c. 1997 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ The death of Chinese communist leader Deng Xiaoping, architect of the brutal 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators, is unlikely to open the way for immediate improvements in China’s record on human rights and religious freedom, according to U.S. human rights activists.

China’s official news agency reported Deng died Wednesday night (Feb. 19) at the age of 92 from”complications from lung infections.” Deng, who is credited with liberalizing China’s economy, also kept a firm hand against dissent. In June 1989, he ordered the army to use deadly force against pro-democracy student protesters in Tiananmen Square.”Deng set the overall framework”on human rights that other Chinese leaders continue to follow, said Mike Jendrzejczyk, Washington director of Human Rights Watch/Asia.”What he’s left behind is this very mixed legacy of economic reform and a fearless oppression of dissent.” Jendrzejczyk said he expects Chinese leaders, including current President and Communist Party Chief Jiang Zemin, to”follow Deng’s line”for the forseeable future.

Nina Shea, director of Freedom House’s Puebla Program on Religious Freedom, a human rights group, agreed.”These policies of oppression are entrenched in the laws now. It has become ingrained in the party ethos,”she said.

In fact, Shea said, she expects the human rights situation to worsen in the short term for religious groups, particularly Christians.”This is a time of great political instability … and I fear they are going to scapegoat the Christians, whom they’ve already pronounced to be the biggest threat to China’s stability,”Shea said.

China’s policies on human rights and religious freedom have long been criticized by Western advocacy groups.

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The U.S. State Department’s annual human rights report released earlier this month noted the Chinese government last year”continued to commit widespread and well-documented human rights violations”on a variety of fronts.”All public dissent against party and government was effectively silenced by intimidation, exile or the imposition of prison terms, administrative detention or house arrest. No dissidents were known to be active at the year’s end,”it said.

Religious groups, and particularly those who operate outside official government channels, are kept under a tight reign. For example, Catholics who remain loyal to the Vatican and Protestant Christians who meet in unauthorized”underground”or”house”churches encounter persecution, including fines, arrest and imprisonment.

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In 1996, Freedom House documented a list of 200 Christian clergy who were imprisoned or under some form of detention because of religious activities _ more than in any other nation in the world. Among those were 76-year-old Roman Catholic Bishop Zeng Jingmu and 64-year-old Bishop Su Chimin, who had already spent a total of 15 years in prison because of his religious activities.

Other religious groups are also persecuted in China, including Muslims in the remote province of Xinjiang and Tibetan Buddhists, who have faced increased oppression in recent years.

A statement from the International Campaign for Tibet, a nonprofit group that monitors human rights in Tibet, said Deng’s death”marks the end of that group of Chinese leaders who had personal involvement in Tibet.” The group noted Deng was involved with several brutal campaigns against Tibet, such as”purging Tibetan leaders, including the Panchen Lama.””The death of Deng provides new opportunities and challenges for both the Tibetans and the Chinese,”said Lodi Gyari, president of the International Campaign for Tibet.”How each side will play their hand in the post-Deng era remains an open question.” Shea, who is a member of the newly established State Department Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad, said this time of transition in China could be a good opportunity for the U.S. government to take stronger policy stands against religious persecution in China.”This is an issue which cuts across all religious groups and therefore really compels the U.S. … to devise new tools that will be effective in broadening religious freedom and other human rights in China,”she said.

In the past, Shea has criticized the U.S. government for putting more priority on economic interests in China than on human rights concerns.

Several members of Congress have also urged the Clinton administration to put more pressure on China. In a February 13 letter, 36 members of the House of Representatives asked Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to specifically take up the issue of religious repression during her upcoming visit to China.”We are deeply disturbed by the Chinese government’s persecution of these peaceful, upstanding communities of faith, particularly as the Chinese constitution guarantees freedom of religion,”said the bipartisan group.”We respectfully request that you urge the Chinese government to cease the harassment, beatings and torture of Christians, to release all persons imprisoned for their religious beliefs and to allow all Chinese citizens freely to practice their faith,”the letter said.

In a statement released Thursday (Feb. 20), Rep. Joseph R. Pitts, R-Pa., one of the signers of the congressional letter, said the”real watershed events”for human rights in China may begin later this year when the 15th Communist Party Congress names a new leadership slate.”But for now, as the leadership is in transition, those who are working for human rights and religious freedom can largely expect much of the same,”Pitts said.

MJP END LAWTON