FOR his father, Gangwashi church in Beijing was “a home away from home” where he used to head on his bicycle for the Sunday service. For his sister Dorothy, it was the church where she was baptised as a teenager. For President Bush, Gangwashi church offered a pulpit yesterday where he could break with diplomatic nicety to urge China’s Communist leaders to allow freedom of religion.

The Sunday service was President Bush’s first public event on a 36-hour visit to China, taking place even before he met China’s Communist Party leaders and sending a loud message about the right to religious freedom. President Bush and the First Lady accepted Bibles from the pastor of one of five Protestant churches in Beijing officially sanctioned by the Chinese authorities. That means the service and the church books must receive a stamp of approval from the official Three-Self Patriot Church that oversees Protestant worship. A previous pastor was forcibly removed in 1994 because he was seen as too independent.

The visit of the younger Bush, whose father lived in Beijing from 1974 to 1975 as head of the US Liaison Office and who visited the church again when he was President, offered an opportunity for a man who describes himself as a born-again Christian to speak up for China’s faithful of all denominations.

“It wasn’t all that long ago that people were not allowed to worship openly in this society,” the President said after the hour-long service, conducted in Chinese and translated over headphones for him and the other guests. Mr Bush sat in the front row. In the church guest book he wrote: “May God bless the Christians of China.”

Outside in the wintry sunshine, the church choir treated President Bush to a chorus of Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee in Chinese while police in riot gear cordoned off an area of several hundred metres around the church, in central Beijing.

In remarks likely to irritate Chinese leaders, who say that their people enjoy freedom of religion, Mr Bush said: “My hope is that the Government of China will not fear Christians who gather to worship openly. A healthy society is a society that welcomes all faiths.”

China has about 80 million Christians but about half are believed to worship in underground churches out of sight of official government monitors.

From the church, Mr Bush moved on to talks in the monolithic Great Hall of the People with President Hu Jintao. It was not clear whether Mr Bush raised issues such as human rights or mentioned the detention and house arrest of several dissidents during his visit. But he emphasised the importance of political and religious freedoms. His host responded by noting that his people already enjoyed widespread democracy and reminded his American visitor of the importance of mutual respect, a coded reminder not to interfere in China’s internal affairs.

But religion dominated the day. Mr Bush said that he had urged China’s leaders to hear for themselves that the Dalai Lama, living in exile since an abortive 1959 uprising against Chinese rule, had no desire for an independent Tibet.

“I talked about the Dalai Lama. I thought it would be wise for the Chinese Government to invite the Dalai Lama, so he can tell them exactly what he told me in the White House the other day, that he has no desire for an independent Tibet.”

That was likely to irritate the Chinese leadership, which accuses the elderly monk of seeking independence for his restive Himalayan homeland.

Mr Bush said that pressing for religious freedom was a good way to ensure that other freedoms followed. “They go hand in hand. A society which recognises religious freedom is a society which will recognise political freedom as well. President Hu is a thoughtful fellow, and he listened to what I had to say.”

He also suggested that China should invite Roman Catholic leaders to China to discuss religious freedom. The Vatican, which recognises Taiwan, has been seeking for some months through goodwill gestures to obtain a normalisation in relations with Beijing. China has said that the Vatican must sever its diplomatic ties with Taiwan.

Mr Bush must expect a more receptive audience for his message on democracy when he concludes his Asian tour with a stopover for talks with the popularly elected leaders of Mongolia today.

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