China calls US religion report "groundless" meddling

BEIJING, Sep 19 (Reuters) A US State Department report on China's controls of religious practices amounted to ''groundless'' interference in the country's internal affairs, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said.

The Bush administration has made religion a focus of its international human rights agenda, and friction between Washington and Beijing over the issue has been growing.

The US State Department's 2006 report on international religious freedom said China had failed to live up to promises to respect citizens' faith and persecutes Christians, Muslims and Tibetan Buddhists who refuse to accept official controls.

''The government's respect for freedom of religion and freedom of conscience remained poor, especially for religious groups and spiritual movements that are not registered with the government,'' said the US report released on Friday.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the report ''was a continuation of groundless accusations of China's policies on religion and ethnic minorities.'' ''It violates the basic rules of international relations and interferes in China's internal affairs,'' Qin said in a statement issued on the foreign ministry's Web site (www.fmprc.gov.cn yesterday).

China's officially atheist Communist leaders say its citizens are free to practice religion in places and ways approved by the state.

''In China, all ethnic groups and people in every region enjoy full freedom of religion and faith according to the law,'' Qin said.

China's latest counter-blast comes at a time when Beijing is increasingly wary of US President George W Bush's religion-focused diplomacy, which he highlighted by meeting three Christian Chinese dissidents in the White House in May.

Late last month, the chief of China's State Administration for Religious Affairs, Ye Xiaowen, condemned the White House meeting and said friction over religion was overshadowing ties.

''In religious issues both sides are increasingly at odds,'' Ye said remarks published in the Hong Kong Singtao Daily on September 1.

''This subject has become a major obstacle to constructive cooperation between China and the United States.'' The State Department report said that while the number of religious believers in China continued to grow, members of churches, mosques and temples that reject state control face harassment, even imprisonment.

''The level of repression in Tibetan areas remained high,'' the report said of the region where many Buddhists remain faithful to the exiled Dalai Lama, who China calls a dangerous political separatist.

REUTERS PDS BST0605