Religious leaders in Beijing have expressed negative comments on and objections to the US State Department's annual report on religious freedom, which criticized China's religious policies and religious freedom situation.  

The International Religious Freedom Report 2003 described China's banning of the Falun Gong cult as a "religious crackdown," which all the leaders considered totally groundless.

"Chinese Catholics have enjoyed a happy religious life for more than 20 years since the country adopted the opening-up and reform policies," said Rev. Liu Yuanren, head of the Chinese Regional Catholic Bishops' Conference.

"Falun Gong goes against all that society stands for, and was legally banned by the government. All evil cults deserve that. The report has mixed what's true with what's false," he added.

Cheng Guangyuan, head of the China Islamic Association, said, "The US censure went against China's reality. There are more than 20 million people from 10 minority ethnic groups in China who believe in Islam, and their religious beliefs and lives are well protected by the government in accordance with the law."

"The US report eyes international religious and human issues with different criteria and always turns a blind eye to its own piles of domestic religious problems," said the Venerable Xuecheng, vice president of the Chinese Buddhist Association. "We hope they will stop these bullying practices."

"The criticism totally ignores the robust development of the religions in China since the implementation of the religious freedom policy. That's really unfair and unreasonable," said Zhang Jiyu, vice president of the China Taoist Association.

"What we most firmly oppose is the report's characterization of the Falun Gong cult as a religion," said Zhang.

(Xinhua News Agency December 25, 2003)