Concern rises in Wenzhou as Christianity booms in capitalist fashion(3)

"Basically, it takes a very long time to get the final approval of a building permit for Christian churches. It is unsurprising that, in order to meet the needs of believers, some churches start construction before receiving the final approval," said Fenggang Yang, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center on Religion and Chinese Society at Purdue University, who has been following the incident closely on the Internet.

"Not only is it difficult to get the permit to build a new church, it is even more difficult to make renovations for the purpose of expanding the sanctuary. The government agencies are often reluctant to grant such permits," he said.

Some Christians have argued that the government has selectively implemented the law on Christian buildings since other illegal structures near the churches did not receive demolition orders.

Li Xiangping, a professor of religion at East China Normal University, said, "The written document of 'three revise and one demolition' shows no bias against religion. But in actual implementation, there might have been a bias, because orders to dismantle crosses don't seem to make sense."

Yang said, "Honestly speaking, in China today, what can you accomplish without violating some kind of rules? There are a myriad of rules, but some rules are seriously outdated, some rules are arbitrarily made, and some rules are selectively enforced."

Religious business

The rapid expansion of Wenzhou's Christian population is closely connected with Wenzhou's history of entrepreneurism and status as a pioneer in economic reform and commercialization since the late 1970s, observes Cao Nanlai, an associate professor at Renmin University of China's School of Philosophy.

Cao is the author of Constructing China's Jerusalem, a 2010 book published by the Stanford University Press about Christianity in contemporary Wenzhou based on over two years' field research.

Characterized by its small to medium manufacturing businesses and private capitals, Wenzhou's commercial success was dubbed "the Wenzhou model of development" in the mid-1980s and created a new wealthy class who ran private businesses.

"Wenzhou's boss Christians ran the churches with the same philosophy as they ran their businesses. They bought and expanded churches and capital, built churches and did a great job marketing Christian ideas and church activities, which made Christianity a powerful religion in Wenzhou," Cao told the Global Times.

Also, since Wenzhou is cut off by mountains, it enjoyed a relatively high level of religious freedom and religious activities received little interference.

"Unlike in many other places in China where Christianity is marginalized, in Wenzhou it is almost mainstream. Many local officials, if they are not Christians themselves, have Christian relatives, friends and classmates," Cao said. One aspect of this is that many Christians proudly give their companies Christian names, such as the Canaan Technology Group or the Shenli (literally "God power") Group.

But just as some economists have pointed out that Wenzhou's model of development isn't sustainable, its development of Christianity has also had problems.

"The growth of Christianity in Wenzhou is in a phase when the speed and size of expansion is valued over other aspects. Local Christians built large churches and tall crosses which religiously represent blessings of God and nearness to heaven. But it's also a kind of display. Wenzhou Christians want to show how capable they are, blessed by God, and how morally superior they are to others," Cao said.

Other issues include a blurred line between private assets and church assets.

In the course of this rapid development, however, many laws were ignored, and the fact that the church put too much emphasis on using tangible aspects to attract converts instead of via theological discussions, he said.