BEIJING — In his private Feb. 21 meeting with Chinese leader Jiang Zemin and his farewell public address the next day at the conclusion of his trip to Asia, President Bush asked the Chinese government to ease its persecution of Catholics and other religions.

But human rights advocates wonder if mere words can change the conduct of the Chinese Communist regime, which is one of six countries the U.S. State Department has identified as being of “particular concern” for its treatment of religious freedom. The others are Burma, Iran, Iraq, North Korea and Sudan.

Speaking Feb. 22 at Tsinghua University in Beijing, Bush told Chinese students that freedom of religion is not something to be feared and that believers of all faiths are “no threat to public order.”

Bush said it is his “prayer that all persecution will end, so that all in China are free to gather and worship as they wish.”

“Faith points to a moral law beyond man's law and calls us to duties higher than material gain,” Bush said. “Freedom of religion is not something to be feared, but it's to be welcomed, because faith gives us a moral core and teaches us to hold ourselves to high standards, to love and to serve others and to live responsible lives.”

At a Feb. 21 press conference at the Shangri-la Hotel in Beijing, U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice commented on Bush's discussion with Jiang on religious freedom during private meetings earlier that day.

Said Rice, “They had an extensive discussion of religious freedom and a really rather long exchange, with the president encouraging President Jiang to think hard about opening dialogue with religious communities and with religious figures.

“He mentioned specifically the importance of dialogue with the Vatican and with the Dalai Lama, but also with other organized religions, and suggested that perhaps some of them might be invited here to the country.”

Rice characterized the discussion as “very friendly” and admitted that Bush did not press Jiang on specific cases of religious repression. On Feb. 13, Fides, the news agency of the Vatican's Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, released a list of 33 Catholic bishops and priests who have been arrested or are under house arrest since the mid-1990s because of their refusal to join the government-approved Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.

At a joint press conference with Bush after their Feb. 21 meeting, Jiang insisted that the jailed Catholic bishops were under arrest for criminal misconduct, not because of their religious beliefs.

Twice Jiang ignored questions concerning restrictions on religion in China and the detention of Catholic clergy, reported UCA News, an Asian Church news agency based in Thailand.

However, toward the end of the press conference, Jiang responded by saying that the Constitution of the People's Republic of China provides for religious freedom.

“I don't have religious faith. Yet this does not prevent me from having an interest in religion. I've read the Bible, I've also read the Quran, as well as the scriptures of Buddhism,” Jiang said, adding that he has met and exchanged views with religious leaders on various occasions.

However, he said: “Any religious follower has to abide by the law. So some of the lawbreakers have been detained because of their violation of law, not because of their religious belief. Although I'm the president of this country, I have no right interfering in the judicial affairs, because of judicial independence.”

‘Release the Bishops’

Rice was asked at her own press conference if she believed Jiang's claims that the Catholic bishops had been jailed for breaking the law. Replied Rice, “Well, I think our view is that these bishops need to be — that the Chinese government needs to release them. And we've made that clear. We've made that clear at a number of levels. The Catholic Church has made that clear. And the president has really asked the Chinese leadership to engage the Catholic Church, which is really the way that much of this will be resolved.”

In Atlanta, John 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 Feb. 22 statement, Davies criticized Bush for not challenging Jiang's remarks that China had religious freedom.

But the Vatican newspaper gave front-page coverage to Bush's Feb. 22 remarks to Chinese students, in which he talked of his faith and the United States' freedom of religion.

The newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, said Bush “exhorted China to concede great freedom and to have greater tolerance for religion.”

“George W. Bush, like other presidents on similar occasions, avoided criticizing China directly, preferring to illustrate” how the United States deals with differences and benefits from the faiths of its citizens, it said.

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

Nina Shea, director of the Washington-based Center for Religious Freedom, expressed similar concerns after Bush's trip.

“Bush's request to Jiang Zemin to listen to the Vatican's appeal and release the Catholic bishops incarcerated in Chinese prisons has undeniable political value,” said Shea. “But the United States has very little power when it comes to China to be able to impose respect for human rights.”

Trade Status Mistake?

The United States lost its main bargaining chip on the religious freedom issue by granted favorable trade status to China two years ago, Shea argued. “The simple fact is that the United States has no way of sanctioning China, should it not respect human rights,” she said.

“When Clinton promoted China to the permanent status of favored nation in commercial exchanges in 2000, the weapon of the annual examination of human rights in the country was removed from Congress, on which trade relations with China depended. Now the only thing the United States can do is talk.”

The religious freedom advocate added that “it is frustrating to see that many countries, like the United States but also Europe, have already begun to treat China as a rightful member of the international community, before noting progress in respect for human rights and religious liberty.”

Shea held out little hope that Bush's comments in China would trigger any significant change in Beijing's anti-religion policies.

Predicted Shea, “Things will not really change until the Chinese state ceases to arrogate to itself the right to determine doctrine, define religious orthodoxy and appoint religious leaders, in direct violation of international mandates for respect of human rights which it has signed.”

(With files from combined news services)