There are no clear regulations on the construction of temples in the country, but temples are religious buildings. If they are built illegally, they are illegal buildings.

According to Article 68 of the "Urban and Rural Planning Law of the People's Republic of China":

After the urban and rural planning authorities make a decision to order a halt to construction or demolition within a time limit, the parties shall not If construction is stopped or demolition is not carried out within the time limit, the people's government at or above the county level where the construction project is located may instruct relevant departments to take measures such as sealing off the construction site and forcing demolition.

Take Zhejiang Province as an example:

So far, Zhejiang has demolished a total of 225 million square meters of illegal buildings and renovated 2.69 million square meters of old residential areas, old factories, and urban villages. billion square meters. Among them, the demolition and conversion of religious illegal buildings accounted for 0.26% of the total, and Christian illegal buildings accounted for only 2.3% of them. This series of demolition work since last year has caused some social controversy and has been isolated and highlighted in foreign media reports. .

Extended information:

In China, religious belief is free. At the same time, the relationship between religious organizations and society, the way they exert influence on society and spread themselves, is not internal to religion. Affairs often involve public affairs, so some need to be brought under state management.

This has a very obvious necessity, because if religious activities lose control in China, sooner or later they will bring all kinds of chaos related to religion in the world into this country.

For religion to develop soundly, the most important thing is to respect secular laws and rules. The presence of illegal religious facilities in some places in China, or the deliberate establishment of large-scale "underground churches" outside the registration system, are all inappropriate. This kind of behavior can easily lead to misunderstandings and become a source of serious disharmony between these religious communities and the surrounding society.

Because some local governments lack experience in managing religions, and because Western forces often dictate from the outside, local governments often fail to manage or dare not manage. As a result, some religious people have developed a "consciousness of privilege" and do not pay much attention to relevant laws and regulations. For example, when a developer builds a shopping mall, he or she usually does not dare to expand the building scale beyond the approval limit.

However, when it comes to building churches, those who build more churches in smaller groups are often "righteous" and openly resist the management.

Legitimate religions all encourage good deeds. In the huge and complex Chinese society, the good of religious communities must first abide by laws and regulations, and maintain harmony with the surrounding communities and the entire city. China is a society without state-level religious beliefs, but various religions are actually developing rapidly.

It is not easy for the government to manage and coordinate the relationships and roles of various religions in the modernization process. Understanding the country and cooperating with its management are intrinsically consistent with the teachings of all legitimate religions.

People's Daily Online - Facilities that violate religious regulations are also illegal buildings