Topic: China Continues to Tear Down Crosses From Zhejiang's Churches - page 4. (Read 11171 times)

China Holds Two Christian Preachers in Unknown Locations on Spying Charges
2015-09-25 

Authorities in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang have confirmed that they are holding two Protestant preachers under residential surveillance on suspicion of espionage, relatives and lawyers told RFA.

The wife of Pingyang county pastor Zhang Chongzhu received notification from police on Friday that her husband is being held at an unknown location on suspicion of "gathering, stealing, buying and illegally providing state secrets" as well as "espionage."

"They are saying it’s for gathering and leaking state secrets or some such thing," Zhang's wife, who sent a copy of the police notification to RFA, said.

"Of course I haven't been allowed [to visit him]," she added. "If someone is held under residential surveillance, it seems that even their lawyer doesn't get to meet with them."

She slammed the allegations against Zhang as "ridiculous."

"I think this is too ridiculous for words," she said. "But we are powerless to do anything; we can't sue the government."

"All we can do is pray," she said.

The notification from police comes after three weeks of uncertainty after Zhang Chongzhu “disappeared” en route home from Shanghai amid an ongoing crackdown on Christians opposed to the provincial government's demolition program targeting visible crosses on places of worship.

Zhang Zhi, a preacher from Pingyang county's Xianqiao Church, is also being held under residential surveillance on the same charges after being detained on Sept. 7, local sources told RFA.

Disobedience campaigns

Churches in and around Zhejiang's Wenzhou city have waged widespread civil disobedience campaigns in the face of the demolition campaign, which is part of a three-year urbanization and beautification campaign requiring local governments to demolish illegal structures by the end of 2015.

Zhejiang authorities have said they are merely “relocating” the crosses from the roofs of churches to the interior, while analysts say the sheer profusion of Christian worship in a region known as "China's Jerusalem" has rattled the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

Churchgoers have written open letters, sung hymns to armed security officers, staged sit-ins in churches and on rooftops, and displayed small red-painted wooden crosses on buildings and on T-shirts in protest at the move.

Churches are also being subjected to audits and financial reviews, with some pastors detained on suspicion of "embezzlement" after they resisted the demolition of crosses.

A Wenzhou Protestant church member told RFA on Friday that a total of 18 people have now been detained in the crackdown, including rights lawyer Zhang Kai, who was advising local Christians in their bid to resist the demolition of crosses.

According to an Aug. 27 notice sent by the Wenzhou municipal police department to his family, Zhang is being held on suspicion of "gathering a crowd to disrupt public order," "spying" and illegally gathering, buying and supplying state secrets overseas."

Zhang Kai had offered pro bono advice to more than 100 Protestant churches facing the removal of their crosses and the detention of pastors, lay preachers, and church members.

He was taken away by state security police alongside two legal assistants on Aug. 25.

"[Zhang] hasn't come back yet," the church member said. "There are a lot of people whose whereabouts we don't know."

"In all, there are 18 people [gone], and three of them were lawyers ... They are doing this to put pressure on the churches, but we won't cave in."

Also among those detained is pastor Huang Yizi from Pingyang county's Fengwotang church, who also heads a group known as the China Christian Evangelic Mission, local residents told RFA.

Huang, who was released from prison after a year-long sentence on Aug. 1, was detained again on Sept. 12 and is now being held in criminal detention for "endangering national security," his lawyer Li Jinglin said.

Li said the authorities hadn't issued a formal notification to his wife.

"Pastor Huang's wife asked them ... and they said they didn't need to inform her," he said. "She asked them which detention center he is being held in, but they said it was 'inconvenient' to tell her that."

Reported by Yang Fan for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Hai Nan for the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

up

time tells everything, we will see ..

i see, best regards..

not idea but fact

I'm just fighting for my Life like everybody else in this Planet.

Thank you for the content of this thread: you are doing a real-time view of what is happening on the other side of this Planet from where I live.

Best regards.

I feel hopless. But I still catch the little hope.

you can not wake up who pretend to be asleep, such as bitnow here

If the Chines Government replace Religion with atheism they have separated State from Religion.

