China demolishes 'illegal' church in east China

China today confirmed that it demolished an "illegal" Christian church in Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province and arrested two people who resisted the government crackdown on underground religious movement.

"An unlawful building constructed by a group of Christians in east China's Zhejiang province was demolished on Saturday in accordance with the national law on land management," the official Xinhua news agency quoted local officials as saying.

The Christians started construction of the building for meetings at Xiaoshan District of Hangzhou, provincial capital of Zhejiang, on July 17. They completed construction on the morning of July 29, it said.

The building occupied an area on which a commercial centre of the suburban district was planned. The construction of the building was not registered and had no official approval, it quoted Qiu Youlai, a local official as saying.

The building had broken the law and regulations on land management and city planning, Qiu said.

"Before demolishing the building, the government had negotiated with the Christians and offered a plot of land nearby for their use," Qiu said.

But they refused and continued the construction, he said, adding that the district government carried out the demolition and arrested two people involved with the illegal construction according to law.

Meanwhile, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy claimed that police in Hangzhou clashed with some 3,000 Christians, injuring 20 protesters, four of them seriously.

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