More than 250 holy crosses removed from churches in China, pastors threatened with imprisonment & church closures

More than 250 crosses were removed from
churches by Chinese authorities in China’s
Anhui province alone between January and
April this year. The shocking statistics
highlights an escalating crackdown on
Christianity in communist China.
Italian-based magazine Bitter Winter
reported that in this latest wave of cross
removals, all 250-plus crosses were taken
from state-sanctioned churches affiliated
with the Three-Self patriotic Movement,
mainly from the cities of Lu’an, Ma’anshan,
Huaibei and Fuyang.
“All Christian symbols are ordered to be
removed as part of the government’s
crackdown campaign,” a provincial
employee from Ma’anshan city told Bitter
Winter .
At one place of worship, The Gulou Church
in Fuyang city, more than 100 congregants
had tried to stop authorities taking their
cross down on April 1. However, officials
returned the next day and removed the
cross from outside the building.
It is reported that local officials told
churchgoers that the cross removal was
part of a national policy in the country to
remove all religious symbols from public
places.
One church congregant has reported, “We
support the state and comply with its
regulations. We can have a dialogue with
the government if it thinks that we have
done something wrong, but they can’t
persecute us this way.”
The churchgoer added, “Officials did not
show any documents, fearing that people
would implicate them with anything in
writing. They only conveyed verbal orders
and forced us to obey them.”
In one city, Lu-an, nearly 200 churches
have had their crosses removed in 2020 up
until the end of April, Bitter Winter has
reported.
Church leaders have been threatened with
imprisonment and church closures if they
refuse for their crosses to be taken down.
One anonymous elder from a Hanshan
county church has reported, “The fact that
all church crosses in the county have been
taken off makes us very sad because the
cross [is] the primary symbol of our faith.
But we don’t dare to disobey central
government orders: little fish don’t eat big
fish.”
In recent years there have been reports
that the Chinese government has plans to
impose its influence on churches and
Christianity in the country. Chinese
Christian activist Bob Fu, who is the
founder of China Aid, reported to the U.S.
Congress that the Chinese government is
supervising a five-year plan to make
Christianity more compatible with
socialism.
The plan includes a “rewrite” of the Bible to
make socialist ideas seem more divine, Fu
explained.
China has been listed by the U.S. State
Department for years as a “country of
particular concern” for engaging in
systemic and egregious violations of
religious freedom.