Dutch university to organize a conference in China on religion

BEIJING - The Chinese Minister for Religious Affairs has invited Amsterdam’s Free University to organize a conference in Beijing on the theme religion as “contributor to social cohesion.” The request was made to Free University officials Rene Smit and Wim Janse who were visiting China and South Korea. It is not the first time, that the Free University had contact with China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs. Two years ago, China cosponsored a conference in the Netherlands on religion and society in Santpoort-North which also was attended by officials from Turkey and South Africa. Janse said that religion in Chinese society also has been a point of dissention, with the authorities wanting to know what is happening in religious communities. On the one hand, there is more openness for religion in China, according to Janse, but there are still mixed signals with regards to unregistered churches.