Party pays attention to religious work: official

Leaders of the Chinese Communist Party have always paid much attention to religious work in the country, said China's top official in charge of religious affairs.

In his article published in Wednesday's "Guangming Daily", Ye Xiaowen, director of the State Administration of Religious Affairs (SARA), noted that in the past 10 years, great progress has also been recorded in the country's religious work.

The third generation of the collective leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) Central Committee with Jiang Zemin at its core attaches great importance to China's religious work, the official said.

While upholding the correct policies of the previous leaderships, the current CPC leadership has put forward a series of measures and policies to better unite China's religious believers and non-believers for the goal of building a socialism with Chinese characteristics.

The leaders emphasized that leading officials at all levels should pay much attention to religious issues, do their utmost to maintain the stability and continuity of religious policies, and develop and consolidate the united patriotic front.

On many occasions, Jiang has stressed that how to properly handle religious issues represents a major subject in China's modernization drive and that all CPC officials should have a Marxist religious outlook and be fully aware of the complexity and importance of religious work.

In view of the great domestic and world changes around the end of 1980s and early 1990s, Jiang pointed out that in the socialist phase, religion will exist for a long time in the phase of socialism and that the policies of freedom of religious belief will not change.

In 1991, Jiang put forward a principle governing the CPC's relations with religious friends, that is, the two sides should unite and cooperate politically and mutually respect each other's beliefs. The principle has won wholehearted support from religious personages and the religious believers, Ye said.

Meanwhile, the party has enhanced the management of China's religious affairs and has properly dealt with religious problems as they arise.

In 1991, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council jointly issued a circular on better religious work.

Three years later, the central government promulgated the Regulations on the Administration of Sites for Religious Activities and the Provisions on the Administration of Religious Activities of Aliens Within The territory of The People's Republic of China.

The provisions marked an important step in China's rule of law and its religious affairs work, the official said.

The Communist Party also stressed the importance of respecting the religious beliefs of ethnic nationalities, resolutely checking and opposing separatist activities by hostile forces under the pretext of religion, and maintaining the social stability at border regions.

In the process, exchange activities between China's religious circles and their foreign counterparts have been encouraged, while efforts been taken to prevent the infiltration of hostile forces, Ye said.

In the article, the official also talked about the CPC's basic religious policies in the initial stage of socialism and the aspects that command further attention and more efforts from religious workers.

(Xinhua 2000/05/17)