(202) 523-3240, ext. 127
In order to raise the
profile of religious freedom and related human rights in China via the
2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the Commission has urged the U.S. Congress to
allocate sufficient resources within funds appropriated for the security of
U.S. citizens during the Beijing Games to ensure that training and related
information materials include content that:
"China was awarded the
privilege of hosting the Olympics with the expectation that its repressive policies would improve.
That has not happened. Now, the international community must say clearly
to the Chinese government that the continued repression of the religious
freedom of its own people only hurts China's international prestige, harms
U.S.-China relations, and violates China's international obligations.
Hopefully, China will realize that protecting religious freedom and
related human rights is not only the right thing to do, it also serves China's own
interests," Shea said.
The off-the-record briefing
was chaired by Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) and included the participation of
Regina Kidder, a human rights activist for the rights of the Uyghur
people in East Turkestan; Bob Fu, President of China Aid Association; and Todd
Stein, Director of Government Relations at the International Campaign for
Tibet.
I would like to thank the Congressional Task Force for
International Religious Freedom for holding this briefing on the impact of the
Olympics on the Chinese government's treatment of religious communities and for
inviting the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom to participate.
The world looks to the Olympic Games as an event that compels
closed, authoritarian countries to open up.
There's always the hope that the openness will then have a lasting,
positive impact on those countries long after the last athlete and fans have
returned home, after the television lights have been turned off, and after the
press centers have closed down.
Yet in China, we've seen much the opposite. Instead of improvements in conditions for
religious freedom and other human rights, we've seen broad efforts to crack
down on and control religious activity.
In the past year, we've seen the continued detention
of Uighur Muslim clerics for so-called "illegal" religious activities and the
official insistence that these clerics undergo annual "political training"
seminars. We've seen a so-called "strike-hard"
campaign by the Ministry of Public Security ordering crackdowns on unregistered
Protestant house churches and so-called "illegal cults." And we've also seen a renewed government practice
of collecting personal information on Falun Gong practitioners, Evangelical
Protestants, and others who practice their religion outside the confines of
state-allied institutions. We've also seen
the brutal government crackdown on Tibetan monks.
Some of these efforts clearly have been tied to the
preparations for the Olympics, not least because government and state-allied
religious officials fear that contact with foreign co-religionists could
encourage a flowering of religious practice that is not sanctioned or
controlled by the state.
China is clearly pursuing policies against religious
freedom that violate international human rights standards. Can Chinese officials not be aware of how
damaging that is to China's international prestige?
Religious communities are growing rapidly in China and
the freedom to participate in officially sanctioned religious activity has
increased in many areas of the country over the past year.
High-ranking Chinese government officials, including
President Hu Jintao, have praised the positive role of religious communities in
China and articulated a desire to have religious groups promote "economic and
social development."
Yet despite being awarded the Olympics, China remains
one of the world's worst religious freedom violators. Although there is a growing "zone of
toleration" for the worship and of China's religious communities, the
government continues to restrict religious practice to government-approved
religious associations, control the activities of both unregistered religious
groups and spiritual movements (such as the Falun Gong) and repress the
religious activities of ethnic minority
groups viewed as a "security" threat-such as the Tibetan Buddhists and Uighur
Muslims.
China continues to arrest, detain, and harass
religious believers. Protestants and
Catholics who refuse to register with the government sanctioned religious
groups face particularly serious penalties.
Last year, over 600 Protestants were detained and 38 were given
sentences of over one year.
Thirty-three unregistered Catholic bishops and priests
remain in prison or some sort of administrative detention. Catholic Bishop Su
Zhermin, arrested in the late 1990s, has disappeared, despite repeated requests
to visit him and gain his release.
Despite Pope Benedict's eloquent appeal for unity,
Beijing-Vatican relations remain deadlocked, with the Chinese government
occasionally ordaining bishops and priests without prior approved of the Holy
See.
It is impossible to get an accurate figure on the
numbers of detained Falun Gong, Tibetan Buddhists, and Uighur Muslims-but some
reports indicate there are hundreds.
This includes the Dalai Lama's chosen Panchen Lama, a boy who was
detained at age six and turned 19 this year.
And these are only the arrests. China's other abuses also violate international
human rights standards include: requiring communist ideology training for
Muslim imams and Tibetan monks; the demolition of Buddhist, Muslim, and
Protestant religious structures; the confiscation of religious materials; and
the harassment and arrest of lawyers assisting imprisoned religious leaders.
The unrest in Tibet last March highlights again that
China's policies of repression and control have failed. Tibetans want religious freedom without
restrictions. They want to choose their
own religious leaders without interference. They want to be free to venerate
the Dalai Lama without fear of arrest. These were the key demands of peacefully
protesting monks.
The Commission has called for investigations into the violence
in Tibetan areas. We have also urged
President Bush to cancel his attendance at the opening ceremony of the Olympic
Games in Beijing unless there is substantial improvement in respecting
Tibetans' religious freedom, including the opening of direct and concrete talks
with the Dalai Lama.
If President Bush does attend the opening ceremony,
the Commission has recommended that he first visit the Tibetan regional
capital, Lhasa, or another Tibetan area, and make a public statement affirming
the U.S. commitment to religious freedom for Tibetans, as well as for China's
other growing religious communities.
President Bush has pledged that while
attending the Summer Olympic Games in China, he will raise concerns about
freedom of religion in China with President Hu Jintao. The Commission has urged
the president to request to meet with prisoners and persons detained by the
state because of their exercise of freedom of religion or advocacy of this and
related human rights and to attend an unregistered church-underlining the
Chinese government's violations of religious freedom by its efforts to control religious
practice.
In order to raise the profile of religious
freedom and related human rights promotion through the 2008 Olympic Games in
Beijing, the Commission has urged the U.S. Congress to allocate sufficient
resources within funds appropriated for the security of U.S. citizens in
Beijing during the Games to ensure that training and related information
materials include content that:
- instructs security officials, Olympic
spectators, and athletes on China's commitments to uphold for all
visitors certain internationally recognized human rights standards during
the Olympic Games; and
- informs U.S. citizens, participants,
and spectators at the Olympic games of their rights, protected under
international law, and identifies problem areas they may encounter with
Chinese authorities relating to the freedoms of expression, religion or
belief, assembly, and association, including information on Chinese law
and the recent human rights practices of the Chinese government.
The U.S. government should also designate appropriate funding to
independent human rights organizations to monitor and report on human rights
conditions during the Games to ensure that the Chinese government is in
compliance with commitments made to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to
uphold human rights and international standards during the Olympics, in concert
with the principles of the IOC and the standards of the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights.
China was awarded the Olympics with the expectation
that its repressive policies would improve.
That has not happened. Now, the
international community must say clearly to the Chinese government that the
continued repression of the religious freedom of its own people only hurts
China's international prestige, harms U.S.-China relations, and violates
China's international obligations.
Hopefully, China will come to realize that protecting religious freedom
and related human rights is not only the right thing to do it also serves its
own interests.