The testimony of a CAG devotee on how the CCP brought his father to “look for his son” in Korea—but things didn’t go as the CCP had planned.
by Liu Ya’nan
My name is Liu Ya’nan, and I am a Christian of The Church of Almighty God (CAG), whose history and persecution have been described several times by Bitter Winter. I and my wife Cui Haoyu were persecuted in China for our faith. We fled to South Korea in 2015, but the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) never stopped its persecution against me or its harassment against my family.
On August 15, 2022, one of my co-religionists came to me and said, “This morning, an elderly man in his 60s came to our church in Onsu, accompanied by three officers from the police branch of Oryudong in Guro district of Seoul city. He said that he came from China to look for his son. Judging by the information he provided, it should be you whom he is looking for. Will you contact the elderly man to confirm it?”
The news was beyond my belief: “Really my father came?” I remembered that in 2019, my father was threatened and lured by the CCP to South Korea, and followed pro-CCP activist Ms. O Myung-ok in joining a demonstration in the name of “looking for relatives” in front of the gate of the CAG premises in Onsu. At that time, my father was manipulated by the CCP and persuaded to participate in defaming the CAG. Only when he was about to leave South Korea was he allowed to meet me in a hurry. At that time, I promised to him that if he would manage to come back to visit me in South Korea, he could directly contact the CAG in advance, and the CAG would inform me. I repeatedly exhorted him not to come with CCP personnel.
So I thought, why does he come with police officers now? Is this a new maneuver by the CCP? I was kind of afraid, wondering how to face this situation. Then I took the risk to call my mother, who was in China.
My mother told me that my father went to Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital of Hebei, on July 31, 2022. At that time, my father only told my mother that he went to ask about my whereabouts, and nothing more. However, on August 4, my mother learned from her sister that my father had already left to go to South Korea. I was surprised to know all this. “My father has been in Korea for so many days, but I and the Church have never gotten the news that my father was looking for me. Where is he? Why does he not come to the Church to meet me?” I was worried that my father would become a tool again for the CCP’s campaign of slander against the CAG. I was also wondering whether the CCP would play again its old tricks to defame my Church in the name of “looking for relatives.”
On the afternoon of August 15, feeling nervous, I contacted my father, and made an appointment to meet him as soon as possible. On August 15, I went from Seoul to the police branch of Oryudong in Guro district, and met my father there. I found my father tired, wan, and thin, without knowing what he had experienced in his days in Korea. With my heartstrings tugged, I hugged my father, with he and me bursting into crying.
The officers told me that my father had misunderstandings about the Church, and they hoped to clear up his misunderstandings by asking me about my life in Korea. They wanted me to let my father know that I’m free, without anyone restricting or detaining me.
In fact, all these problems had been discussed and solved when my father came to Korea in 2019, and at that time my father said that he felt reassured to see that I was safe and lived a good life in Korea. How come he had “misunderstandings” again this time? I still tried to give up my doubts, and cooperated with the officers for their investigation. I answered them with patience, but my father became impatient. He did not want to listen to my answers, and kept telling me, “I didn’t expect that it would be too much trouble. Don’t talk so much; let’s leave here.”
I read my father’s mind. It was not his will to have the police involved. He was not worried about my life in Korea, as he knew that I was safe. He only wanted to save time to remain alone with me. Obviously, it was under the pressure of Ms. O that my father had asked the police for help. Ms. O’s aim was to spread the false information that the CAG does not allow church members to meet with their families, and they could only meet each other with the help of the police.
Afterwards, an incredible event happened. The CAG worship center in Chungcheongbuk-do received a notice from the local police that a demonstration would be held at the worship center gate. The police said that my father was looking for me, and asked the Church to help my father find me. The police also said that Ms. O with several unidentified people would hold a demonstration at the worship center gate on August 17 on the pretext that “the Church detains its members and prevents them from meeting their families.”
I immediately told the Chungcheongbuk-do police office that I already met my father, and it would be unreasonable if some people hold a demonstration on this pretext. I asked the police to exhort Ms. O and her team to cancel their demonstration. However, they did not follow the police’s suggestion, and insisted on holding their demonstration.
Later, I learned from the report by Ms. O herself that on August 17, 2022, Ms. O and her performance team appeared at the gate of the CAG worship center for 2-hour demonstration, raising signs with these words, “We’re looking for Liu Ya’nan and Cui Haoyu. Your father and son are eagerly expecting you back home.” Prior to their demonstration, Ms. O and her team went and held a demonstration at the local government premises.
On August 16, after meeting my father, I accompanied him for the night in the small hotel where he had been taken. My father told me that his medical examination showed he had a small nodule on his lung and needed an operation, but that it was not incurable. He told me not to be worried about him. I felt very sorry to see that my father had no appetite and could not sleep well in the hotel, whose conditions were not good, but he had still put up with it for 15 days.
