WASHINGTON, USA - A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers asked China on Thursday to release a 79-year-old Roman Catholic bishop arrested in Beijing on April 13 -- Good Friday.
In a letter to Chinese President Jiang Zemin signed by 116 members of the House of Representatives, the lawmakers protested the arrest of Shi Enxiang, underground bishop of Yixian in the northern province of Hebei, who was visiting Beijing when he was grabbed by authorities.
Other priests, including Li Jianbo and Lu Genjun, both of Hebei, have been arrested in China recently and the lawmakers noted that other religious leaders of numerous faiths remain under detention in China.
"We are deeply concerned by this pattern of repeated abuses of human rights and abrogation of religious freedom," the letter said.
Rep. David Bonior of Michigan, second-ranking House Democrat, said at a news conference that "if China wants to be treated as a strategic partner and be taken seriously on the world stage, the Chinese government must treat its people with dignity and respect."
China's human rights record and the recent standoff over a U.S. spy plane downed on China's Hainan Island have led some lawmakers to question whether Congress should renew China's trade benefits in the U.S. market when the issue comes up later this year.
"What we have in China today is the world's leading human rights abuser," Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican, said. "If they do not do right by these people they cannot expect to have a normal trade relationship with the United States."
Shi, ordained a bishop in 1982, had been in hiding since he escaped arrest in 1996. He had spent a total of about 30 years in jail, most recently serving a three-year sentence from 1990-1993, according to the U.S.-based Cardinal Kung Foundation.
China's constitution enshrines freedom of religion but worship is confined to state-controlled churches.
16:24 04-26-01
Copyright 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.