A temporary church will be set up in the Olympic Village during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, a state-backed church official has reported.
“All will be arranged in accordance with the practices adopted by other Olympics host cities,” said Liu Bainian, vice-president of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association and a Chinese political adviser, according to the official China Daily newspaper.
Furthermore, Olympics organisers reported that a religious service centre will be set up in the Olympic Village with professional religious personnel providing services to meet the needs of athletes with various religious convictions.
A total of 60 volunteers from the five major religions in China – Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Protestantism and Catholicism – recently attended a three-day training session organised by the Beijing municipal administration of religious affairs for providing religious services during the Games.
"The majority of the foreign visitors expected during the 2008 Games have religious beliefs, and we should cater to their needs," said Liu earlier this year, according to China Daily.
Communist China, which is known for heavily restricting all religious activity, has been making massive efforts to clean up its image as it prepares for the influx of visitors it expects to come with the Olympic tide.
In addition to the latest development, China is also engaged in a number of other fix-ups, including ridding restaurant menus of mangled English translations, moving heavily polluting industries out of town, shaping up the slack behavior of its police officials, and checking the quality of many foods in a crackdown on unsafe products.
While many of China’s clean-up efforts have been welcomed, others have faced strong criticism.
According to the US-based China Aid Association (CAA), China has witnessed an increase in the number of “illegal” Christian groups that have been arrested across the country after a crackdown ordered by the Chinese Government in July.
Since mid-July, a string of arrests and other forms of persecution have taken place in at least eight Chinese provinces, including Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Jiangsu, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi and Anhui, CAA reported last month. At least 17 Christian leaders of unregistered churches have been detained.
