Chinese president Jiang Zemin has foreshadowed tighter control of religious activity in the future, warning that religions operating without state approval will not be tolerated. “The [Communist] Party’s leadership over religion should be strengthened,” said Zemin, according to a report published in the People’s Daily, a major Chinese newspaper.

Zemin made his remarks December 13 at a national meeting on religion-state affairs. He affirmed that Communist Party members “do not believe in any religion,” and said religion should never be allowed to be used to oppose party leadership or the socialist system, or create disunity in the country.

Chinese law protects the religious freedom of ordinary citizens, said Zemin, adding that religious people are free to worship if they “love their country, support the socialist system and party leadership and obey the country’s laws.” Groups that have fallen outside this category in recent times include some Buddhist and Muslim sects, as well as the Falun Gong movement, a meditation sect that has attracted harsh state repression over the past two years. Under current law Protestant Christians are permitted to operate only within a state-approved umbrella organization known as the “Three-Self Patriotic Movement.”

Civil rights leaders around the world have registered concern about Zemin’s comments. “This policy explains the difficulty the Chinese government continues to have in dealing with religious pluralism,” says John Graz, public affairs and religious liberty director for the Seventh-day Adventist world church.  Enforcing such a policy not only threatens human rights but “may cause serious damage to the progress made by China over the past decade,” he adds.