BEIJING, May 2 (Xinhua) -- A signed Chinese article slammed a recent report released by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), urging it to stop using religious matters to smear China.

The USCIRF never runs short of political bias against China and has published one report after another to smear China's religious policies over the years, said the article.

The report, based on lies and prejudice, ignored the basic fact that the Chinese government protects its citizens' freedom of religious belief in accordance with the law, said the article.

China currently has nearly 200 million religious believers, more than 380,000 clerical personnel, some 5,500 religious organizations, 144,000 venues for religious activities registered according to law, and 92 religious institutes, according to the article.

The legitimate rights and interests of religious circles in China are safeguarded, and religious activities of believers are protected by law and carried out in a normal and orderly manner in the country, the article noted.

"China, like other countries, will never allow anyone to engage in criminal activities, spread religious extremism and carry out violent terrorist activities under the pretense of religion," it said, adding that the report maliciously smeared and attacked the Chinese government's policies of governing Xinjiang and Tibet.

For more than two millennia, various religions in China have integrated with the inclusive cultural tradition of the Chinese nation, forming a harmonious coexistence of different religions, said the article.

Today, China's religious groups have established friendly relations with religious organizations from over 80 countries and actively participated in international conferences and activities involving different civilizations, beliefs and religions, it added.

"Only by being objective, rational, inclusive and cooperative can we prevail over the paranoid, fanatical, zero-sum and confrontational mentality, thus contributing to the development of China-U.S. relations," the article said.