Circular Promotes Access to Religious Sites, but Local Implementation Lags

March 1, 2006

Officials at several religious sites throughout China have not yet implemented a December 2005 national circular requiring that admission fees be waived for religious believers who visit tourist destinations that also are sites of religious activity, according to a February 7 investigative report in the China Ethnicities News. Reporters who talked to officials and visited religious sites in Beijing municipality, Sichuan, Hubei, and Hebei provinces, and the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) found that officials in most localities were tardy in transmitting the circular to the appropriate departments and work units. Only the Hubei Province Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission and a Daoist temple there confirmed that they had received the circular. An official from the Hubei Commission said that office transmitted the circular to appropriate departments after receiving it, but the official expected implementation would lag since the new guidance had come out at the year's end. The Daoist temple had not yet implemented the circular.

Officials at several religious sites throughout China have not yet implemented a December 2005 national circular requiring that admission fees be waived for religious believers who visit tourist destinations that also are sites of religious activity, according to a February 7 investigative report in the China Ethnicities News. Reporters who talked to officials and visited religious sites in Beijing municipality, Sichuan, Hubei, and Hebei provinces, and the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) found that officials in most localities were tardy in transmitting the circular to the appropriate departments and work units. Only the Hubei Province Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission and a Daoist temple there confirmed that they had received the circular. An official from the Hubei Commission said that office transmitted the circular to appropriate departments after receiving it, but the official expected implementation would lag since the new guidance had come out at the year's end. The Daoist temple had not yet implemented the circular.

At several sites throughout the country, staff said they had a policy of admitting some religious believers for free, but that they were unaware of the circular requiring free admission for all such adherents. The White Cloud Temple (Baiyun'guan) in Beijing said it permits Buddhist monks and Daoist priests to enter without charge. An official there said that temple management would implement the national circular as soon as they received notice of it. Monks at two temples in Hubei, the province where authorities acknowledge having received the circular, said they were unaware of the circular but had a policy of admitting monks and local religious believers for free. A city-level ethnic and religious affairs commission in Hubei refused to comment on the circular. The XUAR Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission and the XUAR Islamic Association said they had not received the circular. An official at the Lama Temple (Yonghe'gong) in Beijing refused to verify whether the policy was enforced there, although a ticket taker told a reporter that proof of religious affiliation would not entitle the reporter to free admission. According to the circular, people of the same religion as a particular site of religious activity within a tourist destination should be granted free entry if they have formally entered the religion and can produce valid proof.

The circular's publication comes roughly 10 months after China's Regulation on Religious Affairs (RRA) entered into effect. The RRA includes a provision on sites of religious activity that also attract tourists. Article 26 provides that where a site of religious activity also serves as a tourist area, local governments "shall coordinate and deal with the interrelated interests between the site for religious activities and the park, relics, and tourism, and safeguard the rights and interests of the site for religious activities."

Although not noted in the China Ethnicities News article, some government agencies have publicized the circular on their Web sites. For example, the Guangdong Province Bureau of Commodity Prices posted the circular on January 4, with instructions for commodity price bureaus within the province to implement it.

The article applauded the publication of the circular but criticized officials for not keeping religious believers informed of their rights. The article noted that religious circulars are transmitted to relevant departments and sites of religious activity, not to individuals, thereby making it hard for adherents of religion to understand the policies described in such circulars. Under such circumstances, the article said, religious work departments and religious management officials have a responsibility to let religious believers know their rights.

The China Ethnicities News article reflects broader problems in enforcing protections of religious belief and practice in China. The promotion of religious freedom in China is hindered not only by restrictive regulations but also by the uneven implementation of safeguards that do exist in Chinese law. Authors Kim-Kwong Chan and Eric R. Carlson observe in their book Religious Freedom in China: Policy, Administration, and Regulation (Institute for the Study of American Religion, 2005) that "regulations and policies are subjected to a wide range of interpretations by local cadres, whose religious knowledge ranges from well versed to totally ignorant" (page 16). A September 2005 Forum 18 News Service report on religious freedom violations notes that local officials were the "primary culprits" in several crackdowns on religious practice. The report stresses, however, that the central government "bears primary responsibility for what happens not only at a national but at a local level[.]" Uneven implementation also has resulted in some local officials allowing religious activities that might be suppressed elsewhere, the U.S. Department of State noted in its 2005 International Religious Freedom Report.

Participants in the CECC's March 2005 roundtable on the Regulation on Religious Affairs were divided on the impact of the RRA on safeguarding religion. One participant at the roundtable stated that the "most welcome part of [the RRA] ... is [its intent] to reduce arbitrariness and abuses by local implementing officials." Another participant concluded that the aim of the RRA "is to reduce arbitrariness, but for the purpose of better total control." A third participant stressed that the RRA "further [codifies] the rules restraining religious practice in China[.]" In January 2006, a summary of China's religious work highlighted the state's achievements in training officials on the RRA.

For additional information, see section III(d), Freedom of Religion, in the CECC 2005 Annual Report.