By
David Rennie in Beijing
Electronic Telegraph
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.
Religious
worship, though protected by the constitution, must be "patriotic",
and can only take place in establishments under the control of
the atheist Communist Party. A spokesman for the Wenzhou foreign
affairs office said: "To maintain social stability, the local
government demolished underground churches and temples and other
illegal places. They were operating under the cloak of religion.
They hoodwinked people, interfered in normal religious activities,"
a spokesman for the Wenzhou foreign affairs office said.
There are
12 million registered Christians in China. Missionary organisations
put the true total at nearly five times that.
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