U.S. Relations With the People's Republic of China (2009)

U.S. Department of State

Briefing on the Release of the 2009 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom

Michael H. Posner
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
Washington, DC
October 26, 2009

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QUESTION: Andrew from Reuters. I see China's still on the list of Countries of Particular Concern, and obviously, President Obama will be traveling there next month. I'm wondering if you could, for us, sum up in a nutshell your views of the current state of religious freedom in China, and what you either think or hope this report might do in informing how the White House approaches the Chinese on this issue. Are we to -- do you think we can expect to see religion featuring -- religious freedom featuring sort of openly in the dialogue between the President and the Chinese leadership?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY POSNER: Well, I think it will be a part of the U.S.-Chinese dialogue for a long time to come. It is a -- there are a range of issues, and it's, again, a mixed picture, but it's still a picture where there is -- there are a number of very troubling developments. I would say uppermost in my mind are the treatment of Buddhist religious leaders in Tibet.

The government tends to conflate religion and religious belief and practice with broader issues of autonomy and political independence. Buddhist priests that -- and monks that raise human rights issues are targeted. And the same thing is true in the Uighur Autonomous Region with Muslim clerics and others. The government has cracked down very severely since the violence there some months ago against religious leaders and others of the Muslim faith. So those are, to me, two very serious issues that are going to continue to be on the bilateral agenda. They're tough issues. They're, for sure, among the most difficult.

I think there's another issue which is the treatment of the so-called house churches. There is a growing -- one of the encouraging things to me in China is that there is a growing -- rapidly growing Christian community. A percentage, but not a majority, are in recognized -- churches recognized by the state. But somewhere between 50 and 90 million people practice Christianity in unrecognized churches that are not registered in many cases.

And so what we're trying to do is encourage the Chinese Government to recognize and allow people of faith, of various faiths, to practice. That's also part of the dialogue as far as I'm concerned.

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