Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-Kiun has urged China to change its stance on the crackdown 20 years ago against peaceful protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Today is the 20th anniversary of the crackdown.

The Chinese authorities should now hold an open and independent inquiry into the 1989 violent military crackdown on peaceful demonstrators in and around Tiananmen Square, Amnesty International has declared today.

Mao Zedong died in 1976, and since then, two big things have hap­pened to China, says Giles Fraser. The first is the explosion of the economy. The other is the explosion of religion - and, sometimes, its suppression.

Some Chinese Christians have seen their invitation to the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics as a new recognition of religion and global values in officially atheist China.

Pro-Tibet freedom protesters from media rights group Reporters Without Borders broke through the cordon of 1,000 police officers in Olympia, Greece, as China's envoy spoke and the Olympic torch was lit prior to the Beijing games.

Hong Kong Christians have urged the Chinese government in Beijing to stop its suppression of peaceful demonstrations in Tibet and to talk to the Tibetan people.

Hong Kong church leaders have rejected China's decision to introduce universal suffrage in the nation's special region by 2017, and have led thousands of marchers demanding votes for all by 2012, against Beijing's wishes.

Beijing's new Catholic bishop, 42-year-old Joseph Li Shan, reported to have the approval of both the Vatican and the Chinese government, says he will help the development of a "harmonious society". Government officials in say religion can play an important role in building such a society.

The death of Chinese Catholic Bishop Michael Fu Tieshan of Beijing may signal further development is the awkward relations between the Vatican and the Chinese government.

Using the 2008 Olympics in Beijing as a platform, a US commission on religious freedom has called for increased international pressure on China to end its intolerance of religious expression - writes Cheryl Heckler for Ecumenical News International (ENI).