Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - [...]

Beijing was reacting to an annual U.S. report on international religious freedom, released last week, which said the religious freedom situation in China had worsened over the past year.

The State Department report, which covered the mid-2000 to mid-2001 period, named China again as one of a handful of nations whose suppression of religious freedom the U.S. considers so severe, it designates them "countries of particular concern."

[...] members of the Falun Gong meditation movement, [...] in China, Protestant "house churches" and underground Catholic congregations loyal to the Vatican were among those groups persecuted to various degrees by the [party name omitted] authorities, it said.

Although China's constitution promises religious freedom, the authorities restrict religious practice to officially sanctioned groups and places of worship, according to the report.

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