Los Angeles Times
Friday, December 29, 2000

By Elliott Abrams

The latest move in China's ongoing anti-religion campaign is as subtle as a sledgehammer. Literally.

In the eastern province of Zhejiang, officials boast that they have destroyed, confiscated or shut down 450 Roman Catholic and Protestant churches and Taoist and Buddhist temples. A Hong Kong-based human rights observer puts the number at nearer 3,000. Some have been blown up; others demolished with sledgehammers.

The targets of this demolition derby are congregations that have operated openly for years but refuse to register with the authorities, lest they be forced to join the state's puppet religious organizations. To do so means, among other things, turning over membership lists to the authorities and accepting state-dictated theology and censorship of sermons. Catholics, for example, are forced to deny the authority of the pope, a step most refuse to take.

"In order to maintain social stability, the local government demolished underground [unregistered] churches and temples and other illegal places," a spokesman for the Wenzhou city foreign affairs office helpfully explained to Agence France-Presse.

The destruction of houses of worship is part of Beijing's comprehensive and intensifying crackdown on independent religious expression, which began in earnest in July 1999 with the banning of the Falun Gong spiritual movement and several mainstream Protestant Christian groups as "evil cults." Consider the following reports:

• In the brutal campaign against the Falun Gong and Zhong Gong spiritual movements, at least 59 Falun Gong practitioners have died, usually from police beatings and torture. The Hong Kong observer counts 20,000 Falun Gong practitioners temporarily detained, 10,000 thrown into labor camps without trial and 600 sent to mental hospitals. Several leaders have received prison terms of more than a decade.

• At least 24 Uighur Muslims from the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region have been executed this year on charges of separatism. Muslim Uighur businesswoman Rebiya Kadeer remains in jail, her appeal of an eight-year sentence--for sending her U.S.-based husband Chinese newspaper clippings--rejected.

• Harassment of Protestant and Catholic Christians who refuse to join the state organizations is in full swing. Many Protestants and Catholics have been arrested for participating in unregistered church services. While several bishops and priests loyal to Rome remain missing or under arrest, Bishop Fu Tieshen of the state-controlled Chinese Catholic Conference has twice this year ordained bishops and priests without Vatican approval.

• Police have ransacked homes in Tibet, destroying Buddhist objects and pictures of the Dalai Lama. In July, 30 monks were expelled from the Johkhang Temple, one of Tibetan Buddhism's holiest shrines.

The U.S. government has a moral obligation to let the Chinese government know that such abuses are unacceptable. But more is needed. The Commission on International Religious Freedom recommends that the U.S. again initiate a resolution to censure China at the annual spring meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and urge other governments to join it. The U.S. also should use its diplomatic influence to ensure that China is not selected as a site for the Olympic Games until it makes significant improvement in human rights, including religious freedom.

And to show progress in improving religious freedom, China should:

• Release all religious prisoners.

• Respond to inquiries about people who are imprisoned, detained or under house arrest or missing for reasons of belief.

• Permit international human rights organizations and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom unhindered access to religious leaders, including those imprisoned, detained or under house arrest.

• Open a high-level dialogue with the U.S. on religious-freedom issues.

• Ratify the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, which it has signed.

No one wants to isolate China. But the choice is not between engagement and isolation. It is between silence and vigorous protest. In fact, the continuing escalation of this brutal campaign to repress freedom of religion is in the long term a great peril to Sino-American relations and to China itself.

Elliott Abrams, Who Was Assistant Secretary of State in the Reagan Administration, Is Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an Independent Federal Agency That Advises the Executive Branch and Congress.

Copyright 2000 Los Angeles Times

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dec. 20, 2000

Contact:
Lawrence J. Goodrich, Communications Director, (202) 523-3240

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom wrote the President, Secretary of State, and congressional leaders December 18 with recommendations for promoting religious freedom in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea). The Commission wrote that "U.S. policy ... should reflect America's concern for religious freedom in a country ruled by one of the world's worst violators of religious freedom."

"In the DPRK ... it is apparent that religious freedom is non-existent," the Commission said. "The government has imprisoned religious believers and apparently suppresses all organized religious activity except that which serves the interest of the state." The Commission noted reports of torture and execution of religious believers, including between 12 and 23 Christians on account of their religion.

The past year has seen significant developments in U.S.-North Korean relations, including Secretary of State Albright's historic visit and the possibility that President Clinton may yet travel there. But U.S. policy has thus far focused primarily on the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and missile technology, and on peace on the Korean Peninsula. The Commission urged that the U.S. also place "significant emphasis" on religious freedom in North Korea and recommended that the U.S.:

• Insist that the DPRK publicly reaffirm its commitments under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;

• Press the DPRK to immediately establish conditions whereby the status of religious freedom can be assessed and progress monitored;

• Ensure that any peace treaty between the parties to the Korean war include provisions on religious freedom and non-discrimination;

• Make it clear that substantial improvement in religious freedom and other human rights in North Korea is a prerequisite for normalization of relations and the relaxation of U.S. sanctions;

• Insist that any U.S. diplomats stationed in North Korea in the future have reasonable access within the country to assess the state of religious freedom and monitor developments, and that a religious-freedom dialogue begin at the highest policymaking levels;

• Raise the issue of religious freedom in all high-level diplomatic exchanges with North Korea;

• Urge the Republic of Korea (South Korea) and Japan to press human rights and religious freedom in their talks with North Korea as well.

The full text of the Commission's letter is available on the Commission's Web site, www.uscirf.gov. It can also be obtained by calling (202) 523-3240, ext. 34.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress." src="https://www.uscirf.org/images/layout/subbottomtext1.gif" />

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dec. 19, 2000

Contact:
Lawrence J. Goodrich, Communications Director, (202) 523-3240

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom yesterday wrote to Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright urging the United States government to denounce forcefully the targeting of holy places of any religion in Israel and the Occupied Territories and to condemn those who call for violence in the name of religion. The text of the letter follows:

Dear Madam Secretary:

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has been observing with great apprehension the increasingly religious nature of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the potential impact of this trend on religious freedom. This is evinced by the growing instances of violence against religious sites (mosques, synagogues, and churches), the use of religious rhetoric to promote violence, the expanding controversy over religious claims to Jerusalem, and the extension of religiously-based confrontations to other areas of the world (primarily in the form of anti-Jewish actions in the Middle East, Europe, and even North America). The ongoing violence in turn has led Israeli authorities to limit access to religious sites because of security concerns. Moreover, religious conflict in the Middle East would escalate inter-religious tensions, and thus pose a threat to religious freedom, everywhere.

We therefore urge the United States government to denounce forcefully the targeting of holy places of any religion and to condemn those who call for violence in the name of religion. We hope that these goals will be emphasized by U.S. diplomats dealing with the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority. In our view, the United States should call for restoration of access to religious sites when legitimate security interests are met, restoration of sites that have been damaged, and prosecution of those who perpetrate desecration of religious sites. We believe that the United States should take the lead in calling upon government and religious leaders everywhere to repudiate all attempts to turn the already grave situation in the Middle East into a conflict among religions.

Thank you for your attention to the Commission's concerns.

Sincerely yours,

Elliott Abrams
Chairman

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress." src="https://www.uscirf.org/images/layout/subbottomtext1.gif" />