The United States Secretary of State, Michael Richard Pompeo, made the announcement on Twitter.

"Today the U.S. designates Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, the DPRK, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan as countries of concern under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 for engaging systematic, ongoing, egregious religious freedom violations," Pompeo's tweet read.

He added that the US is 'unwavering in its commitment to religious freedom'.

"The U.S. is unwavering in its commitment to religious freedom. No country or entity should be allowed to persecute people with impunity because of their beliefs. These annual designations show that when religious freedom is attacked, we will act," another tweet read.

China and Pakistan are well known for violating human rights and religious freedom.

While Beijing has set up internment camps where over a million muslim Uighur people have been locked up to 'rectify' their learnings, Pakistan carries out atrocities against the Ahmadiya, Hindu, Sikh and Christian communities.

Burma or Myanmar has forced over a million muslims from the Rohingya community to flee the Rakhine state in a "state-sponsored" genocide in between 2016 and 2017.

The DPRK or North Korea is officially an atheist state. Christians in the country keep their beliefs to themselves.

"Most of North Korea’s underground Christians do not engage in the extremely dangerous work of proselytizing, according to defectors and outside experts. Instead, they largely keep their beliefs to themselves or within their immediate families. But even those who stay deep underground face danger, defectors say," a 2019 AP report said.