Clinton Ends China Visit With Church, Web Chat

The events on the last day of her one-week Asian tour aimed to highlight Clinton`s commitment to civil and religious rights.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ended her visit to China on Sunday by attending services at a state-sanctioned church, having a conversation with women's rights activists and doing a brief Web chat.

The events on the last day of her one-week Asian tour aimed to highlight Clinton's commitment to civil and religious rights in a way that would not offend the Chinese government, which resents what it views as interference in its internal affairs.

"Every society has challenges and problems and issues and obstacles and it's important that people like all of you continue to raise those and speak out," Clinton said as she met about two dozen women's rights activists at the U.S. embassy.

She warmly praised the activists she met, who included legal rights advocates, environmentalists and an 82-year-old doctor, Gao Yaojie, who exposed official complicity in the spread of AIDS in central China at unsanitary, often state-run clinics.

"Change really does come from individual decisions, many millions of individual decisions, where someone stands up like Dr. Gao and says 'No, I am not going to be quiet,'" Clinton said. "That's what we have to encourage."

But the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights & Democracy said three religious activists had been detained early on Sunday to stop them attending a church service that Clinton attended.

Police officers had prevented the three -- Xu Yonghai, Hua Huiqi and Jia Jianying -- from leaving their homes, it said in a statement. Xu, a medical doctor and a member of the church for 20 years, had served two years in prison for publicising the abolition of a church in Hangzhou.

ECONOMY BEFORE RIGHTS

Earlier during her visit, Clinton had made clear that while she would raise human rights in China she would not let U.S. concerns about them get in the way of joint work on the global economy, climate change and security issues.

Having visited Tokyo, Jakarta, Seoul and Beijing over the last week, Clinton began her day by attending the service at the Haidian Christian church, which was opened in Beijing's university district in the run-up to the 2008 Olympic Games.

China has about 40 million active Christians, and their numbers are evenly divided between state-run and underground churches, according to expert estimates. But the Hong Kong-based rights body said the underground church numbered 70 million.

Religious freedom is enshrined in China's constitution, but the government expects Christians to worship in "patriotic" churches under state control with clergy vetted by the state.

Last year a Christian activist was detained on his way to a service attended by U.S. President George W. Bush.

In an effort to protect the rights activists whom she later met at the U.S. embassy, U.S. officials asked reporters not to name those who did not wish their presence to be public.

Gao received an award in Washington two years ago after Clinton wrote to Chinese President Hu Jintao asking that he intervene with local officials who had sought to prevent the elderly doctor from travelling.

"I am already 82. I am not going to live that much longer," Gao told Clinton. "This is an important issue. I am not afraid."