CHINAAID More than two thousand crosses have now been forcefully removed from churches

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More than two thousand crosses have now been forcefully removed from churches as part of a government campaign to regulate “excessive religious sites”. The nation’s leadership launched the crusade to eradicate Christianity in the coastal province of Zhejiang almost two years ago. Several members of the public have since been arrested for attempting to halt the government's crude attempt to suppress the Christian faith.

Among the arrested was prominent human rights lawyer Zhang Kai, who was detained after he mounted a legal campaign to challenge the removal of the crosses. Mr Kai was detained for six months before he was "forced" to appear on the State channel to "confess" his crimes against the Chinese governement by supporting the anti-establishment protest of the demolition of crucifixes. Local Christian leaders condemned the forced confession from the lawyer, who also represented a group Christians who were detained for suspected financial crimes last year after they protested at the demolation of crosses, in a public letter.

CHINAAID The nation’s leadership launched the crusade to eradicate Christianity almost two years ago

There are concerns that this campain to curtail the visable Christian precens in the province could gather momentum Chief executive of Release international, Paul Robinson

Christian charity China Aid confirmed just before Easter that more than 2000 crosses had now been demolished by the government as part of their “Three Rectifications and One Demolition” campaign. It also claimed that since the beginnning of 2016 to early March, 49 Churches had been destroyed in the rampage to abolish Christianity. Restriction in the country make it difficult to provide an accurate estimate of how many Christians live in China, but Government figures suggest there are more than 28 million people, both Protestant and Catholic, practising the faith to date. Last year it was revealed that China is on track to have the world’s largest population of Christians with the figure surging to more than 247 million by 2030.

GETTY 49 Churches have been destroyed in the rampage to abolish Christianity