Chinese authorities demolish church, put up a paved park

A prominent Chinese church previously demolished by authorities has now been replaced by a paved public park. The country’s flag occupied a prominent place where Yazhong Church once was, the human rights organization ChinaAid said Friday. The church was located in eastern China’s coastal Zhejiang Province. Yazhong Church, also known as Yayang, was one of the largest unregistered Protestant congregations in China, according to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a  foreign policy nonprofit.

Authorities turned the unregistered Protestant church to rubble in May, the ChinaAid said. They sealed off the area and monitored electronic communications as the multilevel structure was knocked down in under than 72 hours. Since its destruction, church members have been forced to meet in homes for smaller, discreet gatherings, ChinaAid reported.

Chinese authorities require churches to register as the government views Christianity as a threat that needs strict oversight, according to the nonprofit Open Doors. But many churches don’t register to avoid the state’s intrusion, Open Doors said.

How long had authorities targeted the church for? Authorities had confronted church members during the past year, arresting more than 100 members in December 2025, according to reports from ChinaAid and the news outlet Le Monde. While many church members were later released, 20 still remain behind bars for charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” ChinaAid said.

Dig deeper: Read my report on a pastor arrested in China for illegal religious activities.