USCIRF Releases Report on Religious Freedom in China after Landmark Visit
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released on Wednesday its ''Policy Focus on China,'' raising questions on Chinese law and its upholding of human rights and religious freedom.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released on Wednesday its Policy Focus on China, raising questions on Chinese law and its upholding of human rights and religious freedom.
The issued report was based on a two-week delegation to China in August when the Commission met with representatives of government-sanctioned religious organizations and senior Chinese officials – including Vice Premier Hui Liangyu – that oversee religious affairs and the protection of human rights.
Marked as a high priority for the Bush Administration, the trip to Beijing, Urumqi, Kashgar, Chengdu, Lhasa and Shanghai was the result of several years of diplomatic effort by the United States government that was agreed to during the December 2002 U.S.-China bilateral human rights dialogue.
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"The Commission continues to find that the Chinese government systematically violates the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief, contravening both the Chinese constitution and international human rights norms," said USCIRF Chairman Michael Cromartie in a released statement. "Indeed, the room for political openness, public activism, and greater civil and individual freedoms is narrowing in China."
USCIRF also raised questions and concerns on the management of religious affairs in China, Chinese policies concerning religious education of minors and unregistered religious organizations, new regulations on cults and religious affairs, the unique situations in Tibet and Xinjiang, and the situation for North Korean defectors in China, according to the report.
Cromartie, who led the Commission's trip to China, specifically noted the limited freedom and human rights protections among certain religious groups.
"Particularly vulnerable are Catholics and Protestants engaged in unregistered activities, Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims, and members of religious and spiritual movements such as the Falun Gong," he said as he listed specific cases of the arrest of church leaders of underground Protestant and Catholic churches.
"There is a fundamental misapprehension on the part of Chinese officials about what freedom of religion or belief means under international instruments," he continued. "They have mistaken – cynically or inadvertently – the proliferation of state-sanctioned and state-controlled religious expression with the guarantee of the individual right of freedom or religion or belief. The growth of religious sentiment within the spaces sanctioned by government does not constitute freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief."
The Commission called U.S. officials to raise the reported concerns at the highest levels as it made several recommendations at the release of the report to strengthen U.S. human rights diplomacy with China.
According to a USCIRF release yesterday, China remains as a "country of particular concern" (CPCs) along with seven other countries that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice designated for this year. Countries that have not yet warranted their removal from the list include Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Vietnam.
Concerning China, the Commission came out with a list of nine recommendations for U.S. government action. All nine, listed below, include recommending the government to:
• Urge the Chinese government to end its current crackdown on religious and spiritual groups throughout China, including harassment, surveillance, arrest, and detention of persons on account of their manifestation of religion or belief; the detention, torture, and ill-treatment of persons in prisons, labor camps, psychiatric facilities, and other places of confinement, and the coercion of individuals to renounce or condemn any religion or belief; release all those imprisoned or detained on account of their manifestation of religious belief in contravention of international human rights standards;
• Fully implement the March 2005 bilateral agreement between the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the U.S. Department of State, including by urging China to issue a national decree guaranteeing the right of minor children to manifest their religion or belief and the liberty of parents to ensure the religious and moral education in conformity with their own convictions;
• Promote rule of law in China by urging the Chinese government to investigate allegations of abuses of power by law enforcement officials and the use of torture to extract confessions in criminal cases, including the cases raised by the Commission with the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, report publicly on the results of the investigations, and punish those found responsible for such abuses;
• Appoint a new counselor for Human Rights and the Rule of Law at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing;
• Support and encourage programs with U.S. human rights experts and Chinese government officials, academics, representatives of religious communities, and non-governmental organizations on international standards relating to the right of freedom of religion or belief;
• Support and encourage programs with international human rights experts and Chinese scholars, judges, attorneys, and government officials on reforms to the Chinese criminal justice system, including planned changes in the criminal procedure code, the role of defense lawyers, and international norms on criminal justice standards;
• Encourage international coordination of internationally funded technical assistance programs in China to ensure that programs advance Chinese compliance with its international human rights commitments and the objectives of the bilateral and multilateral human rights initiatives with China;
• Increase the U.S. diplomatic presence in Tibet and Xinjiang; and
• Highlight conditions faced by Uighur Muslims and Tibetan Buddhists by increasing the educational opportunities in the United States that are available to religious and other leaders from these regions; creating legal clinics to assist Uighurs and Tibetans to enforce their human rights under the Chinese Constitution and international law; and expanding ongoing assistance to civil society programs that promote Tibetan culture, language, and social welfare and develop similar programs for Uighurs.
