China Detains Christian Pastors For Resistance to Cross Demolitions

2015-07-29

 

 

 

Government-backed demolition gangs have taken down crosses from the tops of churches in provincial capital Wenzhou, Taizhou, Huzhou and Jinhua cities in recent days, in a slew of demolitions billed in state media as a building safety campaign.

 

A total of 16 believers and pastors were taken away by police following scuffles with a cross demolition gang last week, and eight have yet to be released, a lawyer for the church members told RFA on Wednesday.

 

“They were detained because they refused to allow the cross to be taken down, and so they arrested them,” lawyer Pang Kun said, adding that only seven of the detainees were known to be under criminal detention, while the status of the eighth had yet to be confirmed.

 

“They are all being held on suspicion of ‘running an illegal business,’ ‘obstructing official duty,’ and ‘running secret accounting procedures,’ random stuff like that,” Pang said.

 

“This is about the fact that they were opposed to the removal of the cross from their church, and this is a form of revenge against them,” he said. “They want to send any church that doesn’t comply into disarray.”

 

“This is an unreasonable act of revenge, which seriously violates the rights of these believers to freedom of religious belief,” Pang added. “It is also against the law.”

 

Pastors hauled away

 

Meanwhile, Christians in Wenzhou said that the authorities had detained eight local Protestant pastors and preachers, none of whom had been released by Wednesday evening local time.

 

“They were called in for a chat and I don’t think they’ve come out since, because I have asked about them,” a pastor who declined to be named said. “It is probably something to do with the crosses.”

 

According to a church member in Wenzhou’s Pingyang county, where a large cross was removed from a local church last week, pastor Zhang Chongyang was also taken away by police on Tuesday evening.

 

“He was called in for questioning by police, and he … is now under formal summons,” the church member said.

 

Church members in Zhejiang’s Cannon county said their pastor Liang Pu was among those hauled in for questioning.

 

And a pastor in Yuyaocheng village said local Protestant church members have tried to adopt civil disobedience principles in the face of the cross demolition campaign.

 

“As a pastor, I believe that we should stand firm but ensure no blood is shed,” the pastor said. “We need more people power, to run a non-violent resistance campaign to the bitter end.”

 

In Pingyang county’s Qihu church, some congregants were sent to hospital after a government-backed gang smashed down the church doors, sending them flying to the floor, before dragging them out of the church and beating them unconscious.

 

“He is still undergoing medical tests,” the wife of injured Qihu church member Lan Tiansi told RFA from the hospital. “The doctor wants to talk to me; I’ll speak to you later.”

 

‘Safety and beauty’

 

According to the Global Times newspaper, which has close ties to the ruling Chinese Communist Party, Zhejiang authorities said they are merely “relocating” the crosses from the roofs of churches to the interior, “for the sake of safety and beauty,” it quoted local religious affairs officials as saying.