June 09, 2015 -Robert Marquand – Christian Science Monitor
A group of Protestant churches in China’s Zhejiang Province are staging an unusual tryst with local authorities who have knocked down the cross from atop their churches: They are fighting back and restoring the traditional symbol of Christianity.
In some cases, the often elderly evangelical resisters in 16 churches around the cities of Lishui and Fuyang have persistently replaced the cross three times in a single day. So far, the restored crosses – some of makeshift raw lumber – remain.
Such civil disobedience is part of a mostly polite but intensifying standoff between the faithful and party authorities in the wake of a state campaign to target Protestants in the place where their numbers are growing and their churches are visible.
A number of churchgoers who have conducted late night and early morning campaigns to reaffix the cross say they are acting out of conviction and aren’t afraid. One man, Zhao Lizhong, who tried in early May to defend the Pinguan church in Lishui, has not been heard from since police escorted him from the site.
Christian pastors in China are concerned that the state activity in Zhejiang is a prelude to a larger crackdown.
The recent pushback began in May after the provincial government announced that crosses must come off all churches in the province. That brought a rare open letter from the region’s largest evangelical church stating that the policy is “likely to cause chaos … and religious conflicts.”
“The churches are restoring their cross over and over again,” says Zan Aizong, a local evangelical and former journalist, in a telephone interview. “They are being bold and very courageous.”