China has released a pastor who protested against a government campaign to demolish crosses.

Zhang Chongzhu was arrested in September last year in Zhejiang province following his vocal opposition to the ongoing destruction of church crosses in the region.

He was charged in March this year with ‘stealing, spying, buying, or illegally providing state secrets or intelligence to entities outside China’.

But supporters believe the arrest was carried to prevent the pastor from attending a planned meeting with with U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Religious Freedom David Saperstein.

Zhang, the pastor at Pyongyang Three-Self Patriotic Movement Church, has now been released, according to China Aid.

Officials in the Zhejiang province have destroyed more than 2,000 church crosses since the campaign began in March 2014.