On August 17, I decided with my wife to take my father to our Church in Onsu. During the days when my father lived in the Church, the brothers and sisters helped me and my wife take good care of him. My father had delicious food and lived here happily, and I took him shopping and eating out. A few days later, he was in a better mood, saying with emotions, “I feel at home.” He said that the Church was really different from what he thought it to be. He also said, “I hope you can return to China, but don’t return if it’s dangerous and unbeneficial to you and your child. It’s OK for you to stay here. I am reassured, since I’ve come and seen that you work and live well here.”
I urged my father to stay here so that he could receive an operation in Korea, and I and my wife could look after him, but he refused. He knows that our life in Korea is not easy, because we came to Korea to seek refuge, and live our life with the help of our church brothers and sisters. He hated to bring a burden to me, and after all his home is in China, so in his old age he wanted to return there. In these days before he returned home, what I could do was to stay with him, accompany him, express my filial feelings.
My father told me that he already arrived in Seoul on August 1, 2022. He was eager to see me but did not come to the Church until 15 days after he had arrived in Seoul. I wondered: Where had he been to during these 15 days? Who did he stay with? What had he been doing? But it seemed that my father did not want to talk about this, only saying, “I’ve been looking for you.”
I could understand that he had no alternative, because he had to return to China, and had to face the CCP, so he could only keep some things to himself. The more I thought about it, the angrier I became. Who is using my father? Who had prevented my father from seeing me? It’s the CCP, and it’s Ms. O. I believed that as usual they had put up a sideshow for the benefit of the media, so I began to search on the Internet. The facts confirmed my guess.
I was angered by the shameless actions of the CCP and Ms. O, who really lied through their teeth. This time, they sank to a new low. On August 4, some media reported that Ms. O organized several people for demonstration in the front of the CAG premises in Guro, with the theme “I ask that my relatives be allowed to go back home.” I saw the signs in the report claiming that my father was looking for me. In fact, however, my father had never come to the Church to look for me before, during, and after the demonstration, and had never appeared at the scene of the demonstration.
So who was the gentleman raising a sign for the benefit of the media asking me and my wife to go home in China? (See image below). This is an interesting question, but one thing is sure. He was not my father. He was an actor (or a CCP operative) impersonating him.
The CCP also raised the flag of affections, lying that my father had a cancer but had not found me after a long time. It said so that people would show sympathy for my father and hatred for the Church. I was angrier to hear these words. It said without good reason that my father had a cancer; is this cursing my father? He only has a nodule, not a cancer. It was the time for his re-examination and treatment but instead he was taken to Seoul by the CCP, where he lived in bad conditions for 15 days, and became extremely fatigued. The CCP only used my father as a tool but did not care about his life and health.
On August 5, another Korean media outlet published a report with the theme that my father was looking for me. The report said that my father had not been in contact with me for nearly 10 years, and that he was missing me very much and hoped to see me. In fact, in 2019 my father had already been taken by the CCP to the CAG premises in Korea for a demonstration. After the demonstration, my father had met me and my wife. This significant fact was only mentioned at the end of the report, which was thus self-contradictory and badly misled the public. Moreover, in the beginning of 2020, my father had told me through email that he would come to South Korea to spend the lunar new year festival with me and my wife. It was a pity that he could not come due to the outbreak of the pandemic.
What followed is my personal experience. The fact that I showed up seemed to disturb the plans of the CCP and Ms. O. On August 15, accompanied by police officers, my father came to CAG premises in Onsu to look for me. When he arrived, some people in a nearby car were monitoring. This car is a frequent “visitor” to our church, often appearing at various premises and worship center of our church, monitoring and taking photos of our church without permission. The church cameras recorded everything the people in the car did. It is a car of the team of Ms. O.
Under the surveillance of the CCP, my father had to perform according to their designed script. It looked like a helpless elderly man who was looking for his son everywhere, visiting several premises of the Church, but with no results. The CCP had not foreseen that I would meet my father amicably and privately. They went on with their farce anyway.
On August 16, their demonstration was held as planned, and false reports were published, including in Ms. O’s own website, which did not mention that my father already met me. I couldn’t help asking: Who had stopped my father from meeting me? It was not the CAG. It was the CCP. Besides, without the persecution by the CCP, would I and my wife have fled to South Korea? Weren’t all our family misfortunes caused by the CCP? And now the CCP is continuing to use my father as a tool.
However, the CCP’s evil plot did not go as planned. My father, my wife and I managed to spend quality time together in the CAG premises in Onsu, happily enjoying this short meeting. My father could not tell me the full story of his interaction with the CCP. But we tacitly understood each other, and he had the courage to break free from the control of the CCP for a short time to come to me, and to live with us in the Church. Through this, we have truly realized that family ties always overcome external maneuvers, and no amount of pressure can separate the affections between father and son. I sincerely hope that the CCP will no longer mercilessly use the pure affections between family members as a tool to attack my Church, and will stop lure and use my father for its evil purposes.
Liu Ya’nan is a member of The Church of Almighty God. He escaped persecution in China in 2015, and is currently in South Korea.
