The United States expressed alarm on Tuesday at the trial and sentencing to a nine-year prison term of the pastor of one of China's best-known unregistered "house" churches.

Wang Yi, pastor of the Early Rain Covenant Church in China's southwestern city of Chengdu, was among dozens of the church's members and leaders detained by police in December 2018, most of whom were subsequently released.

He was sentenced to prison on Monday on charges of inciting subversion of state power, part of Beijing's crackdown on unregistered religious groups.