U.S. Clerics in China Await Information on Inmates

Three U.S. religious leaders said Saturday that they are confident Chinese authorities will soon provide them with detailed information about people allegedly persecuted for their religious beliefs.

The clerics, appointed by President Clinton, a week and a half ago handed their Chinese hosts a list of 30 believers reported to have been jailed in China, and asked for details of charges against the prisoners and their welfare.

“We hope, we are very confident that before we leave China, we will have some firm information on all these people and that we will be able to achieve something for them,” said Roman Catholic Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of Newark, N.J.

The archbishop’s comments came as a U.S. Roman Catholic group accused authorities in a northern Chinese province of killing or jailing dozens of underground Catholics since 1991.

The Cardinal Kung Foundation said Saturday that there is no religious freedom in China.

The Connecticut-based foundation said in a statement that it had received a letter from an underground Catholic who had given details of religious persecution in Hebei province.

Those persecuted included prominent underground Bishop Su Zhimin, who went into hiding but was arrested last October.

“What we know of is a drop in the bucket,” foundation President Joseph Kung said by telephone from Connecticut.

“The Chinese government is forcing these believers to join the government-sponsored churches. There is no religious freedom, period.”

China cracks down on religious activity outside officially sanctioned “patriotic” organizations, and millions of believers risk harassment by gathering in underground “home churches.”

Kung said he feared that the three U.S. clerics, who are in China to open a dialogue on religious freedom, could be used by the atheist ruling Communist Party.

“What I am afraid of is that they are becoming a propaganda tool of the Chinese government,” Kung said.

The clerics--McCarrick, Rabbi Arthur Schneier and the Rev. Don Argue, president of the National Assn. of Evangelicals--are on a three-week trip.