Authorities in China’s Zhejiang Province have demolished the well-known Protestant church Yazhong Church, also known as Yayang Church. According to reports from human rights advocates and local sources, the building was destroyed using heavy construction equipment after several months of pressure, arrests, and intensified government surveillance, inVictory reports.

The church was located in the city of Wenzhou, a region often referred to as the “Chinese Jerusalem” because of its large Christian population. The congregation was not registered with the state and operated independently of China’s officially controlled religious structures.

The demolition took place several days after a meeting between US President Donald Trump and President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping in Beijing, where issues of religious freedom and imprisoned religious leaders were reportedly discussed.

According to the organisation ChinaAid, authorities launched a large-scale operation against the church as early as December of last year. In the early morning of 14 and 15 December, security forces conducted raids and detained 103 parishioners. After that, state structures effectively took control of the building.

Sources report that checkpoints and reinforced security were established around the church before the demolition. An area within a radius of approximately one kilometre was sealed off to prevent outsiders from entering. Authorities also allegedly banned photo and video recording. People attempting to film the events on their phones were stopped and removed from the scene.

According to eyewitnesses, the cross on the building was covered with black cloth before the destruction began. Construction equipment then started dismantling the multi-storey building from the top down until it was completely reduced to a pile of rubble.

According to parishioners, the conflict with the authorities escalated sharply in the summer of 2025. At that time, officials demanded that the Chinese national flag be displayed inside the church and that a flagpole be installed on church grounds. Believers viewed this as state interference in religious life.

Later, representatives of the authorities forcibly entered the church grounds, demolished part of the outer wall, and installed the flagpole, prompting protests from the congregation.

Experts on religious freedom note that Wenzhou has for many years been considered one of the harshest regions in China in terms of control over religion. Only churches belonging to the state-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Movement, a government-controlled patriotic association of Protestant churches, are officially permitted in the country.

Earlier, we reported that a married couple of American missionaries who had worked in China for many years were deported from the Chinese city of Guangzhou. Chinese Christians were also arrested for distributing printed Christian materials.

As LF previously reported, the state-controlled Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China supported the government’s ban on pastoral activities by unregistered clergy and on the use of unauthorised places of worship.

Earlier, we wrote that the Chinese authorities are intensifying pressure on underground Catholic communities in an effort to force them to join the state-controlled official church. This was stated by the organisation Human Rights Watch in its report.