BEIJING: China has denounced as "groundless" the US accusation on the Communist country's "poor" track record of its religious policies and freedoms and asked Washington not to dabble in its internal affairs.
"China is strongly dissatisfied and resolutely opposed to the US accusation on the country in its religious freedom report," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement.
Qin's comments came in the wake of the US State Department's International Religious Freedom Report 2006, which was released last Friday.
The Chinese government's respect for freedom of religion and freedom of conscience remained "poor", the US State Department annual report said.
"That's groundless criticism on China's religion policy and situation of religious freedom," Qin asserted.
"It violated the basic norms guiding international relations and interfered with China's internal affairs," the spokesman said amid a meeting in New York between Chinese
Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.
It is an undisputable fact that the Chinese government protects the citizens' freedom of religious belief in accordance with laws, and Chinese people of all ethnic groups enjoy full freedom of religious belief according to laws, he stressed.
He demanded the US "face squarely" its own problems including religious freedom violations and stop interfering with China's domestic affairs.
China has more than 100 million religious adherents, more than 100,000 venues for religious activities, and about 300,000 clergy members, according to official statistics.
Normal religious ceremonies or rituals conducted by ministers and all other normal religious activities -- carried out either in venues for religious activities or homes of religious adherents in accordance with religious tradition -- are taken care of by believers themselves and protected by law, the official Xinhua news agency noted.
