Chinese officials say Christian symbolism has crossed the line

Oh, that's terrible

hi welcome to China uncensored

I'm your host Chris Chappell

you know there are a lot of misconceptions about China

floating around out there these days

like some people have come up with the idea that

just because China's Constitution guarantees religious freedom

people in China are guaranteed religious freedoms

come on where does it say that?

no, religion is serious business in China

first of all the ruling communist party is officially atheist

and if you want to be a member you have to be atheist too

there are also only five officially recognized religions

Protestantism Catholicism Buddhism Taoism and Islam

sorry Jews

now obviously the situation in China has improved

since the days of the Cultural Revolution

when the monasteries and temples were being burned

and the priesthood exiled or killed

but according to this year's report

by the u.s.

Commission on International Religious Freedom

the Chinese regime's suppression of Christians in 2014

is even worse than in the previous year

it says Christians continue to face arrests, fines, lengthy prison sentences

and of course the bulldozing of churches

now as you might imagine chinese officials were

none too pleased with that report

they said it was full of arbitrary and unfounded criticisms of China

so let's take a look at those arbitrary criticisms

according to a report last month by China aid

a non-profit international christian human rights organization

there was a 150% rise in cases of persecution against Christians in the past year

almost 3,000 Christians were detained and 1300 sentenced

it's the worst persecution of chinese christians in a decade

and a lot of these cases are related

to the so-called three rectifications and one demolition campaign

by the Zhejiang provincial government

the city of Wenzhou in Zhejiang province

has been called the Chinese Jerusalem

because so many of its residents are Christian

but local officials are trying to make their presence a lot less visual

the three rectifications and one demolition campaign is in theory

geared towards removing illegal structures

but in reality the illegal structures on the lists

are all pretty much churches and temples

and by "one demolition" they mean

hundreds and hundreds of crosses and scores of churches

but who's counting

yep. what's that Shelley?

oh the commission on international religious freedom is counting?

ok that number is in fact more than 400 last year

for example, the SanJiang church in WenZhou

which took 12 years and 4.7 million dollars in donations to build

was demolished in one night

I mean yes thousands of the churches' members tried to stop it

but a good number of them were arrested

and the thing is it was a state-sanctioned church

that was even lauded by the local government

for being a model engineering project

a deeper problem is that technically

all the land in China belongs to the Communist Party

so whenever they decide they want you off

it can lead to some pretty awkward situations

wave after wave of churches have been demolished

or have had their crosses torn down

because nothing says illegal structure like a cross on a rooftop

though that eye of sauron they're building in Beijing is a beauty

and of course as with any construction project

it's reasonable to assume that some crosses

will spontaneously burst into flames

I mean it is construction

but people, come on, the Chinese Constitution guarantees religious freedom

ZheJiang officials just have a few little suggestions on how to handle the crosses

let's see

crosses must be placed on the facades of buildings

not above them

they must be of a color that blends into the building

not one that stands out

and they must be small

no more than one tenth the height of the building's facade

and of course if your church's cross doesn't meet

those perfectly reasonable requirements

it will be torn down

like in my catholic high school

when they announced that we were no longer allowed to have facial hair

and then they came into our bedrooms

in the middle of the night and ripped off our beards

now unsurprisingly officials have met some resistance from Christians

in the regions

but they decided to take the high road

instead of lowering themselves to the level of

rationally explaining their actions

they just arrested people

I mean arresting Christians worked out pretty well for the Romans

why shouldn't it work for the chinese government too?

last year 50 people from a Protestant church in Zhejiang

protested the planned removal of their churches' cross

the police beat them

after that a pastor named Huang Yizi from another state sanctioned church

gathered a group together to appeal to authorities

and get an explanation for the violence

this sort of appeal to officials is quite common in China actually

the official term for it is apparently

gathering crowds together to disturb social order

Huang was sentenced to a year in prison and the cross was torn down anyway

now this is not as heavy-handed as it sounds

originally they were planning on putting Huang in jail for 10 years

so really they're being quite lenient

so what do you think of the attacks on Christians and crosses in China?

leave your comments below and share this episode with your friends

once again I'm Chris Chappell

see you next time