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 01/07/2002 15:39:10 Bush angered over China's arrest of man delivering Bibles Washington (dpa) - U.S. President George W. Bush ordered U.S. diplomats in Beijing and Washington to protest China's arrest of a Hong Kong businessman for delivering Bibles to an underground Christian congregation inside China, the U.S. State Department said Monday. U.S. diplomats in Beijing raised Bush's concerns with the Chinese Foreign Ministry, and the State Department summoned Chinese diplomats in Washington to hear similar complaints about China's intolerance of religious belief, department spokesman Richard Boucher said. Boucher did not identify the Chinese diplomat in Washington but indicated it was below the level of Ambassador Yang Jiechi. ``We're troubled by reports that an individual has been arrested for making Bibles available to Christians in China,'' Boucher said. ``The president is deeply concerned about these reports.'' Boucher pointedly mentioned that Bush had raised U.S. concerns about religious freedom in China with Chinese President Jiang Zemin during October's Shanghai summit of the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. The Washington Post reported Sunday that Hong Kong businessman Li Guangqiang, 38, was indicted last month for supporting ``an evil cult'' by smuggling into China tens of thousands of Bibles paid for by worshippers in the United States. ``Reports of a crackdown on religious practitioners in China are deeply troubling,'' Boucher said. ``We call upon China, as a member of the international community, to meet international standards on freedom of religious expression and freedom of conscience. These are standards embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.'' |
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