E/CN.4/1993/62
page 11
The Constitution and laws also stipulate that ’no one may use religion to
promote activities detrimental to the social order, injurious to citizens’
health or liable to hamper the State educational system. Religious groups and
activities may not be controlled by foreign powers’. A small number of
people, using religion as a pretext, embezzle money, seduce women, endanger
people’s health and disrupt the normal social order - even engaging in antiGovernment activities; these are subject to criminal or administrative
penalties. But this has nothing to do with religion or religious belief:
anyone who breaks the law must be dealt with as the law dictates.
2.
Upon inquiry, the circumstances of the clergy you refer to in your
letter prove to be as follows:
Pei Ronggui, from Luancheng County, Hebei, a Catholic. Was sentenced to
five years’s imprisonment in May 1989 for severe disruption of the social
order and violation of the Chinese Penal Code.
Li Side, from Tianjin, formerly a Catholic priest. He was committed for
three years’ re-education through labour in November 1989 for conduct
violating the Chinese Constitution and the regulations governing the
registration of public associations.
We are looking into the other cases at the moment."
21.
On 6 February 1992 an additional reply from the Permanent Mission of the
People’s Republic of China was transmitted to the Special Rapporteur with
regard to the allegation contained in his communication of 31 October 1991
(E/CN.4/1992/52, para. 22):
"1.
Identification and approval of the reincarnation (’Soul Boy’) of a
living Buddha
The reincarnation of living Buddhas is a feature peculiar to Tibetan
Buddhism which began in the thirteenth century A.D. and thus dates back over
700 years. Over the centuries a basic tradition and religious ritual for the
identification of the Soul Boy has evolved in Tibetan Buddhism; successive
central Governments have devised an entire procedure for dealing with the
matter, which has become a convention. Taking the reincarnation of major
living Buddhas, such as the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama, as an example, the
procedure basically runs as follows: (1) upon the passing to another world of
a living Buddha, the site where his Soul Boy will be born is determined by
reference to prophesies made before the deceased Buddha’s birth and omens and
oracles at the time of his death; (2) members of the monastery where he lived
are dispatched to that area to make secret inquiries and select children who
are likely candidates for the Soul Boy; (3) the children selected are asked to
identify objects that belonged to the deceased in his former life, or are
examined by his acolytes; (4) the children identified by this screening are
notified to the central Government and, with its approval, proceed to draw
lots from the golden bottle (Penba); (5) the Soul Boy identified by the
drawing of lots may, with the approval of the central Government, assume the
title of Dalai Lama, Panchen Lama or other living Buddha and undergo the
enthronement ceremony. The fourteenth Dalai Lama (1935) and the
tenth Panchen Lama (1939-1989) were both approved by the central Government in