Beijing: Christians in China clashed with police over installation of surveillance cameras in churches for "anti-terrorism and security" purposes in Zhejiang province's Wenzhou city, known as "China's Jerusalem", according to a media report.
The confrontation ensued at Wenzhou, home of about one million Christians, over the implementation of the earlier government order to install cameras in the churches, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.
The Zhejiang government issued the orders to churches in Wenzhou late last year and began implementing them before the Lunar New Year holiday in January.
The confrontation with the city's Christian community comes three years after the authorities ordered the removal of crosses on top of church buildings, on the grounds that they were illegal structures. Opponents called the 2014 campaign a "religious persecution".
"Government officials came to the churches and put up cameras by force. Some pastors and worshippers who did not agree to the move were dragged away," the daily quoted an eyewitness as saying without specifying when it happened.
"Some people needed to be treated in hospital after fighting the officials," the witness said.
Pastor Yan Xiaojie, a missionary in the city, said the cameras had been installed in a number of churches, reminding him of the "cross demolitions" in 2014.
During that controversial campaign, which made international headlines and drew criticism from religious rights organisations around the world, about 360 crosses were removed and one church was demolished, according to China Aid, a US-based religious rights group.
Next to Buddhism, Christianity is regarded as the fastest growing religion in communist China.
Unofficial estimates say China has over 65 million Christians including Catholics, Protestants as well as other church groups.
The ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) has tenuous ties with Rome apprehending political impact of the rapid growth of Christianity as it could become a movement in later years challenging CPC's power base.
Recent reports spoke of backchannel contacts between Beijing and Vatican to establish diplomatic ties which broke off in 1951, two years after CPC came to power.
Last year, Pope Francis termed Vatican's ?relations with China as "good" and said he had received a present from Chinese President Xi Jinping.
