A Christian religious freedom group has given its approval for the U.S. State Department's removal of China from its human rights blacklist despite reports of the government's increased crackdown on house churches ahead of the Olympic Games.
Open Doors International, which defends the right of house churches to freely worship, explained that although it condemns government persecution of "unofficial" churches, it also recognizes that religious freedom has significantly improved in China in recent years.
"China has had a lot of improvements in the last five to 10 years," explained Johnny Li, minister at large at Open Doors International, Thursday to Christian Today's US correspondent. "Religious freedom in China compared to five, 10 years ago is in much better shape now."
But he was quick to note that China was not perfect and that it still has a lot of room for improvement.
"China can do much better," said Li, who was born in Hong Kong and emigrated to the United States in 1996.
The U.S. State Department on Tuesday released its annual report on human rights which dropped China from its list of the world's worst human rights violators.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended removing China on Wednesday by pointing to renewed dialogue with Beijing on human rights issues. She also explained that the top 10 list highlights countries that are extremely closed off to the world, like Burma (Myanmar) and North Korea, and it is not meant to be understood that those not on the list have good human rights records, according to Agence France-Presse.
"[I]t is by no means suggesting that there is not significant emphasis on human rights problems in China," Rice said, according to AFP. "If you read the report on China, it is quite harsh, and properly so, about human rights problems in China."
The report emphasised that China's "overall human rights record remained poor" in 2007, as it specifically mentioned restrictions on religious freedom.
Open Doors' Li said some of his friends are currently detained in Chinese prisons because of their faith. He also noted that he has received many phone calls in recent weeks from friends who are on the run and in "dangerous circumstances" because of their involvement in the house church movement.
