Foreign Journalists visit a rural cooperative of cotton farmers in Xayar county, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on June 19. The journalists chat with the farmers and discussed their working conditions . Photo: Chen Qingrui/GT

China opposes the US so-called report on international religious freedom, which has no factual basis, is filled with lies and disinformation and reeks of ideological bias, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Monday, who urged the US to stop using so-called religious issues to meddle in China's internal affairs.

Mao made the remarks after the US once again made China its top target in the 2023 International Religious Freedom Report, linking China with "genocide" and "anti-Semitism." The report is a distortion of China's religious policy, Mao told a routine press conference.

Mao emphasized that the Chinese government protects the citizens' freedom of religious belief in accordance with the law. People of all ethnic groups in China are fully entitled to the freedom of religious belief as prescribed by law, Mao said.

In China, there are close to 200 million religious believers, over 380,000 clerical personnel, about 5,500 religious groups and over 140,000 places registered for religious activities. The facts are there for all to see and should not be distorted or denied, the spokesperson noted.

The so-called "genocide" allegation is nothing but a lie propagated by the US, the spokesperson noted. From the first population census in 1953 to the seventh in 2020, the Uygur population in Xinjiang region has grown from 3.6076 million to 11.6243 million. The increase outnumbers not only that of the total population in Xinjiang, but also that of ethnic minorities in China as a whole. It was also significantly higher than the increase of the local Han population, Mao said. 

Xinjiang enjoys social stability, economic development, ethnic solidarity, religious harmony and rising living standards. The US, however, ignores those facts and keeps peddling the lies and disinformation. Its real aim is to create a pretext to keep China down, Mao noted.

Speaking of religion, the US itself is fraught with politicization of religion, scandals involving clerical personnel, religious cults and various other issues. Religious discrimination and persecution is commonplace and "religious freedom" is severely eroded. The US is in no position to lecture other countries or point its fingers at their religious situation, Mao said.

"We urge the US to respect the facts, correct its wrongdoings, and stop using so-called religious issues to meddle in China's internal affairs," Mao stressed. 

Global Times