Published by: World Tibet Network News Issue ID: 98/01/06
Source: New York Times
Date: January 7th, 1998
By PHILIP SHENON
WASHINGTON, January 6 -- American religious leaders traveling to China to investigate religious persecution will be permitted to visit Tibet on their trip, members of the delegation said Tuesday.
Clinton administration officials said they would welcome a visit to Tibet by such a high-ranking delegation, given the continuing reports of brutal human- rights abuses against Buddhists in Tibet, the remote and mountainous region that is usually off-limits to human-rights investigators.
China has long bristled at American criticism of its treatment of Tibet, which it annexed by force in 1951, and its irritation over the issue has grown in recent months with the release of two big-budget Hollywood films that depict Chinese atrocities against Tibetan Buddhists. Tibet has long sought greater autonomy from China.
The delegation, selected by the White House and the State Department, consists of the Rev. Don Argue, president of the National Association of Evangelicals; the Most Rev. Theodore McCarrick, archbishop of Newark, and Rabbi Arthur Schneier of Park East Synagogue in New York, who is also president of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation.
The Chinese agreed during the summit meeting last October between President Clinton and President Jiang Zemin of China to allow an American religious delegation to visit China, although the dates of the trip and the itinerary were not made public at the time.
Spokesmen for the White House and the State Department said the United States has still not received official confirmation from the Chinese government of the delegation's itinerary, although one official said that "it would be remarkable at this point if they didn't visit Tibet."
A member of the delegation, speaking on condition that he not be identified, said that the group had insisted on a visit to Tibet and that "we've been told by the Chinese officials that we're going to go -- definitely."
Mike Jendrzejczyk, Washington director of Human Rights Watch Asia, said that allowing the trip to Tibet suggested that "the Chinese government recognizes that it's in their interest to try to demonstrate a more open, tolerant attitude toward religious beliefs."
"The religious repression remains quite severe in Tibet, and any greater attention that can be brought to the problems there can be useful," he said.
During the three-week visit, which is scheduled to begin Feb. 8, the delegation plans to meet with senior Chinese leaders in Beijing and press them to release imprisoned clergy, including several ranking leaders of underground Christian churches in China.
The treatment of Chinese Christians, especially evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics, has been a subject of growing concern to Christian leaders in the United States and members of Congress.
While the Beijing government permits Christian worship, it has imprisoned the leaders of churches not officially recognized by the Beijing government. The harsh treatment of Chinese Catholics dates to the 1950s, when the Communists expelled the last papal representative and set up a church under Communist control, the Patriotic Catholic Association.
Delegation members said they were hopeful that the Chinese government would allow them unrestricted access to religious leaders in China, including those in prison.
"The Chinese have to understand that if they want a longstanding relationship with the United States, it cannot be built on trade alone, and that there are strong religious communities in the United States with impact on American foreign policy," one of the organizers said.
While the trip is being arranged largely by the White House and the State Department, it will be paid for by groups affiliated with the religious leaders, not by any government.
"This is a very clear position we took," said a member of the delegation. "While the invitation was agreed to by the two governments, this is not a government delegation. We want to have independence."
