NEWS STORY: State Department says China persecutes Christians

c. 1997 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ The State Department Tuesday (July 22) accused China of severely limiting the religious rights of Christians and, in some instances, actively persecuting members of Protestant and Roman Catholic churches. The report, prepared at the request of Congress, addressed the situation faced by Christians in 78 nations in which […]

c. 1997 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ The State Department Tuesday (July 22) accused China of severely limiting the religious rights of Christians and, in some instances, actively persecuting members of Protestant and Roman Catholic churches.

The report, prepared at the request of Congress, addressed the situation faced by Christians in 78 nations in which the State Department suspected problems might exist. Although the primary focus was on Christians, problems faced by other minority faiths _ Baha’is in Iran and Buddhists in China, for example _ also were briefly mentioned.


A State Department official said China had not been singled out, but the report gave more attention to Beijing government policies than any other.

Following a 1996 government directive”to suppress unauthorized religious groups and social organizations,”said the report,”Chinese authorities in some areas made strong efforts to crack down on the activities of unregistered Catholic and Protestant movements in 1996-97.” China requires the official registration of religious groups, but Catholics aligned with Rome and many Protestant churches have declined to comply. They say registration means compromising religious freedom because the government places restraints on doctrinal teachings and activities.

Unregistered churches often meet in private homes and are known as”house churches.”U.S. Christian activists who have long criticized Chinese policies toward Christians say more Chinese belong to the underground congregations than registered churches.

The report said house churches have been raided and leaders”were detained for lengthy investigation, and some were beaten.” Local Chinese authorities, the report continued, have used threats, property demolition, interrogation, arrest and”reform-through-education sentences”to carry out Beijing’s policy of suppression.

Nina Shea, a Catholic activist in Washington with the human rights group Freedom House, said the report could mark a turning point in the effort to galvanize support for Chinese Christians, who she said number more than 40 million.”This report is very important because it has created a peg for people to take note of the issue,”she said.”This lends important credibility to what we’ve been saying all along.” Shea said China persecutes unregistered Christians more for political than theological concerns.”Chinese officials no longer regard religion as the opiate of the masses, but they fear religion because they cannot control it,”she said.”Christianity stresses the dignity of the individual, which is something the government rejects.” The Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, said the report”makes it clear that we have to take a hard look at the plight of the unregistered churches. This makes it crystal clear that they are being persecuted.” Speaking at a news conference, John Shattuck, an assistant secretary of state, said the report was not intended to single out China.

Nonetheless, he said,”those who are seeking to exercise basic rights of freedom of religion in China as elsewhere should take heart”from the report’s release.

Several Muslim-ruled countries, Russia and other formerly communist and still-communist countries also were criticized in the 83-page report.


In Saudi Arabia, freedom of religion is non-existent and non-Muslims face arrest for engaging in religious activities, the report said. In Pakistan,”Muslim mobs”have destroyed Christian homes and churches, and Christians have been sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy stemming from comments judged anti-Islamic, the report added.

In Sudan, which has been wracked by civil war between the Muslim north and the Christian and animist south, churches have been closed, ministers have been harassed and”there are reports that many Christians are victims of slave raids and forced conversion”to Islam, the report said.

The State Department document also took note of the proposed Russian law that would deny full legal status to all faiths other than that nation’s traditional religions _ Russian Orthodoxy, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism.

Catholic, Protestant and other groups deemed non-traditional would have to wait 15 years before they could apply for full legal status. Until then, they would not be able to own property or open banks accounts, making their operation very difficult. The law, which has been approved by the Russian parliament, awaits President Boris Yeltsin’s approval or veto.

President Clinton has urged Yeltsin to veto the proposed law, and the State Department report reiterated the White House’s position.

The proposed Russian law is widely viewed as an attempt to protect the Russian Orthodox Church from evangelical, Pentecostal and other, largely Protestant groups that have had wide missionary success in Russia since the dismantling of the Soviet Union.


The report noted that other Eastern European and former communist nations also have sought to protect their Orthodox churches from other Christian groups.

In Romania,”Baptists and Greek Catholics who proselytize in traditional Orthodox regions have faced harassment and even violence,”the report said.

In Belarus, regulations have been passed”as a means of enhancing the Orthodox Church with respect to the faster-growing Roman Catholic and Protestant churches,”it added.

In a forward to the report, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said the United States was committed to”working actively to promote tolerance of religious expression of all faiths.” The report noted presidential and diplomatic efforts to raise religious freedom issues with Chinese, Russian and other officials, and the establishment last year of a State Department advisory panel on the issue comprised of Christians, Jews, Muslims and others.

MJP END RNS

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