Both of Asia’s two emerging superpowers, China and India, have rejected charges by a U.S. government commission that they fail to protect religious freedom adequately.
China has lodged a diplomatic protest after the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) found that Chinese violations of religious freedom last year remained “severe,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
India, meanwhile, is likewise rejecting the panel’s charges that the religious freedom of minorities in the world’s largest democracy is being violated with tacit support from elements in the ruling party.
Leaders of religious minorities in both nations, on the other hand, largely welcomed the findings of the report by the USCIRF, released on Monday, May 2, in Washington.
On China, the commission said in its report this week that there were “systematic, egregious and ongoing abuses” against Christians, Buddhists, Muslims and others.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Thursday that China fully respected religious freedom but that year in, year out, the United States attacks China on religion, ignoring the facts and distorting the situation.
“China is resolutely opposed to this and has already lodged stern representations with the U.S. side,” he told a daily news briefing.
“We demand the U.S. side objectively and justly view China’s religious policy and Chinese citizens’ freedom of belief, and stop using the religious issue to interfere in China’s internal affairs,” Hong added.
“The U.S. side should reflect more on its own problems, and not always gesticulate about other countries,” he said.
Government spokesmen in India struck similar notes.
“India is a vibrant pluralistic society founded on strong democratic principles,” said Vikas Swarup, a government official.
“The Indian constitution guarantees fundamental rights to all its citizens including the right to freedom of religion.”
The USCIRF report deems India to be “on a negative trajectory” with increasing activities against minorities by Hindu groups that it says are “tacitly supported” by a segment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The report mentions a ban on cow slaughter in some states, forced conversions by Hindu groups and problems of police bias and judicial inaction. They “have created a pervasive climate of impunity, where religious minority communities feel increasingly insecure, with no recourse when religiously-motivated crimes occur.”
Last month, police arrested five suspects in the hanging deaths of two Muslim cowherds in an incident that led to violent protests in the eastern state of Jharkhand amid reports the attackers were Hindu vigilantes.
USCIRF designated India as a Tier-2 country — not among the worst offenders, rather a “country of particular concern” — and called on the Indian government to “publicly rebuke government officials and religious leaders” who make “derogatory statements about religious communities.”
Maulana Salim Engineer, secretary general of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, the country’s largest Islamic organization, said the government is encouraging Hindu extremist groups by rejecting the report.
“These fascist elements are trying to demolish the pluralistic structure of secular India. By not acting against these fascist elements and rejecting the USCIRF report the government is destabilizing the foundation of Indian democracy and tarnishing the country’s image internationally,” he told RNS.
“The Indian government should take corrective actions instead of denying the truth revealed by this US Commission report.”
The situation for Christians has been aggravated because six Indian states have laws that criminalize evangelism and put extraordinary restrictions on conversions, said John Dayal, spokesman of the United Christian Forum. He criticized the government for rejecting international scrutiny of its human rights record.
Meanwhile, the report also urged the U.S. Department of State to re-designate China’s government as a top-tier violator, along with eight other countries, including Myanmar, Iran, North Korea and Saudi Arabia.
China has long said that it guarantees religious freedom. However, critics note that the officially atheist ruling Community Party recognizes only a handful of state-approved religions — Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism and Protestantism — followers of which must worship under the watch of patriotic religious associations controlled by the government.
Religious minorities, particularly Muslim Uighurs in China’s western Xinjiang region and Buddhist Tibetans, chafe at strict government controls on their faith, which exiles and activists say have spurred social unrest and violence.
Earlier this week, a heavily Muslim Chinese province demanded strict adherence to a ban on religion in schools after a video circulated online in which a kindergartener recites verses from the Quran.
The government in the northwestern province of Gansu reiterated the officially atheistic communist government’s rules forbidding the presence of religion in public schools at all levels, saying it was protecting children.
The government describes resistance to its rule in Muslim and Buddhist communities as inspired by outside forces trying to split the country, and authorities regularly crack down on unregistered religious groups and underground house churches.
The USCIRF is a bipartisan commission which can make policy recommendations but has no direct legislative authority.
Last month, chairman Robert P. George said commission members had been unable to obtain visas for members who planned to travel to India to assess conditions there.
(The Associated Press also contributed to this report.)
