WASHINGTON, April 11 (Reuters) - A senior representative of China's official Protestant church applauded the ban on the Falun Gong on Wednesday as good for religious freedom because it drew a distinction between real religions and "cults."
The Rev. Deng Fucun, the general secretary of the China Christian Council, delivered an open letter from the movement's national committee at a news conference at the Chinese Embassy in Washington.
"We, the religious circles in China, strongly oppose the Falun Gong cult," read the letter, addressed to the "many overseas friends" of the government-sanctioned group and the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of Protestant Churches.
"The ban of the Falun Gong cult by the government does not affect the implementation of the religious freedom policy at all. On the contrary, there are more people in the society who support the policy of religious freedom because they have distinguished the difference between religions and cults."
The United States presented a resolution to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva on Wednesday accusing China of abuses, including repressing Falun Gong, and calling on Beijing to permit greater freedom of religion.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, combines meditation and exercise with a doctrine loosely rooted in Buddhist and Taoist teachings. It was banned in October 1999 after staging a 10,000-strong protest in April that year.
Although China's constitution provides for freedom of religion, the government restricts practice to sanctioned organizations and registered places of worship.
Asked about the resolution, Deng said: "There are some reports on the situation of religious freedom in China which really in my opinion is very contradictory to the facts as I know ... so I really doubt how reliable the reports can be."
The U.S. State Department in its September 2000 annual report on international religious freedom found that instead of increasing freedoms for other religions, the ban on Falun Gong had had a kind of "spillover effect," as several qi-gong groups, practicing movement and meditation, and other unregistered religious groups were swept up in the crackdown.
Deng was in the United States to promote links with churches here and visited Houston, Texas, and Orlando, Florida, where he received "a warm welcome," he said.
He was, however, asked where ever he went about his thoughts on the furor over a U.S. spy plane that collided with a Chinese fighter jet, and Beijing's insistence on an apology. He said he answered them with a Christian proverb:
"Do unto others as you would have others do unto you."