Oppressive Restrictions Fail to Throttle Religious Fervor in China
by: Dwayne Hastings - Nov 1, 2005 - comment
ERLC President and Faith & Family Values Executive Editor Richard Land traveled to China as a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in August 2005. Land was reappointed to the USCIRF by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, after two earlier stints on the commission as a presidential appointee.
As a member of the commission focusing on international religious liberty issues, Land spent fifteen days in China and logged over twenty-one thousand air miles. While getting an average of only four to five hours of sleep a night, Land and the other USCIRF members met with senior Chinese officials who are responsible for the management of religious affairs and the protection of human rights at the national, provincial, and local levels, including Vice Premier Hui Liangyu. In addition, the commission met with Chinese academics and lawyers, UN officials, and representatives of government-sanctioned Buddhist, Catholic, Taoist, Islamic, and Protestant religious organizations.
The high-level series of meetings had been in the making for several years, at the request of President Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and former Secretary of State Colin Powell. The Commission traveled to Beijing, Urumqi, Kashgar, Chengdu, Lhasa, and Shanghai.
Land and the commission members were amazed at the material wealth being generated by China’s robust economy, currently the world’s sixth largest and expected to be the largest within twenty years. China also is expected to become the world’s number one tourist destination country by 2020, if not sooner, reports the World Tourism Organization. Currently the country is fourth in the number of overseas visitors.
Unfortunately, a broadening of economic freedom has not sparked more political or religious freedom. In a report on the fact-finding trip to China, the commission said the Chinese government “continues to systematically violate the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief, contravening both the Chinese constitution and international human rights norms.”
The report also says the room for “greater civil and individual freedoms is narrowing in China.” Land said while the Chinese government is much more accommodating to people of faith, those who want to worship freely must register with the state. There are an estimated five times more Christians who decline to register than those who do because they don’t want the government overseeing the practice of their faith, Land explained.
For believers who register with one of the “patriotic religious associations,” the commission report said there is a “zone of toleration” that protects some religious practice and property. Yet the Chinese government controls the financial, leadership, and doctrinal decisions of all registered religious groups. Ethnic minorities and non-registered religious communities are viewed as threats to the country’s “national security” or “social harmony.”
Land said while the Chinese government prints three million Bibles a year for Chinese citizens, the reality for those who remain unregistered is that they can be arrested and their property destroyed if the government discovers them practicing their faith. Nonetheless, the commission reported the greatest amount of religious practice in China occurs “outside the system of government approved religious organizations.”
A Commission spokesman said the Chinese government has confused “state-sanctioned and state-controlled religious expression” with individual freedom of religious expression.
Chinese parents “are not free to raise their children in their faith,” Land said during a Dec. 14 briefing on international religious liberty at the U.S. Capitol. “That is not religious freedom. I would say it is persecution. And it’s getting worse, not better, and it’s up to us and the rest of the world to call for” religious freedom, he said.
Further Learning
Learn more about: Citizenship, Religious Liberty