World Tibet Network News Friday, April 17, 1998
BEIJING, April 16 (AFP) - Police in northern Hebei province arrested two underground Roman Catholic priests after US religious leaders visited China in February to investigate religious conditions, a US-based activist group said.
The Cardinal Kung Foundation, which monitors suppression of the country's outlawed pro-Vatican church, said Father Lu Genyou was arrested in Baoding on April 5 and Father Shi Wende was detained in Yixian on March 14.
Both cities are less than 160 kilometres (100 miles) southwest of here.
The priests are still detained, the foundation said in a faxed statement.
The February 3-25 tour by three prominent US clerics was described in the statement by foundation president, Joseph Kung as a failure, as China has since failed to release any religious dissidents or loosen its controls on religion.
Kung quoted the delegation as stating that the trip's success would be measured by Chinese leaders' response to concerns it raised about persecution of independent religious practice.
"These arrests and the non-responsiveness on the specific requests of the delegation are certainly much less than a positive response from China," he said.
Although the clerics handed Beijing a list of 30 imprisoned religious figures and requested they be freed, "not one single (listed) person ... has been released." he said.
"In light of this development, one cannot help but doubt the sincerity and motives of the Chinese government's dialogue with the United States ... and of the Chinese government's decision to sign the United Nations' International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees freedom of religion and assembly."
The delegation's visit, agreed to during last October's Sino-US presidential summit in Washington, included an unprecedented stop in the politically sensitive region of Tibet and was hailed by Washington as a sign of greater Chinese openness.
Former foreign minister Qian Qichen announced last month China would sign the rights covenant.
