Activists see no results from Bush's China visit - World - George W. Bush - Brief Article

National Catholic Reporter, March 8, 2002 by Gill Donovan

CHINA: In a news conference held soon after a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Feb. 21 between Chinese President Jiang Zemin and President George Bush, Jiang Zemin insisted China provides for religious freedom and ignored questions concerning restrictions on religion in China and the detention of Catholic clergy.

"Any religious follower has to abide by the law," Jiang said. "So some of the lawbreakers have been detained because of their violation of law, not because of their religious belief."

On Feb. 13, Fides, news agency of the Vatican's Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, released a list of 33 Catholic bishops and priests who were arrested or under house arrest since the mid-1990s because of their refusal to join the government-approved Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.

In Atlanta Feb. 22, John M. Davies, president of Free the Fathers, an international Catholic human rights group, expressed disappointment that Bush's visit did not result in any of the bishops or priests being released. In a statement, Davies criticized Bush for not challenging Jiang's remarks that China had religious freedom.

Bob Fu, executive director of the U.S.-based Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China, said that the Bush administration could not speak strongly on religion because of business links with China.