China has 870 non-government orphanages, 583 run by religious groups. The authorities warn them against proselytising or imposing their religion on their charges. A source in the NGO world tells AsiaNews that the warning is "common sense," but "it all depends on how rules are applied." Yet, it would wrong to force a Christian-run orphanage to hide its faith.

Beijing (AsiaNews) - China's central government has warned religious charities against "forcing" children in their orphanages to convert or adopt their religion.

Religious groups "should not force religious beliefs upon adopted orphans and abandoned babies" said the directive from the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the State Administration for Religious Affairs.

In order to standardise performance, charities as of 30 April must partner with a local government above county level if they want to set up an orphanage.

Only those facilities that are government-approved, and adequately staffed and financed, would be allowed to take in orphans.

The policy directive was sent to government departments at the end of last month but was only made public last Monday.

A national survey found that 870 orphanages are not government-run. Of these, 583 are managed by religious groups.

Government statistics for 2012 show that mainland China had 463 state-owned orphanages with about 95,000 children out of 570,000 orphans and abandoned children.

Zhang Liu, a senior analyst at the China Philanthropy Research Institute, said the government should encourage NGOs and individuals to get involved as the number of orphans far exceed places in orphanages. Instead, "the latest [directive] is restricting them", she said.

At the same time, "If a religious person adopts a child, he will naturally want the child to follow what he believes in, because to him, that is following [what is] good," said Huang Wenjian, head of philanthropy at the China Islamic Association.

"As usual, this is common sense," a Catholic source from the NGO world told AsiaNews. "However, it all depends on how rules are applied.

"Everyone agrees that orphans cannot be forced to follow the religion of those who run the orphanage or home in which they live. Nevertheless, it would not be right to prevent, for example, a Christian-run orphanage to teach children to pray and make the sign of the cross."

What is more, "there is no formal objection" to the requirement that orphanages government be approved. "However, the issue is how government officials will behave, whether they will be fair-minded or apply the law arbitrarily."

• china
• orphanages
• religious
• groups
• children