A 65-year-old member of The Church of Almighty God persecuted by authorities forced to flee, her family strictly surveilled by the police.
Tian Jin (pseudonym), is a member of The Church of Almighty God, a Chinese Christian new religious movement, from the city of Suining in Sichuan. Like other followers of the Church in China, she suffers constant persecution by the Chinese Communist Party. At 8:30 a.m. on March 13, 2018, four plain-clothed police officers from the Sichuan Public Security Office and a county-level public security bureau criminal police brigade, charged into the clinic owned by Tian Jin’s husband, Li Yong (pseudonym), intending to apprehend Tian Jin. The officers ordered Li Yong to phone Tian Jin and ask her to come to the clinic. Accusing Tian Jin of belonging to a xie jiao (heterodox) organization as an excuse, police searched the clinic and later forcibly escorted Li Yong to his home.
As the four officers searched the clinic, another 12 officers broke into Tian’s home when no one was there, looking for her. Not finding her there, six officers went downstairs to keep watch, waiting for her to come home.
After being escorted home, Li Yong found six officers still ransacking it. They found twelve religious books, ten microSD cards, and two digital CD players, as well as Tian Jin’s ID card, work permit, and retirement pay card, all of which they confiscated. An officer from the public security office ordered Li Yong to get Tian Jin to turn herself in, threatening him “Our superiors have passed down orders that anyone who is a follower of Almighty God is resisting the Communist Party, and that we should shoot them, and put them to death!” He also stated that, recently, they had captured three members of The Church of Almighty God at a meeting, including one of the principal leaders.
Tian Jin, having discovered that the police was looking for her, took refuge in a relative’s home. The next night, police tracked down her location by monitoring Li Yong’s cell phone; and, just ten minutes before they caught up with her, Tian Jin managed to escape.
On March 20, the local police once again attempted to force Li Yong to hand over Tian Jin, threatening if she did not surrender to authorities, they would cancel her retirement payments and list her as a wanted criminal online.
Since then, Tian Jin has been forced to live as a fugitive, unable to return home. Her home is under the strict police surveillance, her husband, son, and daughter-in-law have all had their phones tapped, and her daughter-in-law is now followed by the police when she picks up and drops off her children each day.
Source: Direct Reports from China
