church and a rights group said.

Wang Yi was held and some 80 other members of the Early Rain Covenant Church disappeared following Sunday's police sweep in Chengdu, the capital of southwestern Sichuan province, according to worshippers.

Citing a police notice received by the pastor's mother, Human Rights Watch said in a report Thursday that Wang was detained under suspicion of "inciting subversion of state power", echoing a statement released by the church Wednesday.

Another church elder, Li Yingqiang, was detained under suspicion of "picking quarrels", according to a police notice shown to AFP by two sources at the church.

They also said that another church member was apprehended as a suspect of "illegal operations" for selling Bibles and other religious books.

Sichuan and Chengdu police did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The crackdown on Early Rain Covenant Church comes as Beijing tightens control over religious worship.

Some have been released, but "dozens" of church members remain in police custody, according to Human Rights Watch.

China's officially atheist government is wary of any organised movements outside its control, including religious ones.

Christians in the country are split between unofficial "house" or "underground" churches like the Early Rain Covenant Church, and state-sanctioned churches where Communist Party songs also feature in the order of service.

This year, underground churches, especially larger establishments like the Early Rain Covenant, which has at least 500 church members, have faced increasing pressure.

Wang is also a vocal critic of the ruling Communist Party.

In an essay published through the church's Facebook page just days before the police raid, he criticised government control over religion and wrote: "The party can prosper temporarily, but it cannot last forever."

In September, Beijing officials also shut down Zion Church, one of China's largest unofficial Protestant churches, for operating without a licence -- before ordering it to pay back 1.2 million yuan ($170,000) in rent and removal costs.

Chinese authorities have a history of arresting human rights activists over broad charges of state subversion and "picking quarrels".

In August 2016, a human rights activist was jailed for more than seven years on subversion charges.

The activist was among more than 200 people who were rounded up in a broad crackdown in 2015, including lawyers who took on civil rights cases considered sensitive by the Communist Party.

In January 2016, Chinese authorities handed a 19-year sentence to a Chinese activist in the volatile northwestern Xinjiang region for "incitement to subvert state power" by criticising the Communist Party in online posts, according to his lawyer.

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China cracks down on unofficial Christian church
Beijing (AFP) Dec 10, 2018
Dozens of members of a prominent unofficial Protestant church and their pastor have gone missing in southwest China after authorities raided their homes, churchgoers said Monday, amid increasing restrictions on religious worship. The police sweep occurred Sunday night, according to a statement from the Early Rain Covenant Church, which is based in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. Several church leaders, including pastor Wang Yi, were detained, several parishioners told AFP on condition ... read more