ChinaAid, a Christian non-profit human rights organisation that monitors Christian persecution in China, wants more international attention to be given to efforts by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to destroy a prominent church in Wenzhou, in China’s Zhejiang province.
According to a press release from the United States-based group, CCP authorities sent hundreds of armed police to surround Yayang Christian Church on Monday. This occurred following the forcible dispersal and, in some cases, arrest of Christian residents near the church. According to sources on the ground who made contact with ChinaAid, individuals were not permitted to record.
Large equipment has reportedly been placed outside the church in what the watchdog group described as an “extremely tense” situation.
“Although authorities have not publicly announced their intentions,” the group stated, “there is grave concern that the operation may involve the forced removal of the church’s cross or the demolition, seizure, or destruction of the church building itself.”
“Believers are facing intimidation, isolation, and the imminent threat of violent enforcement. This unfolding siege represents a serious escalation in the CCP’s systematic campaign of religious persecution under the policy of so-called ‘Sinicisation of religion’,” the entity also said, referring to the CCP’s policy of bringing all religious institutions and doctrines in China under its control.
The founder of ChinaAid, Bob Fu, posted a photo on X on Tuesday showing that scaffolding had been set up around the church’s cross, claiming, “Part of the church building is being destroyed forcefully by the CCP government.”
Mr Fu escaped China twenty years after being imprisoned for leading unregistered house churches
“The mobilisation of hundreds of armed police and heavy demolition equipment against a peaceful Christian church is not law enforcement—it is state-sponsored religious persecution,” he warned. “Wenzhou, long known as ‘China’s Jerusalem’, is once again under siege.”
He also urged other nations to condemn the actions of the CCP and its ongoing persecution of Christians.
“History has shown repeatedly that no regime can extinguish faith through force. If the world remains silent at this critical moment, it will only embolden the CCP to destroy more churches and trample fundamental human dignity,” he stated.
“ChinaAid urgently calls upon governments, United Nations human rights mechanisms, international media, global churches, and civil society organisations to closely monitor this situation and take immediate action to prevent irreversible harm.”
The persecution of Christians has been an ongoing issue in the nation, with ChinaAid reporting just 3 weeks ago that more than 1,000 police, SWAT, and paramilitary units spent days cracking down on churches across at least 12 congregations in Yayang Town, detaining hundreds of Christians. Church leaders Lin Enzhao and Lin Enci were arrested and accused of being “principal suspects of a criminal organisation” suspected of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”.
A ChinaAid report has revealed that Chinese Christians are imprisoned and tortured regularly, with the government using the giving of tithes and offerings to lay fraud charges against house churches to “financially suffocate” them.
Mr Fu, in an interview with Fox News three years ago, said Christian persecution in China has worsened to a point not seen since the Cultural Revolution under Mao Zedong.
Despite repeated and systematic persecution, Christian congregations in Yayang Town have resisted government monitoring and the destruction of church buildings since Zhejiang province began removing crosses from churches in 2014.