In 2024, there were more arrests, more torture, and more extra-judicial killings. Refugees were systematically harassed abroad.
by Massimo Introvigne
As it does every year, The Church of Almighty God (CAG) has released a yearly report on its persecution in China, covering the year 2024. Obviously, this is a document coming from the CAG itself. However, “Bitter Winter” regards its data as reliable, based also on our constant monitoring of Chinese media and public security press releases and announcements, which frequently report on mass arrests and heavy sentences against CAG members.
According to the report, the persecution of the CAG intensified in 2024. Internal CCP documents revealed Xi Jinping himself’s strong focus on these operations. In August 2023, the CCP Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission issued a secret directive for a three-year “Tough Battle” against CAG, starting in 2024. This involved all levels of CCP committees, political and legal affairs commissions, the United Front departments, and local governments. Objectives included dismantling domestic structures, reducing membership, and curbing overseas expansion with comprehensive suppression of key members. From January 2024, nationwide investigations led to mass arrests, particularly from June onward. At least 19,053 individuals were arrested, and 2,175 were sentenced, including 168 to seven or more years, the longest penalty being 14 years. At least 24 members died due to persecution.
A nationwide operation was launched to investigate and prepare for mass arrests of CAG members. Authorities used video surveillance, facial recognition, communication records, medical visits, payment methods, and shopping data. Special case investigations, big data screenings, household visits, and public reports were employed to search for members. Officials received training, and joint teams from various departments conducted comprehensive searches.
The aim was to ensure no area or individual was overlooked. Focus was on tracking hiding CAG members, identifying their contacts, and entering findings into an information management system. Key members were placed under close surveillance. Ten cities, including Daqing, Baiyin, and Changzhi, were pilot areas for these operations, with their experiences promoted nationwide.
In early 2024, a directive was issued instructing schools and kindergartens to investigate CAG members. Schools were required to complete registration forms with the relevant information while maintaining confidentiality about the investigations. In Shandong Province, police and special units conducted school investigations. Armed officers entered classrooms, asking students if their family members engaged in activities like preaching or attending gatherings. They used heart rate scanners to identify “suspicious” students and demanded they reveal their parents’ names.
“In Henan Province,” the report explains, “some schools forced students to complete religious belief assessment forms as part of the investigation into CAG members. Several universities required all students to stand in front of cameras and loudly, clearly recite blasphemous statements against Almighty God. Those who refused or did not read clearly were reported to public security authorities, placed under police surveillance and interrogation, and some were directly taken by the police.”
Nationwide arrest operations in late 2024 led to almost twenty thousand CAG members being detained. In some regions, such as parts of Shanxi, Henan, and Anhui, nearly all church members were arrested, including leaders and co-workers. Many went missing or lost contact, making the total number of arrests unclear.
Since September 2020, when the CCP initiated its three-year campaign to fully dismantle the CAG, the number of arrests has significantly increased, exceeding 10,000 annually for three consecutive years. Despite these efforts, the CAG has not been eliminated. According to internal CCP documents, the church still retains millions of members, leading authorities to intensify their repression. In 2024 there was a 53% increase in arrests compared to 2023.
Anhui Province recorded 3,925 arrests in a year, with Huainan City reporting the most at 562. Henan Province saw 2,692 arrests, with 88% occurring from June to December. Similarly, Shandong Province had 2,448 arrests, with 88% in the second half of the year. Key cities like Jining, Qingdao, Weifang, and Yantai saw significant arrest numbers, including 449 from June to September, 353 in October, and 713 more in November and December.
Jiangsu Province reported 1,801 arrests. On February 25, a coordinated operation in several cities, including Changzhou and Nanjing, resulted in 111 arrests. In July, 101 church members were detained in Xuzhou, and Suqian saw 275 arrests throughout the year. Zhejiang Province had 1,088 arrests in 2024, with 98% occurring between June and December. On July 29 and 31, Zhuji authorities arrested 24 CAG members, including elderly individuals in their 80s and 90s. During interrogations, police threatened them regardless of age. Additionally, 112 CAG members were arrested in Jinhua on September 19, 20, and 24, followed by 98 more on October 24.
Shanxi Province reported 1,021 arrests in 2024, with 79% occurring in the second half. Between October and December, Jincheng saw at least 142 CAG members arrested. In Changzhi, nearly the entire Church congregation faced arrest.
In Guangdong Province, from April 23 to 25, over 3,000 police officers were deployed in Guangzhou, leading to at least 135 arrests and 88 missing CAG members. In Shanghai, on September 5 and 6, police arrested at least 156 CAG members in a unified operation.
Internal CCP documents reveal that during the three-year “Tough Battle” campaign, top authorities directed the Supreme People’s Court to lead efforts, with the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security coordinating. They aimed to address the lack of legal grounds for imposing more severe sentences on CAG members by issuing new legal opinions on Article 300 of the Criminal Code. This approach has been used before, notably in 2001 and 2020. In 2024, courts cited the “Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases of Organizing and Using Xie Jiao to Undermine the Enforcement of Law” as the basis for sentencing CAG members. The “Interpretation” considers the quantity of religious items, faith-related content on electronic devices, and the duration of audio and video files possessed by CAG members as factors for sentencing.
The number of convicted CAG members, harsh sentences, and fines have increased. In 2024, 76 CAG believers were sentenced to eight years or more, doubling the 2023 figure. Among them, 27 received sentences of ten years or more, with the longest being fourteen years and the highest fine 180,000 RMB. This information is incomplete due to the CCP’s censorship of news about trials involving religious issues and the situation is likely worse. A well-known lawyer who tried to appeal for CAG members was warned by the judge that defending them would result in being arrested.
