Only days after U.S. President Donald Trump left a Beijing summit with CCP Chairman Xi Jinping where religious freedom and jailed religious leaders were discussed, authorities in eastern China have demolished a prominent church, razing the building with large excavators.
Yazhong Church (also referred to as Yayang Church), an unregistered Protestant church in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province — a region known as “China’s Jerusalem” — has been under siege since late last year.
On Dec. 14 and 15, local authorities arrested 103 church members in a pre-dawn raid and took control of the church building, as confirmed last week in new reporting by Le Monde. That same week, at a public event, an unidentified government official announced: “We will see this campaign through to the end.”
Five months later, heavy construction vehicles passed through tightly controlled security checkpoints set up by authorities, according to multiple sources confirmed by ChinaAid News. Crews then demolished the multi-level sanctuary from the top down, reducing it to rubble. Due to an unprecedented information blackout, the exact date of the demolition is not yet known; sources provided an initial report on May 19.
Prominent Church In East China Demolished Amid Escalating Crackdown https://t.co/js4iRUjdf7
— Bob Fu 傅希秋 (@BobFu4China) May 21, 2026
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