The destruction of a towering church by Chinese authorities has sown fear in a thriving Christian community and highlighted tensions between a rapidly growing number of worshipers and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Massive slabs of concrete on a hillside were all that remained on Wednesday of the Sanjiang Church after an army of excavators smashed into the building this week, following government claims it was an illegal structure.
The church stood above the village of Pudong, part of the city of Wenzhou in Zhejiang Province.
The metropolis has a reputation for greater leniency toward religion and is known as China’s Jerusalem with more than a million Christians, as well as being a freewheeling center of capitalism.
In Pudong, Christian households are openly marked out by posters with a red cross and a Bible verse from John: “In Him was life and that was the light of men.”
The church was built in part with donations from the hundreds-strong congregation.
“We are crying inside, there is nothing more to say,” a middle-aged man who had been a member told reporters.
“It’s gone now,” his wife added.
They declined to give their names for fear of reprisals by authorities.
The couple said some Christians living in the area have fled while others have been visited since the demolition by government “work teams,” who criticized them for their religious beliefs.
The CCP keeps a tight grip on religion for fear it could challenge its grip on power, requiring followers to worship in places approved by the state and under government supervision.
The Sanjiang church was registered with the authorities, unlike “underground” or “house” churches, which seek to exist outside government control.
Activists believe the demolition was part of a wider crackdown on Protestant Christians, cloaked in a campaign against structures violating building codes in the province. The government has ordered at least five churches in Zhejiang — four of them in Wenzhou — to be demolished or to remove prominent crosses from their rooftops, state media has reported.
“I suspect it is a well-orchestrated campaign in order to contain the rapid growth of Christianity... The deliberate wounds will take years to heal and the remaining little trust between the Chinese government and Chinese religious communities is gone,” said Bob Fu (傅希秋), president of the China Aid Association, a US-based religious rights group.
Academics said authorities had tightened control over religion since Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) took power in late 2012.
“There has been a noticeable tightening in the religious atmosphere,” said Carsten Vala, an assistant professor at Loyola University Maryland and a specialist on Christianity in China.
The local government which administers the Sanjiang Church has remained silent on the issue, but has tried to counter the images of the church being destroyed with a dedicated microblog account.
“If the illegal structure was not demolished, the government’s credibility would decline and social justice would not be fulfilled,” a typical post said.
A report in state-run media after the demolition said that the complex was approved for an area of 1,881m2, but its actual size was more than 11,000m2, including the main building, annexes and a car park.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the