ENI — A religious freedom advocacy group has called on the international community to put pressure on China to respect the rule of law after the destruction of an unofficial church in the country’s Shanxi province.
Hundreds of people in uniforms and civilian clothes raided the church in September after local authorities claimed it was housed in an illegally constructed building, and was not a church, the Texas-based group ChinaAid said.
ChinaAid claimed that the local authorities had mobilised about 400 uniformed police and other hired attackers to demolish the new church building, leaving more than 100 people injured.
China has Christians who belong to official government-sanctioned churches, and a growing number of other believers who belong to unofficial or “house” churches.
