Christians in Zhejiang cross with authorities over church demolitions
The Christian community in Zhejiang is at loggerheads with the local authorities over a campaign to remove crosses from church buildings
Wenzhou in Zhejiang province is known as China's Jerusalem. One million of the city's eight million legal residents are Christian. Huge crosses rise towards the sky on many of the city's more than 2,000 churches.
The local government has been on a campaign to tear down church buildings and their symbols, which has created a rift between the authorities and the government-sanctioned Protestant churches known as the Three-Self Patriotic Movement.
At least three churches have been demolished, and more than 160 crosses, including some at Catholic churches, have been taken down in the past seven months, according to a list compiled by local pastors.
China Aid, a religious rights group based in the United States, has counted more than 360 crosses and one church razed in Zhejiang since January.
"The cross is a symbol of our belief. Our Lord Jesus Christ shed his blood on it. Demolishing our crosses means challenging our bottom line," said one pastor from Shuitou town in Pingyang, about an hour south of Wenzhou. "That's similar to stripping off our clothes to humiliate us."