Another Chinese church is stripped of its cross as a Communist Party ‘anti-church’ demolition campaign continues in Zhejiang province
A crane winches a large red cross from one of three domes on the Guantou church in Wenzhou
By Tom Phillips, Shanghai9:14AM BST 17 Jun 2014
Nearly a week after Chinese Christians thwarted government attempts to remove the cross from their place of worship as part of an ongoing “anti-church” campaign, authorities returned to destroy the religious symbol.
The cross is removed
Last Wednesday, members of the Guantou church in Wenzhou, a city known as China’s Jerusalem, successfully forced demolition teams to abandon a predawn attempt to remove its cross.
However, demolition workers returned in the early hours of Tuesday morning to complete their task, which activists and academics believe is part of a renewed Communist Party crackdown on faith that began in the eastern province of Zhejiang earlier this year.
“The cross was secretly taken down between 3am and 6am,” said Zheng Legou, a local church leader.
Officials had vowed to tear down the entire church – as they did with the nearby mega-church of Sanjiang in April – if congregants attempted to halt the removal for a second time, Mr Zheng claimed.
“The worshippers were threatened that if they resisted, their church would be demolished just like Sanjiang,” he said.