BEIJING, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Chinese religious circles have expressed deep indignation and strongly condemned the defamation of China's freedom of religious belief by some people and entities in the United States, who fabricated reports and held a conference on "promoting religious freedom."
Leaders of several national religious organizations called a meeting in Beijing on Friday to condemn the United States on making an issue of religion to attack China and express their solemn position.
Noting that Chinese Christians have benefited from China's policy of freedom of religious belief, a leader of the China Christian Council said the United States' accusation against China -- in disregard of facts and under the pretext of "religious freedom" -- was inconceivable and outrageous.
The United States has politicized religion and used religion as a pretext to attack the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese government, which is a shameful act of blasphemy, the Christian leader said.
A leader of the Islamic Association of China said the Chinese Islamic community is angered by what the United States has done.
He said the acts exposed the United States' double standards as the United States itself is facing a rise of racism.
A leader of the Buddhist Association of China said over the past four decades the CPC and the Chinese government have made tremendous efforts in ensuring the freedom of religious belief and no one is in a better position than the more than 200 million religious believers in China to comment on that.
The United States invited people engaging in anti-China activities to the conference on so-called promoting religious freedom, which exposed the ugliness of their political deals under the pretext of religion, the leader said. "Every religious believer in China is opposed to that."
Religious figures attending Friday's meeting said they all agreed that only Chinese religious believers shall have the final say on whether China has the freedom of religious belief.
They also urged relevant parties in the United States to stop their despicable farce to leave religion in peace.
