‘China to uphold religious freedom’

BEIJING: The Chinese government fully protects citizens' freedom of religious belief in accordance with the law.

This was stated by a spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry Geng Shuang at a regular news briefing.. While rejecting a ‘International Religious Freedom Report" of 2018 issued by US State Department, he said the Chinese people of all nationalities enjoy full religious freedom in accordance with the law.

“The US side’s report on China-related content and U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo’s remarks on disregard of facts, full of ideological prejudice, smashing Chinese religious and political policies, and publicly interfering in China’s internal affairs, he remarked. He added, “The Chinese side is strongly dissatisfied and resolutely opposed, and has already proposed to the U.S. Strictly related.”

He pointed out that there are nearly 200 million people of all kinds of religious believers in China, of which more than 20 million are Muslims, more than 380,000 religious faculty members, 5,500 religious groups, and more than 140,000 religious activities registered in accordance with the law.

He said “there are 24,400 existing mosques in Xinjiang, and an average of 530 Muslims own a mosque. People of all nationalities enjoy full freedom of religious belief. China’s ethnic and religious policies are open and transparent. The facts are obvious to all.