'Stability the key' to new rules on religion
Beijing must tread carefully when reforming regulations on religion, an official in charge of religious affairs says, emphasising that social stability and harmony should be the basis for such laws.
Ji Wenyuan , vice-director of the Religious Affairs Bureau in Beijing, also said China's 'special circumstances' must be taken into account. 'A religion must be accepted not only by its own congregation, which follows its teachings, but also by non-believers who can live with it,' Mr Ji said at an international conference on religion and law at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing this week.
Mr Ji was speaking after Zhang Xunmou , director of the Religious Affairs Bureau's policy and legal department, told the conference earlier that Beijing was revamping its religious policy, moving from control by diktat to the rule of law to curb arbitrary interference by the state and give religious groups more autonomy,
Mr Ji warned against the 'sweeping assumptions' involved in enacting religion laws borrowed from the west, because China's circumstances were different.
Mr Ji said the mainland's new traffic laws, modelled on those in the west which put responsibility for infractions on motorists, had turned out to be unworkable in China. He also said that although the one-child policy conflicted with some religious beliefs, it was necessary to control population growth.
Chinese legal experts at the conference urged the enactment of a law on religion to better delineate the state's authority in regulating religion and beliefs.
The constitution protects freedom of religion, but it is not enforceable in court. Provisions in the civil and criminal laws - often self-contradictory - and administrative orders form the basis for the regulation of religious affairs.
