China blows up hundreds of illegal 'churches'

Author: David Rennie in Beijing
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: December 13, 2000

Chinese authorities in the city of Wenzhou have torn down or blown up more than 200 illegal churches and temples. A further 239 small places of worship in the east coast city, many of them linked to the underground Roman Catholic church, have been forced to close. China's millions of underground Christians, especially those who have defied Beijing to remain loyal to the Pope, face a bleak Christmas, as a long-running campaign against illegal worship of all varieties coincides with a crisis in China's relations with the wider Christian world.

Joseph Kung, head of the American-based Cardinal Kung Foundation, which monitors the underground Catholic church in China, said: "In the past week, I have received several reports from China that bishops and priests have been detained by police, and I am now trying to authenticate them. Probably this is the beginning of the crackdown for the Christmas season. All these important feast days, like Christmas and Easter, they always crack down."

The underground churches demolished were not established church buildings, Mr Kung said, but were often private homes where Christians unwilling to worship in "official" churches gathered for prayers and secret services. He said: "Sometimes they build a house specially for religious services, but from the outside it looks like a small factory."

This autumn, China reacted with fury to the Pope's decision to canonise 120 Catholic martyrs on Oct 1, China's National Day. Most of the martyrs were killed in 1900 by the Boxers, fanatical xenophobes whom Beijing calls patriotic heroes. China called the new saints a collection of notorious criminals and rapists.

Christianity, especially Catholicism, has traditionally been regarded as a foreign, "imperialist" import, in a note of fierce nationalism underlying the atheist communist dislike of all religion. Frank Lu, director of the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China, said last night that the latest campaign against religion in Wenzhou, in the eastern province of Zhejiang, had begun in August, and intensified in recent weeks.

Mr. Lu said: "Wenzhou is an important centre of Chinese Catholicism." Wenzhou, a chaotic boom town of shoe factories, sweatshops and dealers in pirate goods, has a long history of Christianity because of its trading links with the outside world. Last year, Wenzhou police arrested three leading members of the underground Roman Catholic Church. Those detained included an 81-year-old bishop, Lin Xili.

The places of worship closed and demolished in Wenzhou were reported to include Buddhist and Taoist temples as well as Catholic and Protestant churches. Officials admitted blowing up Catholic establishments in neighbouring Fujian province last summer. The 449 centres that were targets of the latest campaign had all failed to register with the State Administration for Religious Affairs, officials said.

 

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