BEIJING Mon Jul 21, 2014 7:15am EDT
(Reuters) - Police in eastern China clashed in the middle of the night with Christian protesters massed around their church on Monday, but failed to carry out a government order to remove a cross from the building, according to witnesses and online accounts.
Several people were injured in the two-hour melee.
Dozens of churches in the wealthy province of Zhejiang have received government notices in the past few weeks demanding the demolition of church buildings or removal of crosses in what the government says is a campaign aimed at illegal structures, the U.S.-based Christian group ChinaAid says.
Rights groups and Christians say it amounts to religious persecution, which ignores the protection of religious freedom in China's constitution.
In the latest move, police tried to remove a cross from a church in Pingyang county close to Wenzhou city. But the congregation surrounded the church and prevented police from getting close, two witnesses said.
"We did not want them to get close, so we joined up to stop them getting in, but they came at us and beat us," one of the protesters, who gave his family name as Zhang, told Reuters by telephone, putting the number of police at about 500.
Zhang said police had been unable to remove the cross, but had locked down the site.
Another witness, who asked not to be identified, said the clashes had started at 2 a.m. and went on for two hours. She knew of at least five people who needed hospital treatment.
"We are Christians and are not looking for trouble, and if the government comes to us with reasonable requests, we will not oppose it. But using force on us at 2 a.m. is unacceptable and we cannot understand why they are doing it," she added.
