In the case of the Wenzhou Church, CNN Thursday connects a change in government rhetoric to an investigation of five government officials:
The church was originally a government-approved project under the official “Three-Self Patriotic Movement,” a state-sanctioned Protestant church. Last September it was lauded by the local government as a model engineering project.
But the official rhetoric has since changed entirely.
Jin Leibo, a spokesperson from the propaganda department of Yongjia County, where Sanjiang Church was located, told CNN that the church was destroyed as it was “illegal.”
“The building area should be within 1,881 square meters, but they built 7,928 square meters illegally,” Jin said. The church was asked to “self-rectify” by April 22, but workers only managed to tear down 500 square meters by deadline, according to officials.
By Monday evening the church had been flattened by bulldozers.
Five local government officials are currently under investigation in relation to the illegal construction of the church, according to Jin. One official was arrested, and another is in custody.