Written by Don Byrd
When I read a few weeks ago that Dr. Suzan Johnson Cook, the U.S. Religious Freedom Ambassador at Large, was planning a trip to China, I was surprised the story hadn’t made more news. After all, advocates have been pretty tough on the Obama Adminstration – as on the Bush Administration – for not raising religious liberty concerns with China more publicly. Dr. Cook planned to meet with Chinese officials to discuss those issues explicitly.
Now comes news that China has denied her a visa. The Washington Post reports:
On the eve of her trip, still with no visa, Cook held a conference call asking advice from three religious leaders sent to China in 1998 by President Bill Clinton: Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Rabbi Arthur Schneier and Don Argue, a Christian religious-freedom advocate.
Several activists urged Cook to go to China even if no officials would meet with her, saying she could visit with university students or worship in one of the banned churches. That became a moot point once Chinese officials told her staff that “it’s not a convenient time to come,” according to the religious rights advocates.
Diplomats in Cook’s position have encountered problems before, but denying a visa to a sitting U.S. ambassador represents one of China’s strongest rebuffs to date, experts say.
Religious freedom is a universal human right that should be respected by all governments. So, what should be done when one of the world’s largest and most powerful nations refuses that right, and refuses to let anyone in to talk about it?
