A white paper released by the State Council Information Office in China has revealed that Muslims are the biggest minority ethnic group in the country.
China has over 20 million Muslims, more than 57,000 clerical personnel, and 35,000 Islamic mosques, according to the white paper released on Tuesday.
In total, the country has nearly 200 million religious believers and more than 380,000 clerical personnel, the paper outlined. The major religions practiced in China are Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism, and Protestantism, said the document.
According to the document, there are around 222,000 Buddhist clerical personnel and over 40,000 Taoist clerical personnel.
The 10 minority ethnic groups, the majority of whose population believe in Islam, total significantly more than 20 million, with about 57,000 clerical personnel, said the document.
Catholicism and Protestantism have 6 million and 38 million followers in China, respectively, with 8,000 and 57,000 clerical personnel, said the white paper.
There are approximately 5,500 religious groups in China, including seven national organizations which are Buddhist Association of China, Chinese Taoist Association, China Islamic Association, Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, Bishops’ Conference of Catholic Church in China, National Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China, and China Christian Council.
“Conditions of places of worship have been notably improved,” claims the document.
At present, there are about 144,000 places of worship registered for religious activities in China, among which are 33,500 Buddhist temples (including 28,000 Han Buddhist temples, 3,800 Tibetan Buddhist lamaseries, and 1,700 Theravada Buddhist temples), 9,000 Taoist temples, 35,000 Islamic mosques, 6,000 Catholic churches and places of assembly spread across 98 dioceses, and 60,000 Protestant churches and places of assembly, it said.
China has allegedly detained dozens of Muslim women in Xinjiang region who are married to men in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B), according to Voice of America.
The issue was addressed in a unanimously passed resolution of the legislative assembly of G-B, lawmakers said on Sunday.
The resolution demands the federal government take urgent steps to secure the release of more than 50 Chinese wives, who it says were taken into custody last year while they were visiting relatives in their native towns in Xinjiang.
The deputy speaker of the assembly was quoted as saying the women were rounded up during a Chinese anti-terrorism crackdown in Xinjiang.
The detainees are married to G-B men who are mostly associated with trading activity through the Khunjerab Pass, the only land route linking Pakistan and China, about 4,500 metres above sea level.
Regional lawmakers insisted the history of intermarriages between G-B and Xinjiang is decades old, and both the border regions share deep cultural ties. They asserted the detained Chinese women were innocent and had no links to any radical elements.
Chinese and Pakistani federal officials have not immediately offered any reaction to the allegations leveled in the resolution.
Chinese officials accuse the outlawed East Turkestan Islamic Movement, or ETIM, of plotting terrorist attacks in and beyond the province.
The separatist group was founded by militant Uighurs apparently in response to alleged government restrictions on religious and cultural expression, charges Beijing denies as baseless.
The Gilgit-Baltistan region is the gateway to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
The project is a combination of building roads, rails, economic free zones and power plants in the country with an estimated $62 billion Chinese investment. Thousands of Chinese are currently in Pakistan, working on CPEC-related projects.
The corridor aims to link the Arabian Sea to Xinjiang through Khunjerab Pass, giving Beijing a secure and shortest trade access to international markets.
