An exclusive testimony documents a tragedy. “Bitter Winter” knows its source and is confident the story is true.
by Jiang Tao
This is the story of a member of The Church of Almighty God, the most persecuted Christian new religious movement in China, who was denied asylum in Italy and returned to China, where she was arrested and tortured.
Xiao Li (not her real name) talked to a “Bitter Winter” reporter after she was released from jail. She is still kept under surveillance and risked her life to tell her story. The author of this text, if identified, will be detained too. For this reason, we cannot disclose all details. We believe, however, that the story needs to be told, as it documents the connection between Chinese intelligence work and harassment of refugees in Italy and other countries where they seek asylum and the detention and torture of members of dissident religious groups in China.
“Xiao Li” is a member of The Church of Almighty God, a religious movement whose persecution “Bitter Winter” has continuously documented. In recent years, tens of thousands of members of this church have been arrested annually. To escape the increasingly severe persecution, Xiao Li fled to Italy.
Unfortunately, the Italian authorities did not believe that she was at risk of detention and worse in China and rejected her asylum application. Without legal status and unable to work legally, she was unable to afford expensive medical bills when she fell ill. In desperation, she boarded a flight back to China.
As soon as she arrived at the airport in China, she was arrested. The police told her that she was detained because she had been evangelizing in Italy on behalf of The Church of Almighty God, and they confiscated her cell phone and electronic devices. The police thoroughly examined her chat logs, contacts, pictures on her phone, and copied all the data from her computer, attempting to gather information about The Church of Almighty God’s activities in Italy.
She was sent to a re-education camp, a facility similar to those used to detain Uyghurs, designed to force individuals to renounce their faith through physical and psychological torment. High-definition cameras monitored every corner of her cell 24 hours a day, including the toilet. To prevent her from committing suicide, the police confiscated her belt and shoelaces.
The police first deprived her of sleep, knowing that she had medical issues and was physically weak, cold-sensitive, and that in her condition salty and spicy food would cause diarrhea. They deliberately set the air conditioning to a very low temperature and gave her meals of pickled vegetables and chili peppers, which caused her to have severe diarrhea. The torture and abuse caused her blood pressure to rise, her heart rate to speed up, her body to become overheated, and she became mentally disoriented, almost fainting in the restroom. At her most vulnerable, the police subjected her to further physical assault.
“The police showed me photos of brothers and sisters, asking me to identify them. These brothers and sisters had attended meetings with me in Italy,” Xiao Li said. “The police even knew the address of the place where I went to the meetings in Italy, even if only a few of us gathered there—it wasn’t publicly disclosed.”
These experiences left Xiao Li deeply surprised and unsettled. “How did the CCP know about my travel schedule from Italy to China? How did they know I was having fellowship with these brothers and sisters? How did they know our meeting location? Could they be using some method to monitor the actions of overseas Church of Almighty God members?”
“Bitter Winter” has received a 2023 document that reveals how the Chinese Ministry of State Security and the Ministry of Public Security developed a “special action plan” to target The Church of Almighty God overseas. The plan’s main tasks include intelligence gathering, monitoring the main locations where overseas followers reside and their activities, and implementing “crackdowns” and “deterrence” measures to “effectively squeeze their space for development and weaken their activities.”
The police repeatedly interrogated Xiao Li: “How many church members are there in Italy? How many people do you know? What are their names? Where are they from? Who is the leader?”
During the interrogation, Xiao Li also learned that Chinese agents contact The Church of Almighty God’s websites and impersonate ordinary members to get in touch with church devotees overseas.
It is clear that under the direction of the Central Leading Group for Preventing and Handling the Xie Jiao Question, China is now regularly monitoring and infiltrating the activities of The Church of Almighty God and other dissident religious group overseas, including in Italy.
Since 2022, a website possibly linked to Chinese intelligence agencies—大爱网,Da Ai Wang—began publishing detailed lists of members of the Church of Almighty God who had applied for asylum in Italy. Under Italian law, the personal information of asylum seekers must be kept confidential, and the leak of this information raises suspicions about the intelligence and information activities of Chinese agents in Italy. The scandal has been exposed by “Bitter Winter” and other media outlets. In addition, Da Ai Wang also published lists and personal information, including addresses, of Church of Almighty God members in South Korea, the United States, and other countries.
“Fleeing abroad does not mean safety. We have already been added to the wanted list,” Xiao Li told us. “If I had another choice, I would rather die abroad than return to China.”
Uses a pseudonym for security reasons.
