ICC Note:
The 4,000-seat Sanjiang Christian Church in Wenzhou City in China was forcibly bulldozed on April 28 and China Aid reported that more than 40 people in connection with the Sanjiang Church were detained by police, including pastors, deacons, and church members.
05/23/2014 China (ChinaAid)- China Aid has received a list of more than 40 Wenzhou-area individuals who were summoned by police or detained in connection with Sanjiang Church, which was demolished on April 28, in China’s coastal Zhejiang.
The church was demolished as part of a campaign, “Three Rectifications and One Demolition,” which authorities claim targets only illegal structures. However, based on internal government documents, the campaign seems to focus heavily on the demolition and suppression of religious gathering places (see http://www.chinaaid.org/2014/04/exclusive-china-aid-receives-internal.html, http://www.chinaaid.org/2014/04/government-notice-lists-privately.html and http://www.chinaaid.org/2014/05/zhejiang-government-document-reveals.html).
Church leaders and the local government had previously signed an agreement on April 7 to leave the “model project,” as authorities had previously called the church building, intact and demolish two floors of an accessory building. The agreement came after thousands of Christians traveled to the church to guard it from demolition (see (http://www.chinaaid.org/2014/04/zhejiang-tspm-church-faces-forced.html, http://www.chinaaid.org/2014/04/one-tspm-church-in-zhejiang-finds.html and http://www.chinaaid.org/2014/04/sanjiang-church-in-zhejiang-facing.html).
The list of detained individuals comes days after China Aid published a list of 64 Zhejiang Churches to have been targeted during the demolition campaign since the beginning of the year (http://www.chinaaid.org/2014/05/china-aid-receives-compilation-of-64.html).
The following is a complete list of detentions and summons reported to China Aid. The individuals’ first names have been withheld for their personal safety: Seven Sanjiang Church staff, along with an elder, Guo, a preacher, Wang, and a deacon, Chen, were detained on April 22 by Yongjia County officials in Wenzhou. Three of the church members were named Chen, Shan and Ji.
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