China Assails U.S. ‘Arrogance’ in Report on Religious Freedom

[cbayer]

http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/31/china-assails-u-s-arrogance-in-report-on-religion/



JULY 31, 2012, 12:12 AM
By MARK MCDONALD

HONG KONG — The United States has issued its annual report on religious freedom around the world, taking particular aim at repression and crackdowns in China, North Korea and Myanmar. China shot back that the report was “full of prejudice, arrogance and ignorance.”

“More than a billion people live under governments that systematically suppress religious freedom,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in remarks summarizing the new report.

“New technologies have given repressive governments additional tools for cracking down on religious expression,” Mrs. Clinton said. “Members of faith communities that have long been under pressure report that the pressure is rising.”

In terms of religious freedom as a human right, she said, “the world is sliding backwards.”

more at link

[dimbear]

1. It's very true that China suppresses religion. I wonder if as Americans we

are sufficiently aware as to the why of that suppression.

Do we keep in mind the behavior of the European missionaries which led up to the Boxer Rebellion? The horrific events described so vividly by Pierre Loti in "The Last Days of Peiking?"

Do we keep in mind the bloodiest conflict of the 19th century? Not our Civil War but of course the Taiping Rebellion, death toll 20-30 million partly caused by one sect insisting that government examinations could be based on the Bible equally as well as the Analects?

Do we keep in mind Muslim terrorist movements in the northern regions?
Do we keep in mind the riots which met the efforts of the government of India to enforce birth control? Do we not recognize the incredible problems involved in limiting population growth against the people's will? Do we know the average Chinese person would prefer that population problems be solved by war?*

*anecdotal

Or are we just passing blithely by? Is this a drive-by, Hillary?