02/23/2002

Jiang Yuxia and five of his Qinghua University classmates didn't get to hear US President George Bush speak at their Beijing campus on Friday.

The six students have been detained for more than a year for posting articles on the internet opposing the Chinese Government's suppression of the Falun Gong spiritual movement.

According to the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in China, the six students have been found guilty of [distributing Falun Gong information through internet] although their sentencing has been delayed until after Mr Bush's China visit.

The Hong Kong-based human rights group claims another 300 Qinghua University academics and students have also been persecuted over the past year for practising Falun Gong.

This ongoing persecution of religious groups by the Chinese Government served as a chilling backdrop to Mr Bush's publicly televised address to the prestigious university on Friday.

"Freedom of religion is not something to be feared, but to be welcomed," he told the 400 hand-picked students and faculty gathered in Qinghua's main hall.

In a pointed reference to Beijing's crackdown on the Falun Gong and other spiritual groups, Mr Bush said religious worship should not be seen as a "threat to public order".

"My prayer is that all persecution will end, so that all in China are free to gather and worship as they wish," he said.

In an address broadcast live on the main CCTV channel, Mr Bush also implicitly attacked the lack of individual freedoms and democratic rights in China by praising those in the US. "All political power in America is limited and temporary and only given by the free vote of the people," he said.

The US President said he looked forward to the day when the Chinese Government expanded democratic elections all the way to the national level. "In a free society, debate is not strife and dissent is not revolution," he said.

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