U.S. Relations with the People's Republic of China (2005)

U.S. Department of State

Special Briefing
Office of the Spokesman
Washington, DC
November 8, 2005

Ambassador John Hanford On the Department of State's Annual Report On International Religious Freedom

(2:30 p.m. EST)

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AMBASSADOR HANFORD: Well, thank you, Secretary Rice, for your remarks and for your strong commitment to international religious freedom. It is truly an honor to serve a Secretary and a President who have put freedom for all people at the forefront of our foreign policy and who have such a heart for religious freedom in particular.

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In a number of countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and China, we've seen important releases of religious prisoners.

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Other "Countries of Particular Concern" had been more open. I've already mentioned Vietnam's efforts. China and Saudi Arabia have also demonstrated a willingness to engage with us to improve religious freedom. And with the signing of the Peace Accord, there is now hope -- there's reason to hope -- that we might see progress in Sudan.

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QUESTION: Sir, could you just -- are you aware of reports that there are American missionaries in prison in North Korea?

AMBASSADOR HANFORD: I'm not aware of that, to be honest with you. Now, that doesn't mean that it could not be true, but I don't have names of American citizens who are being held in North Korea. There are Koreans who cross over into China and then cross back into North Korea, sometimes with great courage and sometimes at great cost. In some cases, they are forced back.

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QUESTION: New Tang Dynasty Television. Last week, a Beijing lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, got his law firm shut down from the Chinese Government because he wrote an open letter to President Hu Jintao for Falun Gong, persecution of Falun Gong and unlawful of that action. So is President Bush going to mention him -- his issue or what is he going to do with the talk with President Hu Jintao about China's human rights?

AMBASSADOR HANFORD: I can't comment specifically on exactly what cases the President will raise. As you know from observing his past trips to China, religious freedom issues have featured very prominently. He has spoken out boldly, attended worship services. As someone has said of President Bush, "Religious freedom isn't a talking point; it's a breathing point." And that's especially true in the case of China.

I remember one time I was at the White House at an event completely unrelated to my duties, and he came over to me and told me about having just raised religious freedom with leaders in China, which I had had nothing to do with -- totally to his credit. But while the Falun Gong are not officially a religion, more a spiritual movement, the suffering that they have endured is unspeakable. There have been so many who have been arrested -- thousands and thousands, many who have died in police custody and the problem just doesn't seem to abate. And so this is something we all are deeply concerned about.

We see similar tactics taken sometimes towards religious groups, such as the South China Church, for example, where this summer 500 members were arrested. This is a very similar sort of treatment. A hundred or so we believe are still in detention. Some people affiliated with this standard Christian church, the one registered, had been tortured terribly in the past.

In China, when I travel to China, it's a long list because we have Buddhists in Tibet and their serious problems and the way in which the Dalai Lama and his followers are treated. We have Muslims, Uighur Muslims, who sometimes are arrested and tortured, although we're thankful for the release of a prisoner, Rebiya Kadeer, that we've been asking for for years. We represent the Catholic Church, which has had so much trouble becoming recognized and having relations. We represent house churches, which have so many who suffer and become imprisoned.

My hope is that we will be able to turn a corner with China and there are sometimes reasons to be encouraged when they release prisoners but then they'll turn around and arrest another group. I think this is a case where there are certain people in the government who have one opinion, others who feel that religion poses no real threat and religious freedom will be a blessing to society. I've even been told that, as China struggles with a new generation that perhaps is growing up with different values than their parents, and they see in religious youth values that they respect more. And some Chinese officials see the value in religion. What's needed is for them to give the freedom of people to choose to practice their faith as long as it's going to be peaceful, and certainly that includes people that follow Falun Gong.

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