Religion: November 2006 Archives

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | The New York Times
November 20, 2006

China assailed the United States on Monday for listing it as a country that violates religious freedoms. The State Department list released last week included China among Myanmar, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Sudan as places where people cannot practice their faiths freely.

''The United States' action violates the basic rules of international relations, and constitutes a rude intervention in the internal affairs of another country,'' Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.

''We demand the United States respect the truth, and stop interfering in China's internal affairs under the pretext of religion,'' Jiang said in a statement posted on the ministry's Web site.

John V. Hanford III, U.S. ambassador for international religious freedom, said China has seen ''a little progress'' but ''certainly has not made the sort of progress that we need to see in a systemic way to remove them'' from the list.

The State Department report said ''China maintains tight control over all religions and has cracked down hard on groups not sanctioned by the ruling Communist Party. Those who practice Falun Gong, a banned spiritual movement, or who attend underground Protestant or Catholic churches routinely face detention, harassment and sometimes imprisonment.''

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