“The river looked like it turned to blood.”
Residents of the Zhejiang province made similar statements to reporters all morning after the river running through their villages turned blood red.
“The really weird thing is that we have been able to catch fish because the water is normally so clear,” one resident said.
The river reportedly was fine around 5 a.m. according to fisherman but within an hour had turned blood red and created a foul smell. Fish within the river are reportedly dying and washing up on riverbanks.
Government inspectors say the cause has to be illegal dumping in the river.
“We suspect that somebody dumped artificial coloring in the water because he thought the typhoon yesterday would cause heavy rain, and nobody would notice [the color],” Jianfeng Xiao, Chief of the Wenzhour Environmental Protection Bureau told China News.
A new report from the Pew Research Center shows that China and Russia are the top countries in the world for destruction of churches by government organizations.
Pew collected information on “demolition of houses of worship, and the seizure of religious groups’ property and government raids of houses of worship that result in property damage.”
China, which has been conducting very high profile crackdowns on Christian congregations in their country, only has 5 percent of the population calling themselves Christians according to the CIA World Factbook. Russia shows 15-20% of the population as Russian Orthodox and only 2% as just Christian.
The two nations were joined in third by Tajikistan, a 90 percent Muslim country, as having more than 100 documented cases of churches being destroyed by government groups.
The next tier (from 10 to 99 incidents) included Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Pakistan and Indonesia.
The only two nations in the Americas that were on the list of 10 or more churches destroyed was Cuba and Venezuela.
A group of Chinese Christians who could not stop the government from destroying their church building stood and sang hymns as the workers stripped crosses off the building.
The Chinese government continued their crackdown on any Christian emblems in Wenzhou City. The city had been the source of a major movement of Christianity that the government claimed was illegal and sought to end.
The government has gone as far as to destroy a multimillion dollar church building that took five years to build within weeks of the church’s official opening. The government claimed that the building violated building codes and had to be destroyed.
The government is now blocking any website that makes mention of the crackdown on churches in Wenzhou, saying that the information in violation of Chinese law and that they are nothing more than propaganda which is aimed to overthrow the government.
Local Christians have told aid organiztions that over 360 churches have been destroyed in the last few weeks in the Zhejiang Province which includes Wenhzou City. All of the buildings were destroyed for “illegal construction” and are going to be replaced with government buildings aimed at “urban development.”
A recent panel discussed the massive expansion of Christianity in China even as the government increases their crackdown on Christ’s people.
One of the panelists talked of the persecution as a source of joy for many of the Chinese Christian leaders because it’s bringing forward the true followers of the faith.
“Chinese Christian leaders look at this as a winnowing effect, so those who are not true Christians will leave the churches; the ‘Sunday Christians,'” said Professor Carsten Vala of Loyola University Maryland. “The really committed, devout believers will be increasingly strengthened in their faith by this ‘winds of persecution’ and honestly the church buildings may be torn down, but that doesn’t mean the congregations themselves have scattered.”
Reverend Zhang Boli spoke about the growth in the underground church movement that is surpassing the “registered” and “official” churches according to the Chinese government. He attributed the crackdown to the growth.
“Recently we have seen some changes in the Chinese government’s policy towards religion,” said Boli via an interpreter. “The reason that caused them to decide to make those changes is because Christianity is moving very, very quickly in China.”
Official government statistics say there are 33 million Christians in the country but panelists say that because of unregistered “house churches” the amount is likely higher.
A South Korean missionary arrested in North Korea on charges of spying and setting up a network of underground churches has been sentenced to life at hard labor.
Kim Jung-wook was sentenced after a trial where North Korean authorities claim he admitted to “committing anti-North Korean religious acts” and “malignantly hurting the dignity” of ruler Kim Jong-Un.
According to North Korean state media, Jung-wook had a defense attorney but there were no details about whether a defense was actually provided during the trial that international observers called a sham.
Kim Jung-wook had been arrested last October after he entered North Korea from China. When he lived in China, he had been instrumental in helping North Korean Christians escape to South Korea. He had crossed into North Korea to learn about food storages and was caught by authorities.
Prosecutors presented what they called evidence of his actions including religious books. The court could have sentenced the missionary to death but decided to issue the life sentence.
