China plans to allow more autonomy to religious groups and curb arbitrary state interference in their activities, a Religious Affairs Bureau official says.
Zhang Xunmou, director of the Religious Affairs Bureau's policy and legal department, said Tuesday that the old pattern of handling religious affairs by administrative decree would be replaced with clear rules limiting officials' powers, the South China Morning Post reported Wednesday.
The new policy would define the rights and obligations of both the officials and the groups they administer, Zhang said. He described the approach as a "paradigm shift."
Zhang was speaking at a two-day international conference on religion and law that ended in Beijing Tuesday. He said limiting state authority over religion was a revolutionary concept in Chinese history.
China also plans to ease controls on non-governmental organizations, the paper reported, allowing them to work without sponsorship from a government department, as is currently required.
The paper quoted Qiao Shenqian, a Ministry of Civil Affairs official, as saying that it was "imperative" that the sponsorship rule be withdrawn, though he did not say when this would occur.
No international NGO is officially registered in China, although some have carried out projects for as long as two decades under the sponsorship rules, the report said.