I'm afraid that the new USA Freedom Corps will just resurrect 1960s Chinese suspicion of the Peace Corps as an arm of the CIA, which still keeps the Peace Corps program in China isolated to one province, under another name, with staff just teaching English.
The Church and State in China:
Religion as Factor and Actor in U.S.-China Relations
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3. Post Cold War Tensions
The third factor sustaining China's negative attitude toward religion as a bilateral issue is the escalation of China-bashing in the U.S. and America-bashing in China through the 1990s that continues today to foster enmity, suspicion and prejudice.
* In China, the theme of vigilance against U.S. efforts to "Westernize, divide and weaken" China is pervasive in internal government communication, especially in the security sector.
* During the increasingly harsh "strike hard" campaigns, the government is not just fighting crime and cults, but is secretly targeting for surveillance all "potential enemies."
* This list includes unregistered but orthodox Catholics and Protestants along with leading businesses and universities, and American foundations and NGO personnel.
* Meanwhile, in the U.S. anti-China sentiment has fostered fear of war and ethnic stereotyping in public opinion. This is alienating the Chinese people, especially the younger generations.
* Legitimate concern among American religious groups about raising the importance of international religious freedom as a foreign policy issue was "shanghai'd" by politicians and lobbyists for use in their domestic agendas, further poli-ticizing religious issues in bilateral relations.
Religion Matters
At December 2001 religious affairs work conference, Jiang Zemin stressed that "religion is important around the globe," something both Chinese and Americans now realize after September 11.
* However, the implication of most media coverage was that religion is still a problem, just a bigger one than was thought, outweighing its positive elements.
* So far, this shock has tended to bring the two countries together. President Bush immediately after the September attack saw the chance to improve relations with Russia and China, and in his State of the Union address even spoke of "a common danger erasing [perhaps he meant 'easing'?] old rivalries…to achieve peace and prosperity," themes Chinese could welcome.
* Yet there are other themes in the Bush Doctrine less favorable to China, including new programs to fight tyranny and to counter a "frame of mind that fosters hate, including hating Christianity."
Some Policy Options
1. A few commentators have proposed a resurrection of the early 1980s proto-alliance against a common enemy to dissolve the animosity of recent years.
* However, if we were to focus single-mindedly on combating "religious extremism" with purely secular values, education and anti-poverty programs, we would just repeat past mistakes. Military, intelligence and domestic security officials would largely shape foreign policy.
* A purely secular approach would also be a mistake. U.S. human rights diplomacy in the past decade was based on an "ideology of globalization," whereby the market, democracy, and the Internet were to solve all problems. The downside of globalization was ignored and religious rights were treated as an ugly stepchild.
* The mirror image in China is a campaign promoting "scientific socialism" as atheism and opposition to "superstition," with thinly-veiled disdain for religion. If anti-religious sentiment prevails, cultural friction will only grow and offset any immediate gains from cooperation in Afghanistan.
2. Another option, adapted from views of Allen Choate of the Asia Foundation, would be initiate government dialogue on social issues. This would allow both parties to go beyond the language of individual rights to include community responsibility and the exercise of citizenship.
* But any such discussion or cooperation on social problems and social reforms should include a program for promoting sustainable religious freedom and society-wide respect for religion and between religious communities.
* Religious freedom is the best antidote for religious extremism. Those countries that actively promote freedom of religion and belief make the best allies against terrorism.
* Religion needs to be brought into all the U.S.-China rule of law and civil society initiatives, to promote a shift from an instrumentalist to a values-based approach. So far, it has been kept on the margin as symbolized by the low status of the Office of International Religious Freedom (IRF) in the State Department.
3. Multilateral efforts need to be re-thought and re-energized.
* The decade-long annual showdown at the U.N. Human Rights Commission meetings resulted only in the loss of representation there by the U.S. Yet a revitalized rapporteur system, including the rapporteur for religious tolerance, could be effective over time. Probably most effective would be an Asia-Pacific forum that would link religious and other human rights with economic and security issues.
4. Non-profit organizations, including faith-based organizations, need to take on more responsibility for the health of our bilateral relationship.
* In the 1990s concern over religious persecution launched a new office and ambassador at large for International Religious Freedom; we now have an ambassador, a bureau and office in the State Department and two congressionally mandated commissions addressing human rights and religious freedom. But where are the non-governmental initiatives, including business initiatives, that might be much more effective in addressing these concerns?
* If bilateral programs remain purely or even mainly governmental, they will remain highly politicized. For example, I'm afraid that the new USA Freedom Corps will just resurrect 1960s Chinese suspicion of the Peace Corps as an arm of the CIA, which still keeps the Peace Corps program in China isolated to one province, under another name, with staff just teaching English.
* During the 1990s, thinking about social progress in both the U.S. and China has moved beyond old political paradigms with the downsizing of government and the rapid growth of the non-profit sector worldwide.
* Faith-based institutions are central, not peripheral in this sector, whether in America or Hong Kong. In China, there is a wave of interest in the role of the Third Sector and how to develop a healthy society. Perhaps these trends could help
