September 25, 2008

China rejects US report that says it infringes religious liberty

The Chinese government has rejected criticisms in a US State Department report that repression of religious freedom has intensified in some areas of the world's most populous country.

"China is strongly dissatisfied and resolutely opposed to the US accusation in its religious freedom report," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu said in a September 23 statement, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Jiang's comments followed the release on September 19 of the State Department's 2008 Report on International Religious Freedom, which says that China, Myanmar (Burma) and North Korea continue to top the list of countries with poor religious freedom records.

The report says that the Chinese government's repression of religious freedom has also intensified in Tibetan areas, and in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of Western China, which has an ethnic Muslim majority.

The US report covers the period from July 2007 to July 2008, and examines government policy and actions in 198 countries and territories.

It also notes that unregistered Protestant religious groups in Beijing reported intensified harassment from government authorities in the lead up to the 2008 Olympic Games.

Both China and Myanmar have been classified as "Countries of Particular Concern" since the publication of the first religious freedom report in 1999. North Korea was added two years later. Other countries with this status include Eritrea, Iran, Sudan and Uzbekistan.

In Myanmar, "the government continued to infiltrate and monitor activities of virtually all organisations, including religious ones," the report says.

John Hanford, President George W. Bush's ambassador for international religious freedom, told journalists at the launch of the report that North Korea was among the world's "most egregious violators of religious freedom".

Hanford said, "The cult of personality surrounding the ruling family remains an important ideological underpinning of the regime, at times resembling tenets of a state religion."

He added, "The US government remains very concerned about the atrocious religious freedom conditions in the country, and we urge the regime to respect the rights of its people."

The US State Department defines freedom of religion as the ability to practice any religion publicly.

In his press conference for the release of the report, Hanford saluted work by the governments of Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines to promote inter-religious understanding.

Among comments on specific countries, the report states:

• Saudi Arabia has demonstrated "incremental improvements in specific areas, such as better protection of the right to possess and use personal religious materials".
• Vietnam has improved its religious rights, although the report says serious problems remain.
• The government of Eritrea continues to harass, arrest and detain members of unregistered minority religious groups outside the four government-approved religions.
• Iran continues to harass and persecute non-Shiite religious groups, most significantly members of the Bahai community, but also Sufi Muslims, some Christian groups, and members of the Jewish community.
• India generally respects religious freedom in practice; still, some state and local governments impose limits on this liberty. In his comments to journalists, Ambassador Hanford noted that in India, "Despite the central governments' efforts to foster communal harmony, we've seen more violence against Christians in the state of Orissa where religious factors combined with underlying social, economic, and ethnic grievances have sparked unrest, just in the past few weeks."

Web: www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2008/