China Official Explains Religion Policy

February 20, 2008

Author: FOSTER KLUG

Source: 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.