Hey look at China

[Wyrd of Gawd]

Defacing churches is not "freedom of religion", but it's not going to stop Christians from being Christian either. The only outcome will be pissed off Christians.

If they want to mitigate the spread and influence of Christianity in China, they'd do better to make public proselytisation illegal and ban faith schools, and I would applaud and support that move in any country. Destroying peoples' places of worship (even if it's just removing the symbolism from the buildings) is taking things too far. That's violence.

But if the deity was real it should set up some type of force field around its stuff and its believers.  

Anyway, destroying other people's religious artifacts is the First Commandment.