17 May 2021 ROME — Sam Brownback, the former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, has urged the Vatican to rethink its appeasement policy toward the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). “The moral authority of the Vatican is significant,” Brownback told Catholic News Agency (CNA) last week. “You don’t negotiate with evil. You kick it out.” Following the release of the U.S. State Department’s annual report on international religious freedom, Brownback said he hoped the overwhelming data on China’s persecution of people of faith would draw the Vatican’s attention. “I hope they would look at this report and say, ‘this is not a regime we should be negotiating with,’” said Brownback, who served as U.S. Ambassador from 2018 to 2021.