China’s state-sanctioned religious groups on Friday blasted a US report criticizing the Chinese government for crackdowns against freedom of worship.
Heads of China’s Islamic, Christian and Tibetan Buddhist groups were quoted in state media saying the report by the congressionally mandated US Commission on International Religious Freedom was unfair, blind to the truth and based on hearsay and conjecture.
The past two decades were a golden period for religious activities in China, China Islamic Association chairman Chen Guangyuan was quoted by the China Daily as saying.
The situation in China cannot be denied through the fabrications of some people across the Pacific.
In its annual report released on May 13, the semi-official US religious watchdog listed China as one of several countries of particular concern.
It asked the US government to pressure China among other countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Russia, to halt repression against religious freedom.
China’s religious leaders said they took issue with the report, which accused China of being “a particularly severe violator of religious freedom” and of torturing, imprisoning and mistreating religious practitioners such as Protestants, Catholics and Tibetan Buddhists.
The allegedly persecuted religious people in the report had been found to have committed serious crimes, China Daily said.
Every criminal is subject to punishment by law, whether or not he is religious, said Gao Ying, a Protestant pastor in Beijing and a member of the China Christian Association standing committee.
She said it was unacceptable that some US politicians tried to mix up criminal cases with religious beliefs and interfere in China’s religious affairs.
Leaders acknowledged China had clamped down on pseudo mosques in its Muslim-populated western Xinjiang region, but argued their real purpose was to train terrorists and whip up hatred among ethnic groups, saying the crackdown contributed to the global anti-terrorism campaign.
The leaders, speaking at a symposium held in Beijing Thursday, also lashed out at the commission’s criticisms of China’s ongoing crackdown on the Falungong spiritual group, saying measures against “an evil cult” could not be equated with religious persecution.
There are more than 100 million Chinese adherents of different religions, comprising about 7.7 percent of the country’s total population, the official Xinhua news agency said.
China, however, retains tight control over religious activities, especially in its tense Tibet and Xinjiang regions, for fear religion will be used to spread separatist beliefs.
In recent years, it has cracked down on a wide range of religious groups, including about a dozen mainly evangelical groups, after it became alarmed by their popularity, including the Falungong, which the government outlawed as a “cult” in 1999.
China officially allows places of worship to operate if they are registered with the state and adhere to state mandates on religion.
But millions worship at unofficial churches, some of which are tolerated more than others.