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Chinese Religious Leaders Leave for US
The Chinese delegations of top religious leaders left Beijing Monday for the United States for a goodwill visit before attending the Millennium World Peace Summit of religious leaders to be held in the United Nations on August 28.
The delegation, consisting of seven top leaders of Buddhism, Taoism, Islamism, Catholicism and Christianity in China. has been the first overseas trip since the founding of new China in 1949.
They were at the invitation of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation of the United States and the organizing committee of the Summit.
The delegation was led by Bishop Michael Fu Tieshan, chairman of the Catholic Patriotic Association of China, and Dr. Han Wenzao, president of China's Christian Council.
Members of the delegation include Taoist master Min Zhiting, Islamic Akhund Chen Guangyuan, Living Buddha Jamyang Losang Jigme Tubdain Qoigyi Nyima, Buddhist master Sheng Hui, and Rev. Ms Cao Shengjie.
Ye Xiaowen, director-general of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, acts as the consultant of the delegation.
According to Fu Tieshan, the Chinese religious gurus will conduct extensive contact and exchanges with the US religious circles and other social aspects with a view to enhancing mutual understandings. They would put forward to the Summit the principles of "tolerance, exchanges, dialogue, co-existence and progress" in handling international religious issues.
The delegation will also voice their strong concern over the pursuit of power politics and hegemonism, the instigating of national splittism and the creation of social conflict, under the camouflage of religion, while advocating for crackdowns upon cults that smear the image of legitimate religions and threaten social stability.
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