China authorities install surveillance cameras in Christian churches

Video cameras should be installed on the entrance to the church, on the arch-see, at the donation box and in many other places. Believers have repeatedly complained that such video surveillance violates their right to privacy.

"We, Christians, do good deeds and do nothing to put people at risk. I do not understand why the government wants to watch us, "said one of the parishioners of the church in Wenzhou City (Zhejiang Province, eastern China).

"The government pressure on us will not divert us from our faith and will not affect the spread of our religion," the Christian said and noted that the more pressure is put on Christians, the more people come to faith.

Most church ministers refused to comment on the installation of cameras.

“Government officials came to the churches and put up cameras by force. Some pastors and worshippers who didn’t agree to the move were dragged away,” a Christian in Wenzhou said, without specifying when the conflict occurred.

“Some people needed to be treated in hospital after fighting the officials.”

The confrontation with the city’s Christian community, which is estimated to number roughly one million, comes three years after the authorities ordered the removal of crosses on top of church buildings, on the grounds that they were illegal structures. Opponents called the 2014 campaign religious persecution.

Wenzhou is an industrial center with a population of 8 million people. Here is the highest concentration of Christians in the territory of mainland China. Before the campaign in 2014, there were more than 2,000 crosses over the churches. And it is here that the authorities are most eager to install video cameras.

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