BEJIING – China on Saturday lashed out against a US report critical of Beijing’s policies on religious freedom, calling the assessment irresponsible and harmful to relations between the two countries.
The report released this week by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom said the Chinese government “continues to engage in systematic and egregious violations of freedom of religion or belief.”
Along with Saudi Arabia, Iran and Sudan, China has been designated by the US State Department one of eight “countries of particular concern” for denying religious openness based on commission recommendations.
Liu Jianchao, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry condemned as “irresponsible” the 250-page report by the US government panel that also includes sections on North Korea, Nigeria and Afghanistan.
“It shows … ignorance and prejudice,” Liu said in a statement released by the ministry.
“The Chinese government protects its citizens’ freedom of religious beliefs according to law and Chinese citizens fully enjoy religious freedom according to law,” he said. “This is a fact obvious to everyone.”
China’s communist authorities allow worship only in state-monitored churches, temples or mosques. Millions of believers attend unauthorized services, often in private homes, but are subject to arrest and harassment.
The report said there were ongoing crackdowns on groups in China including Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists and Roman Catholics who do not follow the state-sanctioned church.
“Prominent religious leaders and laypersons alike continue to be confined, tortured, ’disappeared,’ imprisoned, and/or subjected to other forms of ill treatment on account of their religion or belief,” the report said.
It highlighted several “cases of concern,” including Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the boy chosen by the Dalai Lama to be the Panchen Lama. He has not been seen in public for more than a decade and Chinese officials refuse to say where he is.
Other cases include that of Liu Fenggang, an imprisoned activist in the independent Protestant church and two sisters who were sentenced to prison for distributing literature on the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement.
New regulations
Last year, the Chinese government implemented new regulations that it said would protect freedom of faith.
According to the new rules, “anyone who compels citizens to believe in or not believe in any religions … shall be ordered to make corrections by the religious affairs department” and could face criminal charges.
The US report, however, said that the regulations “were issued in large measure to regularize the management of religious affairs, thus offering Party leaders more extensive control over all religious groups and their activities.”
Last August, a delegation from the panel made its first trip to China. The visit included stops in Beijing, Shanghai, Lhasa and Urumqi and Kashgar in the restive Xinjiang region, where Beijing has said there is a violent Muslim separatist movement fighting for an independent state.
At each stop, the delegation asked about the control and management of religious affairs, the report said.
“Unfortunately, however, discussions were often far from candid,” it said, adding that Chinese government officials censored or stopped meetings with local religious leaders when the issue got too sensitive.
“The space for political openness, public activism, and greater civil and individual freedoms is narrowing in China,” the report said.
The report recommended that the US government urge China to end “severe violations” of religious freedom and other human rights and improve dialogue on the issue.
But Liu dismissed the findings, saying that the commission “again and again interferes in China’s internal affair under the guise of religious freedom.”
“It runs counter to the momentum of good development of relations between the two countries,” Liu said. “It is unpopular.”
