China tells US to keep off its religious affairs

Last year, at the International Religious Freedom forum, Ye had said it was up to the United States to formulate its own laws. “However, it should be noted that if a country meddles in other countries’ religious and internal affairs through its own domestic legislation and even put pressure on them by threatening to impose sanctions, it is not conducive to proper religious exchangebetween the countries,” he said.

The US spokesman said the dialogues would provide an opportunity for us to discuss the disturbing developments in the Chinese government’s treatment of the democracy movement.” Zhu stressed that the dialogue will be conducted on the basis of common ground reached by Chinese President Jiang Zemin and US President Bill Clinton on human rights during their summit here in June last.

The talks are being held in the backdrop of a political crackdown by China that has sparked off a global outcry over its rights record.