I’ve been following the standoff outside Wenzhou where a local official thinks the cross on top of a new huge church is too big and that Christianity is spreading too fast. So, of course, tearing down the cross will solve everything.
Today’s update is that the American Christian activist community is trying to mobilize international pressure by asking advocates to phone their local Chinese embassy.
This story from the Washington, D.C. based International Christian Concern includes information from sources on the ground. One says government remodeling plans for the church include “remove the cross on the roof and change the first floor of the church to be a public parking lot, the second floor a public library, only leaving the third floor for worship…police have cordoned off the road to the church with fire engines and ambulances lining up along the street.”
Another source says church leaders and their families have been threatened with loss of employment.
Voice of America, the state-sponsored media in the United States, quotes two locals, one identified as “Brother Wen,” who, on the VOA’s Mandarin service, says:
“We resolutely oppose the government’s actions to demolish the cross and to demolish the church because the demolition doesn’t have documents from the central government, Zhejiang province, or anything. The demolition is relying on someone’s word. It has no legal basis. We are resolutely defending the church’s legitimate rights, and will not allow the government to take such uncivilized action.
VOA also quotes a man identified as Brother Jin as saying:
“Right now, no matter what, we must protect the church and the cross. The cross is the baseline of Christianity and our church; it is also a symbol of our faith.”
Like most big battles in China, the guerrilla warfare between organized activists and the government exists on a sub-auditory frequency, as far as most Chinese are concerned. During the coverage of the 2012 escape from captivity of activist Chen Guangcheng Fox News Radio asked me to find out how “the Chinese people” felt about, what was then, a world-wide story.
My report, which surveyed a very nice English-speaking woman who happened to be standing on the corner across the street from my apartment – a suitable stand-in for some 300+ billion netizens – revealed that she, and, by extension, most others, aren’t interested in paying the equivalent of $70 a month to circumvent Internet blocks.
As the Wall Street Journal reported at that time:
“Christian and other human rights groups in China…operate underground networks to smuggle people, money, banned religious materials and other items across borders, in a little-known challenge to the Communist Party’s authority over information, religion and travel, according to people familiar with the networks.”
It is that “challenge” which is experiencing push back today in Wenzhou.