On Sunday, Chinese authorities told Christians in Zhejiang province they are no longer allowed to gather and worship.
The government also demolished 10 church buildings using the same claim that all the buildings had violated “building codes” for the region. The government has now destroyed 64 churches since the forced demolition of a $4.8 million Sanjiang Church building on April 28th.
“There is a church building that also houses a grocery market about 1/3 miles from my home,” a house church worshipper from Yueqing County in Wenzhou told China Aid. “The people were notified to implement an order that all gatherings shall stop from this Sunday. If people there don’t stop their gatherings, the building…will be confiscated.”
Government officals have also been ripping down any crosses they find on buildings or along roadways.
Christians in the Wenzhou area say that the latest crackdown by the government is unlike any previous actions because they are trying to completely obliterate any sign of Christianity. Elderly residents noted in previous crackdowns, even when churches were turned into warehouses for the government, the crosses on the buildings are not removed and destroyed.
Christians who have challenged the government’s action have found themselves suspended from jobs, had their factories and businesses sealed and suffered tax audits that cause great expense.
An Islamic terrorist group attacked an open-air market in western China, leaving 31 people dead and close to 100 injured.
China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported that terrorists drove off-road vehicles into a market in Urumqi and began to throw bombs into the crowds of shoppers. One of the vehicles was then abandoned in the center of the market and exploded as the terrorists fled the scene.
Witnesses say the majority of the dead are elderly people who visited their market to get fresh food for their family’s daily meal.
The attack comes as Chinese officials crack down on the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, who they accuse of launching the Tiananmen Square attack last October and an attack on a train station in Urumqi last month.
An expert in ethnic relations in China says the attacks show a shift by the Muslim group. They had previously focused attacks and actions against military targets and government installations; now they are targeting innocent civilians with the intent of causing maximum casualties.
China’s war on Christianity is continuing with the removal of statues that depicted various parts of the Passion of Jesus.
The Chinese officials removed the statues making the absurd claim the statues were violations of construction regulations.
The statues were located on Longgang Hill in Wenzhou, which is considered “China’s Jerusalem” by Christian and Jewish residents. The statues included images of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph.
Statues that could be lifted by Chinese government workers were lifted and demolished. Those that could not be lifted were covered over with bricks. Cranes are being brought into the area to remove the bricked-over statues.
Wenzhou is the same town where the government demolished a Christian church that took 12 years to build because they said it too violated construction codes. Christian residents of the community say that there were no code violations and the government is lying to cover up an assault on Christians in the nation.
The Chinese government is opening up a war on Christians.
Authorities used police to break through a human barricade to bring in heavy equipment for the destruction of a newly built church in Wenzhou. The church had made worldwide headlines when the worshippers formed a human shield around the building a month ago in an attempt to stop the government from their announced intent to tear it down.
The government claims they aren’t attacking Christians but that the building had violated multiple buildings codes and was unsafe for occupation.
However, church members have reported being harassed by police both at the church and at their homes. Also, they have found electronic devices spying on their phone calls and at least one person has been harassed by secret police for a phone conversation.
The head of Zhejiang’s Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee has said before the move on the church building “Christianity’s spread has been too excessive and haphazard.”
A major city in western China is in a panic after government officials said the tap water in the city is toxic.
Government officials in Lanzhou say that excessive levels of benzene have been found in the water system. The amount of benzene is reportedly 20 times the acceptable limit to not be a toxic threat to someone who consumes it.
Benzene has been linked to leukemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
“Consuming foods or fluids contaminated with high levels of benzene can cause vomiting, stomach irritation, dizziness, sleepiness, convulsions, and rapid heart rate. In extreme cases, inhaling or swallowing very high levels of benzene can be deadly,” the American Cancer Society said.
Lanzhou is a city of 2.5 million people and witnesses report panicked residents flooding into stores to stock up on bottled water.
Chinese officials would not name a source for the toxic levels of the chemical in the water but a source inside the government told the Daily Telegraph that there was a spill from an unnamed chemical plant.
A 2012 study found that 60 percent of the groundwater in China is “heavily polluted.”