October 13, 1999
China tops list of worldwide
religious liberty offenders
___WASHINGTON (RNS)--China tops a list of seven nations the U.S. State Department said are of "particular concern" because of their poor treatment of religious believers.
___The seven are potentially subject to a host of economic sanctions that the White House may apply under provisions of the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act. The president may, however, waive all sanctions for national security reasons.
___The other nations named were Afghanistan, Burma, Iran, Iraq, Serbia and Sudan. The list was announced Oct. 6 as a follow-up to an IRFA-mandated State Department report released in early September that detailed limitations placed on religious freedom in more than 190 nations and territories.
___The seven nations on the list were among the worst violators of religious freedom, according to the report.
___Steve McFarland, executive director of the Commission on Religious Freedom, an independent body also created by IRFA, praised the State Department for "biting the bullet" on China.
___In the past, China has angrily reacted to any U.S. accusation that Beijing persecutes religious believers, further complicating the delicate relationship between the two nations.
___The September report accused China of "government intolerance" of all religious activity not officially approved by Beijing. Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, Muslims and others were said to suffer religious persecution in China. The persecution includes long prison terms and the closing of religious sites, according to the report.
___China dismissed those charges as false. A Chinese foreign ministry official said China persecutes only criminals.
___Merely putting China on the list was not enough, though, McFarland said. "It's great that they made the correct diagnosis, but the proof of the pudding is the action taken," he said in urging the president to apply some sanctions to China.
___McFarland also said the list was incomplete. He said Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Vietnam, "maybe India," and several other nations should have been named "using the State Department's own criteria."
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