AP Report: Jiang Denies Human Rights Violations

By SANDRA SOBIERAJ

2/21/02

BEIJING (AP) -- Chinese President Jiang Zemin insisted Thursday that his people are free to worship as they choose, and said Roman Catholic bishops detained there must have broken the law.

President Bush prodded Jiang on the issue, saying, "All the world's people, including the people of China, should be free to choose how they live, how they worship and how they work."

Jiang was asked twice at a news conference with Bush about allegations of religious repression there, and about the detention and surveillance of the bishops.

He initially declined twice to discuss the matter. But he returned to it at the end of the session with
reporters.

"Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, all our constitutions, various versions, have provided for the freedom of religious belief," Jiang said.

Jiang said he does not personally ascribe to a religious faith, but he has read scriptures from
Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. He cited an array of religions practiced in his country, reiterating: "Their religious faiths are protected by our constitution."

Last week, the Vatican's missionary news agency released the names of 33 bishops and priests it said were either detained in China or being kept under strict police surveillance and forbidden to worship. It said about 20 more priests, their names not known, were also being detained.

[…]

Bush and his entourage of aides listened intently during the lengthy defence from Jiang, which came after Bush said that "China's future is for the Chinese people to decide, yet no nation is exempt from the demands of human dignity."

At one point, Bush's national security adviser Condoleezza Rice turned to a colleague and asked
whether Jiang actually responded to the human rights question. "Did he answer it?" she asked.

Bush, in his closed-door session with Jiang, urged China to open communications with the Vatican and with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader.
Bush didn't press the bishops' case in the meeting, but Rice told reporters "The Chinese government needs to release them. We've made that clear."

Rice, who sat in on the presidents' talks, said they had a friendly discussion about religious freedom. Bush addressed the topic only generally and did not
press specific cases of repression, she said.

[…]

China allows only state-monitored and approved churches, and is cracking down on underground groups that have attracted millions of followers in recent years. They include Roman Catholics who remain loyal to the pope and worship outside the official church.

China has also arrested thousands of followers of the Falun Gong spiritual movement in a crackdown launched in July 1999. […]

[…]