President Jiang Zemin yesterday betrayed signs of a host who had been on the receiving end of a stern and unwelcome religious sermon by his guest and was trying to disguise his irritation.
At their joint press conference, Mr Jiang refused to look at President George W. Bush at all and the two men made no physical displays of public affection, but talked of holding 'candid' talks.
After twice pointedly ignoring questions directed to him by American reporters on religious freedom in China, Mr Jiang finally made a stab at answering the question in off-the-cuff remarks. 'In China there are many religions, including Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam and a typical Chinese religion, Taoism. And their religious faiths are protected by our constitution. I don't have religious faith. Yet this does not prevent me from having an interest in religion. I've read the Bible, I've also read the Koran as well as the scriptures of Buddhism,' Mr Jiang said.
Having been asked by a US reporter about a list of 50 imprisoned Catholic priests and bishops, he then defended China's record. 'Whatever religion people believe in, they have to abide by the law. If they have broken laws, they cannot be forgiven just because they are believers.'
'On this point, [although] I am the President of the People's Republic of China, I also cannot interfere in the judiciary,' he said.
Mr Bush mentioned religious freedom only once at the press conference, saying: 'All the world's people, including the people of China, should be free to choose how they live, how they worship, and how they work.'
