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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release February 2, 1998

STATEMENT BY THE PRESS SECRETARY

President Clinton met today with three American religious leaders who will travel to China this month to observe the state of religious freedom and to engage in dialogue with Chinese officials on these issues.

The religious leaders are the Reverend Dr. Don Argue, President of the National Association of Evangelicals; Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Newark; and Rabbi Arthur Schneier, President of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation.

They will be in China from February 9 to March 3, and travel to Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Lhasa and Hong Kong. Chinese Government agreement to this mission was one of the outcomes of the U.S.-China Summit held in October 1997, in Washington.

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