Christian activists have accused the Chinese Communist Party of launching a crackdown on their religion after a demolition team began destroying parts of a symbolic church in Wenzhou, the Telegraph reports.
Protestors began gathering outside Sanjiang church this month after plans of its demolition were announced, forming a human shield and guarding the building around-the-clock. Officials dismissed their claims that there were plans to demolish or partly demolish 10 places or worship, instead claiming the church violated building codes. According to state media, it is four times the size of its approved construction plans.
Most of the occupiers left the protests after it appeared the church's leaders had managed to negotiate a deal with the government. However, that deal now appears to have been broken, with reports that church leaders and worshippers had been harassed and detained by security agents as excavators have moved in.
“I saw three or four excavators out front, demolishing the church, and three or four out back, demolishing the annex building," one witness told reporters, going on to claim there were around 100 police inside the church, including armed officers.
Using photographs supplied by witnesses, the Telegraph could not verify to what extent the demolition team were destroying the building.
Congregation members also told reporters they believed authorities were monitoring their communications, with one telling the newspaper: "My phone is not safe."
Christianity is highly regulated in China, where worship is only allowed at state-controlled churches that the government can keep an eye on. The 30 million yuan ($4.7 million) Sanjiang is part of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, the official government-sanctioned church, making the discord particularly unusual.
The opposition churchgoers face has not driven them away from Christianity, but rather driven them underground. There are an estimated 100 million Christians in Chinese mainland, with the country projected to become the most Christian in the world by 2030. Many of these worshippers practice in illegal underground "house churches" to avoid interference from the government.
According to US-based Christian activist Bob Fu, the demolition of Sanjiang and other churches will not halt Christianity, but rather "further erode the little remaining trust between millions of Chinese Christians and the Chinese government."
“History has proved and will prove again with this case that another church revival will happen after this new wave of persecution,” Fu said.
[Image via The Telegraph]
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