About two weeks after a Church leader's wife was buried alive by a bulldozer seeking to demolish the church at a disputed land in Henan province of China, provincial authorities ruled that the church owned the land, according to a press release by China Aid.
A task force comprising of township government, and local administrative committee ruled that the land belonged to Beitou Church and church pastor Li Jiangong, and was to be used exclusively by the church. A local developer had wanted to take over the property.
On April 14, Li and his wife Ding Cuimei stepped in front of the bulldozer as it was about to demolish the church, and were thrown into a pit by the bulldozer, and covered under soil.
Ding suffocated to death, but Li was able to escape. By the time the soil was removed from over her, she had died.
"While we are glad to see that the local authorities acted swiftly and fairly under international pressure to resolve the church's right to their land, we are concerned that justice for the family of the martyr is still not done," said Bob Fu, president of China Aid.
According to local Christian witnesses, officials from governmental departments responsible for the area were not present at the time of demolition.
"This case is a serious violation of the rights to life, religious freedom and rule of law," Fu said.
In an interview with The Christian Post about two months ago, Fu said that Communist Party was fearing the increasing Christian population in the country.
"The top leadership is increasingly worried about the rapid growth of Christian faith and their public presence, and their social influence," Fu said. "It is a political fear for the Communist Party, as the number of Christians in the country far outnumber the members of the party."
Since 2014, Chinese authorities have proactively demolished crosses and churches in Zhejiang province, also known as the "Jerusalem of China." Activists say that the government might be using Zhejiang as a testing ground, before carrying out similar campaigns in different parts of the country.
A 2016 report of abuses documented around the globe, mostly carried out by governmental machinery, was recently released by Human Rights Watch.
The report pointed out that in the reign of President Xi Jinping, churches have come under increased scrutiny, while thousands of crosses were demolished and many churches were razed to ground. The government said that the church buildings were taken down because they were illegal constructions, but Christian groups say that the aim of the state was to suppress the freedom of religion.
"Individuals and groups who have fought hard in the past decade for human rights gains were the clearest casualties of an aggressive campaign against peaceful dissent, their treatment starkly contrasting with President Xi's vow to promote 'rule of law.' Between July and September, about 280 human rights lawyers and activists were briefly detained and interrogated across the country," the Human Rights Watch report said.
