WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior Chinese official is trying to calm U.S. misgivings ahead of Beijing's coming Olympic Games about what the Bush administration sees as religious intolerance.
In Washington, the director of China's religious affairs bureau met with U.S. officials and spoke at Georgetown University.
Ye Xiaowen told reporters Wednesday, after talks with Undersecretary of State Paula Dobriansky, that China's peaceful development depends upon its respect for human rights and religious beliefs. Ye said he also met with President Bush's ambassador for international religious freedom, John Hanford, and with Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the retired archbishop of Washington.
China has been a target of international criticism that its communist-led government abuses and stymies the voices of its people and ignores violence in Sudan's Darfur region. Some have demanded sanctions involving the August Olympics, but the Chinese government has said repeatedly the games should be kept separate from politics.
Ye criticized as groundless last year's State Department report on religious freedom that said China continued to repress religious groups and was cracking down ahead of the Olympics.