Authorities have told a Christian church in the city of Huainan, China's Anhui province, to remove crosses from the temple due to alleged “security risks.” One of the crosses has been on the site for forty years.
The local administration committee, under the control of Xi Jinping's government, has asked the Wangfenggang community to remove two crosses: one from the roof and one from the church entrance. However, they did not submit any safety evaluation report conducted by specialists from relevant departments.
According to community officials, the cross installed on top of the temple was built according to construction plans and was subjected to tests and inspections by the competent authorities after its completion. I have been using it for five years since passing inspection.
The cross at the entrance to the church has been there for more than forty years without any security problems. For the community, the committee arbitrarily concluded that “there are potential safety risks with the crosses on the roof and entrance without any basis.”
Over the past 30 years, the Chinese regime has allowed crosses to be used as symbols in Christian churches and meeting places, both urban and rural. To some extent, there has been tacit tolerance for unregistered religious groups – whose state recognition in China is required to operate churches.
However, since 2014, there has been a widespread crackdown on religious tolerance. Initially, Xi Jinping's government began removing crosses from churches in the city of Yuyao, located in Zhejiang Province, an area with a large Christian community. Over the next three years, more than a thousand crosses were removed from Zhejiang Province.
This campaign to remove sacred symbols has spread to other provinces, such as Henan, Anhui and Jiangxi, also affecting regions such as Shandong and Xinjiang, where there is a large Christian presence in the country.
With information from Gazeta do Povo
