Minority Rights Group International R E P O R Religious Minorities T and China • RELIGIOUS MINORITIES AND CHINA AN MRG INTERNATIONAL REPORT AN MRG INTERNATIONAL BY MICHAEL DILLON RELIGIOUS MINORITIES AND CHINA Acknowledgements © Minority Rights Group International 2001 Minority Rights Group International (MRG) gratefully All rights reserved. acknowledges the support of the Ericson Trust and all the Material from this publication may be reproduced for teaching or for other organizations and individuals who gave financial and other non-commercial purposes. No part of it may be reproduced in any form for assistance for this Report. commercial purposes without the prior express permission of the copyright This Report has been commissioned and is published by holders. MRG as a contribution to public understanding of the issue For further information please contact MRG. which forms its subject. The text and views of the author do A CIP catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. not necessarily represent, in every detail and in all its ISBN 1 897693 24 9 aspects, the collective view of MRG. ISSN 0305 6252 Published November 2001 MRG is grateful to all the staff and independent expert read- Typeset by Kavita Graphics ers who contributed to this Report, in particular Shelina Printed in the UK on bleach-free paper. Thawer (Asia and Pacific Programme Coordinator) and Sophie Richmond (Report Editor). THE AUTHOR Michael Dillon is Senior Lecturer in Modern Chinese and China’s Muslim Hui Community (Curzon), and editor History and Director of the Centre for Contemporary of China: A Historical and Cultural Dictionary (Curzon). Chinese Studies at the University of Durham in the UK. he is a regular visitor to China, particularly the Muslim He studied Chinese language and history at Leeds and is regions of the northwest. the author of China’s Muslims (Oxford University Press) MINORITY RIGHTS GROUP sures to avoid the escalation of conflict, and encour- INTERNATIONAL aging positive action to build trust between majority and minority communities. MRG works to secure rights and justice for ethnic, MRG has consultative status with the United Nations linguistic and religious minorities, and indigenous Economic and Social Council and has a worldwide peoples worldwide. MRG is dedicated to promoting network of partners. Its international headquarters the cause of cooperation and understanding between are in London. Legally it is registered both as a chari- communities. ty and as a limited company under English law with Founded in the 1960s, MRG is a small international an international governing Council. non-governmental organization that informs and warns governments, the international community, THE PROCESS non-governmental organizations and the wider public about the situation of minorities and indigenous peo- As part of its methodology, MRG conducts regional ples around the world. This work is based on the research, identifies issues and commissions Reports publication of well-researched Reports, Books and based on its findings. Each author is carefully chosen Papers; direct advocacy on behalf of minority rights and all scripts are read by no less than eight indepen- in international meetings; the development of a glob- dent experts who are knowledgeable about the sub- al network of like-minded organizations and minority ject matter. These experts are drawn from the communities to collaborate on these issues; and the minorities about whom the Reports are written, and challenging of prejudice and promotion of public from academics, journalists, researchers and other understanding through information and education human rights agencies. Authors are asked to incorpo- projects. rate comments made by these parties. In this way, MRG believes that the best hope for a peaceful MRG aims to publish accurate, authoritative, well- world lies in identifying and monitoring conflict balanced Reports. between communities, advocating preventive mea- Muslim men at a mosque in Kashgar, Xinjiang IAN TEH/PANOS PICTURES Religious Minorities and China CONTENTS 2 Relevant international instruments 3 Preface 4 The historical context 5 Religious traditions before 1949 5 Religion and the Chinese Communist Party 6 Document 19 7 Hong Kong 10 Major religions 10 Confucianism 10 Daoism 11 Buddhism 12 Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism 14 Christianity 16 Islam 20 New religions 23 Conclusion 24 Recommendations 25 Notes 27 Bibliography BY MICHAEL DILLON Relevant international instruments United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of (e) To teach a religion or belief in places suitable for these purposes; Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, (f) To solicit and receive voluntary financial and other contributions 25 November 1981 from individuals and institutions; (g) To train, appoint, elect or designate by succession appropriate leaders Article 1 called for by the requirements and standards of any religion or belief; 1. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and (h) To observe days of rest and to celebrate holidays and ceremonies in religion. This right shall include freedom to have a religion or what- accordance with the precepts of one’s religion or belief; ever belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in com- (i) To establish and maintain communications with individuals and com- munity with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or munities in matters of religion and belief at the national and interna- belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching. tional levels. 2. No one shall be subject to coercion which would impair his freedom Article 7 to have a religion or belief of his choice. The rights and freedoms set forth in the present Declaration shall be 3. Freedom to manifest one’s religion or belief may be subject only to accorded in national legislation in such a manner that everyone shall such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary to protect be able to avail himself of such rights and freedoms in practice. public safety, order, health or morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others. United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious or Linguistic Minorities, 18 Article 2 December 1992 1. No one shall be subject to discrimination by any State, institution, group of persons, or person on the grounds of religion or other belief. Article 2 (...) 1. Persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic Article 3 minorities (hereinafter referred to as persons belonging to minorities) Discrimination between human being on the grounds of religion or have the right to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise their belief constitutes an affront to human dignity and a disavowal of the own religion, and to use their own language, in private and in public, principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and shall be con- freely and without interference or any form of discrimination. demned as a violation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms 2. Persons belonging to minorities have the right to participate effective- proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and enun- ly in cultural, religious, social, economic and public life. ciated in detail in the International Covenants on Human Rights, and 3. Persons belonging to minorities have the right to participate effective- as an obstacle to friendly and peaceful relations between nations. ly in decisions on the national and, where appropriate, regional level concerning the minority to which they belong or the regions in which Article 4 they live, in a manner not incompatible with national legislation. 1. All States shall take effective measures to prevent and eliminate dis- 4. Persons belonging to minorities have the right to establish and main- crimination on the grounds of religion or belief in the recognition, tain their own associations. exercise and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms in 5. Persons belonging to minorities have the right to establish and main- all fields of civil, economic, political, social and cultural life. tain, without any discrimination, free and peaceful contacts with other 2. All States shall make all efforts to enact or rescind legislation where members of their group and with persons belonging to other minor- necessary to prohibit any such discrimination, and to take all appropri- ities, as well as contacts across frontiers with citizens of other States to ate measures to combat intolerance on the grounds of religion or whom they are related by national or ethnic, religious or linguistic ties. other beliefs in this matter. Article 5 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 20 1. The parents or, as the case may be, the legal guardians of the child November 1989 have the right to organize the life within the family in accordance with their religion or belief and bearing in mind the moral education in Article 30 which they believe the child should be brought up. In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities or per- 2. Every child shall enjoy the right to have access to education in the sons of indigenous origin exist, a child belonging to such a minority or matter of religion or belief in accordance with the wishes of his par- who is indigenous shall not be denied the right, in community with other ents or, as the case may be, legal guardians, and shall not be com- members of his or her group, to enjoy his or her own culture, to profess pelled to receive teaching on religion or belief against the wishes of and practise his or her own religion, or to use his or her own language. his parents or legal guardians, the best interests of the child being the guiding principle. United Nations International Convention on the Elimination of 3. The child shall be protected from any form of discrimination on the All Forms of Racial Discrimination, 21 December 1965 ground of religion or belief.