by Mr. Ye Xiaowen, director of China's State
Bureau of Religious Affairs
February 20,
2001 , Beijing
Mr. Ye Xiaowen,
director of China's State Bureau
of Religious
Affairs, said at a conference on
February 19,
2001 in Beijng, that the Chinese
government
highly respects the freedom of
religions, but will never
allow the existence of
evil cults in the country.
Respecting freedom of religions and guaranteeing
independent running of religious groups are two
basic principles of China's religious policy.
Stressing that the Chinese people now enjoy full
freedom of religious beliefs, Ye cited that
religious believers in China have now exceeded
100 million, among whom there are more than 10
million Christians, four million Catholics, and
18 million Moslems.
Up to 1996,
there were more than 85,000 worship
sites nationwide
for practitioners of Buddhism,
Islam, Taoism, Christianity
and Catholicism to
conduct religious activities, Ye said.
The
number of religious professionals in China has
reached 300,000, while those of religious groups
exceeded 3,000 and higher-learning religious
schools amounted to 74, respectively, said Ye.
China's religious circles maintain exchanges and
contacts with religious groups in more than 70
countries and regions, Ye said.
People from the religious sector also play an
active role in the country's political life,
with
some 17,000 people with religious
affiliation
elected as deputies to the National
People's
Congress and members of the National
Committee of the
Chinese People's Political
Consultative Conference.
Though the government grants full freedom to
religious beliefs, Ye stressed that evil cults
like the much-condemned Falun Gong can go
nowhere in the country since the Chinese
government will
never allow any evil cult to
harm its people and
jeopardize society.
The Chinese government classified
Falun Gong
under the category of evil cults given
the
destructive consequences it caused to society. A
string of criminal activities of Falun Gong
fully exposed its anti-human, anti-society and
anti-science nature, Ye said.
The
cult has claimed 1,600 lives in the Chinese
mainland, leading to suicides, suicidal blazes,
self-mutilation, and even children killing their
parents, Ye said, noting that any responsible
government will not hesitate to take actions to
prevent such tragedies from happening.
As for Falun
Gong in Hong Kong, Ye said that the
Falun Gong group
here also takes instructions
from Li Hongzhi, leader of
the evil cult.
Recently, Falun Gong
activities in Hong Kong
have gone increasingly
internationalized and
politicized, Ye said.
Hong Kong's Falun Gong group has now peeled off
its disguise of "not participating in
politics,
not opposing the government and not
joining
force with any political forces," and has
targeted directly against the central government,
he said.
Some people and media in Hong Kong
have already
expressed doubt on whether the group's
activities are in line with the creeds under
which the group was registered, Ye said.
He
warned that any group or individual
attempting to
use Hong Kong as a base for Falun
Gong activities
or as an anti-China base to
hamper the implementation
of "one country, two
systems" and harm Hong
Kong's prosperity and
stability is doomed to
failure. The Hong Kong
Special Administrative
Region (SAR) government
is a responsible
government, Ye said, adding
that he believes that the
SAR government is wise
and capable enough to
handle the Falun Gong
matter in Hong Kong.
Ye delivered his speech, entitled "The
Development of Chinese Religions in the Past
Century in China," as the first keynote
speaker
at an event organized by the Chinese University
of Hong Kong to discuss religions in the past
and their future.
Attending the
lecture series were hundreds of
renowned
religious leaders and scholars from the
mainland, Hong
Kong, China 's Taiwan and the
United States. (Xinhua)