2014-12-22
.jpg)
Authorities tear down a cross from a Protestant church in Hangzhou’s Dingqiao township, Dec. 19, 2014.
Photo courtesy of China Aid
Authorities in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang have torn down a cross from a major Protestant church in the region following clashes with congregants who tried to prevent them, the church’s followers said on Monday.
More than 100 local officials and demolition workers showed up at the church, which is attached to a nursing home in Hangzhou city’s Dingqiao township, sparking clashes on Friday in which at least three people were injured, a nursing home resident who declined to be named told RFA.
“There were a lot of people, some from the government,” she said. “Some of the elderly people saw what they were doing [and tried to stop them] … there was a minor clash.”
“Three of [congregants] are still in hospital, and a few more had medical treatment,” she said. “But we couldn’t stop them in the end.”
An official who answered the phone at the Hangzhou civil affairs bureau declined to comment when contacted by RFA on Monday, saying they didn’t know about the incident.
According to the U.S.-based Christian rights group China Aid, hundreds of Protestant churches in Zhejiang have been targeted for demolition in the past year.
The actions against churches in Zhejiang are all connected to the province’s “Three Rectifications and One Demolition” campaign, which claims to target all illegal structures, the group said in a report on its website.
The campaign calls on local officials to take action to “demolish illegal structures that violate laws and regulations, occupy farmland, affect public safety and major construction, seriously affect urban and rural planning, and those that are located on both sides of main lines of transportation,” it said.
Elsewhere in the province, a resident of Wenzhou city’s Longwan district surnamed Li said the authorities had also recently taken down the cross on the roof of nearby Wuxi village, and appear to be targeting Protestant churches rather than Christians in general.
“The cross on the Wuxi village [Protestant church] has been demolished, but our Catholic church is fine,” Li said. “All the churches targeted for cross demolition are Protestant churches.”
“I don’t understand why the government is doing this.”