In 2024, Guangdong and Guangxi had the highest proportion of longer sentences nationwide. Of the 168 CAG members sentenced to seven years or more across China, 70 were from Guangdong and Guangxi, representing 42% of the total.
A CAG member from Xinjiang, went into hiding due to her faith. In September 2023, Gansu police arrested and extradited her back to Xinjiang. She was sentenced to fourteen years in prison in 2024. On February 28 and 29, 2024, the People’s Court of Haizhu District in Guangzhou sentenced several CAG members from the mass September 1 arrests in 2022. Twelve church members received prison terms, with two mid-level leaders and one lay believer each sentenced to eleven years.
In the latter part of last year, 33 CAG members in Qingyuan City, Guangdong Province, received significant sentences and substantial fines. The sentences ranged from three to eleven years. Specifically, a gospel worker received an eleven-year sentence with a fine of 150,000 RMB, a church leader was sentenced to ten years with a fine of 150,000 RMB, and a lay believer in his 60s was sentenced to eight years. Additionally, seventeen other individuals were sentenced to six years or more. The total fines imposed on these 33 CAG members amounted to 2,535,000 RMB.
On March 8, 2024, the People’s Court in Sanming City, Fujian, sentenced 11 CAG members. Two received sentences of less than seven years after renouncing their faith under coercion, while the remaining nine were sentenced to seven years or more.
On April 15, 2024, the People’s Court in Xuzhou City, Jiangsu, sentenced nine CAG members. One received eight years and six months with a 65,000 RMB fine, another got eight years with a 60,000 RMB fine, and the remaining seven were sentenced to prison terms between four and a half to five years.
On June 27, 2024, the People’s Court of Yuzhou District in Guangxi’s Yulin City issued sentences to 18 CAG members during a group trial. One church leader was sentenced to ten years and fined 50,000 RMB. Four lay believers received nine-year sentences and were each fined 30,000 RMB. Six individuals received sentences of seven years and two months with fines of 20,000 RMB each. The remaining individuals received terms ranging from three to five years and three months.
In August 2024, Wu Hualian, a lay believer of CAG from Anhui Province, was sentenced to eight years in prison and fined 100,000 RMB. On September 12, 2024, Shujiang District’s People’s Court in Taizhou City sentenced 13 CAG members heavily due to arrests from the June 15 operation in 2023. Two leaders received sentences of twelve years and six months, and eleven years. Three believers got between seven years and six months to eight years and six months. On August 29, 2024, Linhai City’s court gave five CAG members heavy sentences: two leaders received 11 and 9 years, and three believers got five to seven years and eight months. In the 2023 June 15 operation, nearly 7,000 police officers arrested almost 1,400 CAG members across 83 regions in Zhejiang.
On December 10, 2024, Laiwu District People’s Court in Jinan City, Shandong sentenced 23 CAG members. Three leaders received twelve-year prison terms and 120,000 RMB fines each, while a church host was sentenced to ten years and fined 100,000 RMB.
“According to incomplete statistics,” the report summarizes, “he number of CAG members subjected to torture and forced indoctrination in 2024 was 9,762, marking a 67% increase from 5,832 in 2023. To force CAG members to renounce their faith in Almighty God, the CCP leadership has demanded the nationwide implementation of ‘education and transformation work’… and set quotas for transformation. In pursuit of these quotas, authorities across the country subject arrested CAG members to violent ‘transformation’ and brutal interrogation methods, including reverse handcuffing, hanging by handcuffs, electric shocks, ‘exhausting an eagle,’ smoke suffocation, waterboarding, starvation, horse stance, prolonged standing, and extended exposure to high-volume, extended-length propaganda videos slandering The Church of Almighty God, as well as prolonged detention, molestation, and sexual humiliation. Police have openly threatened CAG members, saying, ‘We cannot change your beliefs, but we can destroy your bodies!’”
The report cites several instances of torture and sexual molestation of female CAG devotees. These cases, again, appeared to be more frequent in 2024 with respect to 2023. As mentioned earlier, in at least 24 cases persecution and torture caused the death of the CAG believers.
A new part of the report details how anti-CAG persecution and harassment has extended to Hong Kong, and devotees are increasingly harassed abroad. Cases are mentioned form Taiwan, Italy, South Korea, and United States, As “Bitter Winter” first revealed, the CCP illegally obtained the names and details of CAG asylum seekers in Italy, which were published on a website in China with suspect link to Chinese intelligence. The same website published lists of names of CAG asylum seekers in South Korea and the United States. Once refugees are identified abroad, their relatives are put under surveillance and harassed in China.
The report also mentions the action of anti-cultists and Christian “heresy hunters,” particularly from South Korea, also exposed by “Bitter Winter,” in organizing public events and lectures in democratic countries against the CAG and its asylum seekers, supporting the position of the CCP.
The CAG is not the only religious group persecuted in China. In fact, all religions are persecuted there. The report, however, is a valuable document evidencing how dramatic violations of freedom of religion and belief are becoming even worse under the Xi Jinping regime. They include torture and extra-judicial killings and extend to systematic harassment of refugees abroad. Democratic countries cannot ignore this reality in their dealings with China. They should also grant asylum to CAG and other persecuted believers who, if sent back to China, would face persecution, torture, and death.
