In Chinese Communist Chinese Party (CCP)-controlled China, Christians are facing a new campaign of persecution involving the removal and destruction of Christian religious symbols of crosses in a “beautification” campaign by the CCP authorities. The Communist totalitarian authorities, having sought to remove all other human rights of the Chinese people, now seek to deny them the right of freedom of worship of their faith and their religious symbols. On July 29, 2015, ChinaAid reported that the CCP tyrants demanded in July 2015 that Christians “Take down the crosses on top of your churches, or else,” and since then, the Communist tyrants have created construction gangs to remove and destroy Christian crosses across thousands of churches.
This latest attack on Chinese Christians is centered in the Chinese Zhejiang province, one of the last major areas of members of the Christian faith in China, with an estimated 300,000 Catholics and 1 million Protestants. The Christian churches in Zhejiang have both government sanctioned and underground “house” churches. Over the past 10 years, the CCP totalitarians have increased destroyed such “house” churches to prevent any Christian teachings not controlled by the Communists’ iron fist. ChinaAid, Responsible for Equality And Liberty, and other human rights activists have reported on the Communist destruction of such Christian churches.
The CCP have removed 1,200 crosses from churches since 2013, and this Communist initiative has accelerated in recent weeks. At one time, the Zhejiang area had red church crosses, but most of them have now been forcibly removed; this has included the total destruction of some churches. Maya Wang with Human Rights Watch has stated (as reported by Hong Kong Free Press) that many of the churches with crosses being removed were already “official churches” under the “sanction” of the CCP. For”official” churches, the CCP puts Communist authorities in charge of Catholics and Protestants in “sanctioned” churches. From 1958 to 1978, the CCP banned all Christian worship and Christians were all forced underground; since then they have allowed mostly state-sanctioned churches, but the Communist tyrants are now believing Christian symbols need to be removed from public view.
The Communist oppressors attack on Christians’ human rights claim that having church crosses are “illegal building practices,” not religious symbols. CCP attacks on Christian crosses have increased in the cities of Wenzhou, Hangzhou and Lishui.
Radio Free Asia reports that Communist “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.” ChinaAid has reported that Communist demolition teams have also been accompanied by SWAT police forces or private security. Such Communist police authorities have disrupted protests by Christians, beating them away from the site where their construction crews sought to demolish the Christian cross.
In Lishui city, Communist gangs set fire to the Huzhen Church’s cross while it was being removed, telling the news media that “the cross began burning on its own.”
Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported that “In Wenzhou, a member of the Yuyangtaitou church in Wenzhou’s Pingyang county said their church’s cross had also been demolished by the authorities on Monday (July 27, 2015). Video footage shot by congregants and seen by RFA showed government officials lowering the cross gradually to the ground using ropes, watched by a tearful congregation singing hymns.”
A similar video can be seen in Yahui Church in Pingyang County with Christian worshipers in tears singing a hymn while the cross is removed from their church by the Communist authorities.
The Communist authorities have been disturbed by the growth of Christianity in CCP-controlled China. The Daily Telegraph reports estimates of 58 million Protestant Christians in China in 2010, growing to a protected 160 million by 2025 (a number greater than American Protestants in 2010), with an additional projected growth in Catholics in China to 247 million by 2030.
But the Chinese Christians have remained determined to preserve the symbols of their faith. Throughout the capital of Zheijang province, Christians in Wenzhous have made dozens of crosses to be distributed to other Christians, as the Communists tore down their church crosses.
Other Chinese Christians have used tactics of civil non-obedience to fend off Communist demolition crews to block or interfere with the removal of Christian cross symbols from their church, include disconnecting power to local cranes.
This has included Christians protesting the removal of crosses from their churches throughout Zhejiang province. ChinaAid reports that “Last week, 20 Catholic priests, including 89-year-old Bishop Vincent Zhu Weifang, held a small protest in front of the Wenzhou government offices. Holding a sign that read ‘Maintaining religious dignity and opposing the forced removal of crosses.'”
During the efforts by the Communist cross demolition gang in Zhejiang province on July 29, 2015, 16 Christian pastors and believers were also arrested by the CCP police, according to Christian lawyer Pang Kun, 8 of which have not been released. Pang told Radio Free Asia (RFA) that the Christians were arrested for charges such as “running an illegal business,” “obstructing official duty,” when the Christians were opposed to the removal of crosses from the churches. Mr. Pang Kun stated “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. 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. It is also against the law.”
In addition, according to reports by the RFA, there have been reports of 8 Protestant Christian pastors arrested in Wenzhou, as of July 29, 2015. After a church was removed from a local Wenzhou church, their pastor Zhang Chongyang was also taken away by the police. Another church in Zhejiang’s Cannon county reported their pastor, Liant Pu, was also taken in by the police.
Christian leaders in China have been calling for non-violent protests and non-violent civil disobedience in the face of this blatant attack on their fundamental universal human rights of freedom of religion by the CCP tyrants. The Guardian also reports that: “Protestant preachers are encouraging their congregations to peacefully oppose the removals by placing homemade wooden crosses in their homes or on their cars.”
Chinese Christian leaders are also calling for President Barack Obama to address to oppression of Chinese Christians with CCP leader and Chinese President Xi Jinping, when he makes his first state visit to the United States in September 2015.
International Christian Concern has a petition calling for the Chinese CCP Ambassador in the United States of America to end the CCP’s cross demolition across China, and calls for supporters to sign this online petition.
The CCP Communist totalitarians are seeking to control references on social media about the removal of the Christian crosses, and punish those brave individuals which provide this information about the cross removal and destruction campaign. RFA states that “Protestant believer Zheng Xianghuang said he had received a visit from Zhejiang state security police at his home the southwestern province of Sichuan after he posted a photo of a cross demolition on a social media site.”
When you read this story, know that there were Christians who sacrificed to get this information to the public and defend their human rights and freedom of religion. To those who respect our shared Universal Human Rights, Responsible for Equality And Liberty urges that you share this story on social media to let the world know what is happening in CCP-controlled China.
The Communist Chinese authorities actions are in direct violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenant on Civil and Political (ICCPR), both of which China claims to have signed. The CCP government holds “human rights” meeting in China regularly, while it rejects such rights. It is the only major nation to have never actually ratify the ICCPR which it has “signed.”
Responsible for Equality And Liberty urges all those supporting our shared Universal Human Rights to sign the petition asking for President Obama to address this issue with CCP leader and Chinese President Xi Jinping. We urge you to also contact the CCP-controlled government and let them know that the people around the world defend our Universal Human Rights, not just for one group, one ethnicity, one race, or one religion – but for all people – everywhere, and that we are together – responsible for equality and liberty.
