on this episode of China Uncensored
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