As rain brought by Tropical Storm Matmo poured down around them on Thursday, several dozen Christians, weary after a bloody confrontation with the police earlier in the week, stood guard at Salvation Church in Wenzhou, determined that the authorities would not take down their cross.
The standoff at Salvation Church is just the latest incident in the eastern city sometimes dubbed “China’s Jerusalem” for its many churches, as the local authorities have pressed forward with a
campaign of “regulating religious sites and activities.” In recent months, according to ChinaAid, a Christian
organization based in the United States, scores of churches in Zhejiang Province, where Wenzhou is located, have lost crosses, been demolished or received demolition notices. Although officials have often cited
violations of zoning regulations, an internal provincial policy statement indicates that the campaign is aimed specifically at Christian institutions and symbols. The statement says to remove crosses, first those
by highways, then “over time and in batches, bring down the crosses from the rooftops to the facade of the buildings.”
In April, the landmark Sanjiang Church in Wenzhou was torn down, despite protests from thousands of local Christians. In June, Salvation and about two dozen other Protestant churches received notices from the county government to remove their crosses. Since then, local Christians have resisted and taken turns guarding their churches.
“Each night we have several dozen brothers staying in every one of these churches, guarding them,” a man who would give only his surname, Chen, said by voice message. Chen, 27, said he regularly attends services at Salvation Church.
On Thursday, however, the mood among the congregants at Salvation was somber as word came that the director of the church, under pressure from the government, had agreed to remove the cross.
“My heart is broken,” said another man who has been guarding the church every night since the Monday morning melee with the police and strongly opposes removing the cross. “It’s so disappointing,” said the man, also surnamed Chen. “We’ve defended the church and we shed blood, but he compromised to agree that the cross be removed. May God have mercy on him.”
He said he was afraid that the police would return after the storm passes, and try once again to bring down the cross. “The storm came here today; they didn’t come,” he said. “I don’t know if they’ll come back tomorrow. We will defend the cross to the death.”
Early Monday, as more than 300 Christians stood guard in and around Salvation Church, witnesses said, about the same number of police officers and other uniformed personnel moved on the church. In the confrontation, more than 50 people were injured, four seriously, according to a local pastor who compiled a list of the injured.
Uniformed men had lined up outside the gate around 3 a.m., said Ye Wanjing, a Christian from a nearby township who had driven an hour to help defend Salvation Church. “Several minutes later — they didn’t say anything to us — one of the men shouted ‘Go! Go!’ They rushed toward us and beat whoever they saw near the gate.”
Over the next hour, the witnesses said, the men, many armed with electric batons, chased and beat the defending Christians. One of the severely beaten was a 30-year-old man surnamed Zhang, according to his father. “His nose and forehead were broken,” the father said by phone. “They beat his head, and I’m worried about his eyesight.”
The confrontation Monday morning showed local officials’ determination to remove the cross, said Yang Fenggang, a sociology professor and director of the Center on Religion and Chinese Society at Purdue University in Indiana. “This blood, injuries — these won’t stop them.”
“The central government is responsible,” said Mr. Yang by telephone. “It’s obvious Zhejiang’s policies and behaviors are tolerated by the central government or even encouraged.”
Since April, when the government began tearing down churches, he said, these officials have been very persistent in pursuing their goals. “They threaten church leaders, pressure Christians who work in the government,” he said. “They come back once every Christian is exhausted.”
If Christian resistance cannot prevent crosses from being removed in Zhejiang, he said, it was possible that similar measures might be taken in other provinces in the next year or two. Referring to the clash at Salvation Church on Monday, he said, “If similar things happen again but don’t get any attention from the outside world, this crackdown may continue.”