Fair Reporting on China's Progress in Human Rights and Religious Freedom NeededA television preacher from the United States Friday praised China's progress in human rights and religious freedom, denouncing some reports on China as "distorted and unbalanced.""Many Americans and other peoples around the world have a distorted and an unbalanced view of China from the reporting on Chinese progress in human rights and religious freedom," Paul Crouch, president of the U.S.-based Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), said this afternoon at a news briefing with the local press. Crouch, who preached in churches in Beijing and Shanghai in his previous visit to China years ago, said he has personally seen that Christians can openly practice and profess their faith in China, adding that the Bible is publicly printed and freely distributed. Crouch, who is here at the invitation of the China Association for International Friendly Contact, a Chinese non-governmental organization, met previously with Chinese Vice-Premier Qian Qichen and other officials from China's State Administration of Religious Affairs, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, and the Information Office of the State Council. Crouch has used the Internet to obtain information on the Falun Gong cult, and said he does not believe that Falun Gong is a faith, and it is detrimental to people's health. The Chinese government's reaction to dealing with the Falun Gong cult has been inaccurately portrayed as the government practicing religious oppression, and in fact the government is attempting to protect its citizens from this deadly and dangerous Jim Jones-like cult, he said. China could also have accused the United States of violating human rights when the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the U.S. terminated the Branch Davidian cult years ago, he said. He also said it is in the best interest of American citizens that China enters the World Trade Organization. |
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