c. 1998 Religion News Service

NEW YORK _ A delegation of U.S. religious leaders recently returned from China pronounced their much criticized trip a success Wednesday (March 18) because they were able to raise religious freedom issues directly with Chinese President Jiang Zemin and open what they hope will be an ongoing dialogue on the contentious subject.

Delegation members insisted that religious persecution in China was well documented and their visit had limited but important goals that may someday lead to greater freedom for believers.

They also said it was unrealistic to expect immediate results, given the entrenched fear among China’s communist elite that unrestricted religious expression could undermine that nation’s stability.

But at a news conference here at which a report on the February visit was released, delegation members said they believe they successfully impressed upon Jiang and other Chinese leaders the importance of religious freedom to Americans and its connection to improved relations with the United States.”It was the beginning of a process,”said Rabbi Arthur Schneier, president of the New York-based Appeal of Conscience Foundation.”Religion is now on the agenda of the top leaders of China.” Schneier, the Rev. Donald Argue, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, and Roman Catholic Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick of Newark, N.J., spent three weeks touring China on a trip that grew out of last year’s Washington summit between Jiang and President Clinton.

The delegation was hand-picked by the White House, although it traveled on private foundation monies to underscore its independence.

Many human rights and religious freedom activists have argued the United States should predicate its relations with China on Beijing’s willingness to allow full religious freedom.

In the Congress, China critics last year unsuccessfully sought to link the issue with the granting of most favored trading status for China and on Tuesday (March 17) the House passed a non-binding resolution calling on Clinton to instruct U.S. envoys at a human rights conference in Geneva to condemn China for human rights violations.

Activists maintain Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, Muslims and others are among the faithful whose religious freedoms are curtailed in China. They also say that as religious faith grows in China, so do government controls.

During the visit, the first such government-endorsed trip to China by U.S. religious leaders, the delegation visited six cities, including Lhasa in Chinese-occupied Tibet, and met with Jiang and other top Chinese officials.

The delegation also met with Chinese and Tibetan religious leaders, including some who belong to groups not sanctioned by the Beijing government and, therefore, considered illegal.

In addition, they visited imprisoned Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns, and gave Chinese official a list of 30 religious leaders believed to be in jail or otherwise restricted because of their religious activities.

However, from the onset the trip was criticized by hardline critics of China’s controlling attitude toward religious expression. These critics maintain the delegation was used by both China and the White House to make it appear both were addressing the religious freedom issue while in actuality doing little.

Wednesday’s report by Argue, McCarrick and Schneier did nothing to blunt the criticism.”In fact they were manipulated in China by the official propaganda machine and treated to a Potemkin religious tour,”said Nina Shea, director of Freedom House’s Center for Religious Freedom in Washington.”Washington also used them to abdicate its responsibility by shifting the push for human rights to the sphere of citizen diplomacy while it gets on with the business of talking trade with China.” But the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, called the panel’s report”even-handed.””It is a good report,”she said.”It’s important because it acknowledges the limits of religious freedom but doesn’t insist, like some critics, that this is religious persecution greater than ever in history.” Campbell, noting that the NCC has also led delegations of top religious leaders to China, said she agreed with the report’s emphasis on continuing to develop dialogue with Chinese leaders.”One thing they have accomplished is to get our own government to listen to what religious leaders discover when they are on one of these journeys,”she said.

But Diane Knippers, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a conservative think tank in Washington, said the delegation should have acted less diplomatically and more forcefully”because that’s what has gotten results with China.” (BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

Knippers said she thought the delegation”naive,”adding that the”true test of the trip’s value”would be the release of jailed religious leaders.

Buchung Tsering, director of the International Campaign for Tibet, also based in Washington, said while he appreciated the delegation’s effort,”unfortunately their report doesn’t say anything about what Chinese authorities will do to rectify the concerns raised.” Tsering said,”It would be easy for Chinese authorities to use this trip to justify not going further on this issue. They can now say we already have a dialogue on the issue and there is no need to talk to others.” (END OPTIONAL TRIM)

However, Argue, McCarrick and Schneier insisted at their news conference that they had not been pushovers.”I can assure you that we pressed (our) points very forcefully,”said Argue.”We were not wallflowers. We pressed the points with vigor.” Schneier said the delegation spent more than a month prior to leaving for China meeting with religious and human rights activists in an effort to expand support for the trip.”By and large I would say the human rights community considers this trip a very good beginning,”he said.

In their report, the delegation said they pressed Chinese officials to end their insistence that religious groups receive government sanction or face a possible crackdown.”This really is an intrusion on the part of government on religious freedom,”said Schneier.

They also said they urged Beijing to allow religious groups”to relate more fully”to international religious bodies.

For example, the officially sanctioned Catholic church is not allowed contact with the Vatican. Consequently, an underground Catholic Church that receives support from the Vatican has grown up in China despite government persecution.

Asked about possible reconciliation between the Vatican and China, McCarrick said,”I’m sure the road of the future will be a road of reconciliation.”He did not elaborate.

The report also said the delegation pressed China to open a dialogue with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan Buddhist political and religious leader. China has steadfastly refused to deal with the Dalai Lama, arguing he wants to undermine Chinese control over Tibet.

The delegation’s report recommended the White House and the State Department”reinforce the concerns we have raised and continue the dialogues we began with President Jiang. In advance of President Clinton’s scheduled visit to China in June concrete responses should be sought (to the individual cases of jailed religious leaders) we presented to Chinese officials.” DEA END RIFKIN