Human-rights activists Nov. 21 praised President George W. Bush’s call for religious freedom during his recent visit to China but said the communist government’s apparent unwillingness to make concessions is discouraging.
The topic came to the foreground during President Bush’s weeklong diplomatic swing through east Asia, which ended Nov. 21.
He visited Japan, South Korea, Mongolia and China, where his appeals for religious freedom were largely ignored by the Chinese government and press.
Nina Shea, director of the Washington-based Center for Religious Freedom, a division of the human-rights organization Freedom House, called China’s indifference to the president’s requests “disturbing.”
She said the appeals haven’t “done anything and in fact it’s been repression as usual.”
A few weeks before Bush’s visit, the Chinese government sentenced a Beijing underground church leader to three years in prison for selling Bibles.
Critics call the action a prime example of China’s religious oppression.
They say this oppression has included beatings, imprisonment and torture of religious individuals and groups not registered with the government.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said U.S. officials complained “quite vociferously” about such repression in the weeks before the president’s visit.
In private meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Bush emphasized his belief that religious and political freedom “go hand in hand.”
“A society which will recognize religious freedom is a society which will recognize political freedoms as well,” he said Nov. 20.
“And part of a system which recognizes the right of people to express themselves is a system which also recognizes the right of people to worship freely.”
The Bush administration named China a serious violator of religious freedom in its annual State Department report to Congress, released Nov. 8.
(RNS)
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