There are different ways of solving the same problem: don't look only in your neighbour's garden and put yourself in others people's shoes.

You can solve problems by keeping traditions or you can solve problems by following new paths: Chinese Government is solving this problem by following a new path.



Thank You and best regards.

I'm sorry you have a bad idea about what separation of state and religion is.

"While a country's policy may be to have a definite distinction in church and state, there may be an "arm's length distance" relationship in which the two entities interact as independent organizations. " (link)

Churches in China cannot act like an independent organization when they're being told what they can and cannot do with crosses on their property.

That is separation of State and Religion and is already happening in Italy and in others States around the world that have a Constitution similar to the one of Italy.

How the Chinese State is doing an improvement over the conditions already found in others States around the world if they are not doing something new?

Exactly. Separation of state and religion would leave religious buildings with the ability to have a cross on it without any intervening from the state.

Idea.

 i am sorry but i have to say what you said is call black white!

what chinese government did is not the separation of state and religion but vice versa, they use state power against religious freedom which is fundamental human right.

This is horrible only if you are searching for beauty, this is not horrible if you are searching for philosophy.

What is happening here is the separation of State and Religion.

This is what Islam and Catholicism are fighting since after Second World War: Islam is able to NOT separate between State and Religion (Sharia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia), while Catholicism decided, with the creation of Italian constitution, to separate COMPLETELY between State and Religion.

What Chinese Government is trying to do is what Catholicism did after Second World War: try to separate between State and Religion by creating an ATHEIST State.

Italian Constitution does not oblige to be atheist, that's where Chinese Government is going one step forward: complete separation between State and Religion.

If you believe in God and in the words of the Bible you'll think that atheism is a SIN, so you'll have problem's with that, if you don't believe in God this will be your best place to live: HELL.

I'm italian that's why I needed to say that: I wanted this argument to be as clear as possible. This is where I lived since I was born.


Thank You and best regards.

This is horrible. I wish I had something other to say than that.

CHINA: LAWYER SUPPORTING CHURCHES IN CHINA DETAINED

By Amnesty International, 3 September 2015, Index number: ASA 17/2370/2015

A prominent human rights lawyer and his two assistants have been detained in China as part of a wider crackdown on activists who are resisting the removal of crosses from churches. Zhang Kai has been placed under ‘residential surveillance’ in an unknown location, which means he can be held for up to six months without access to his lawyers or family.

View report in English

DOWNLOAD PDF
https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa17/2370/2015/en/

Precisely.

In my Country of origin, Italy, you can't, by law, be Fascist or Nazi: that's why I understand what is happening right now in China where the Chinese Government is trying to ban Religion.

Nazism and Fascism produced "Scentific racism" in XX century, cause they lost Second Warld War you cannot talk anymore about races when talking about human species you can only talk about ethnicity. Ethnicity has more to do with sociology and theology than science.

That's why religion is in there.

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If I will say that God is even science I will bound to your power and to the power of your religion that is able to not separate State, Religion and Science.

That is showing weakness: I will not do that next time.



Please talk about Son Wukong and Dragon Ball manga: taking the piss on religion is not fun.


Hope this off topic ends here.



Thank You and best regards.

You can't argue whit bitnow, he is atheist and he thinks he is right because science makes him the right now.

But what he do not understand that god is everything even science.

he Makes no difference from a dictator bashing atheism into people,











Bibble has been changed by the jews as you say for they benefits there are some documentations about them handing out free copies to amount of places , were those bibbles have been distorded.

Jesus was never cruzified , it is something they had to made up because of the controversials of the religion it would made the religion "fake" .

Templar knights had to do whit much covered up aswell, the body of jesus is hidden in kashmir.

Under some democracies you can't also chose to be of a Nazi, Communist or Fascist parties and those aren't even allowed to exist.
Some can call that measures against social unrest, that both religions and politics may cause.

As for "faith", for someone with "faith" in Santa will make it exist for real... or not at all.