Three Members of The Church of Almighty God Arrested in Chengdu, Sichuan

Source: Direct Reports from China
Date: June 3, 2018

On May 3, 2018, the Communist Party police arrested three members of the Christian new religious movement The Church of Almighty God (CAG) while having a meeting in the city of Chengdu, Sichuan Province. The police ransacked their houses and seized their belongings. The believers were held in criminal detention for “being suspected of using a xie jiao organization to undermine the law enforcement” and “illegal preaching and disturbing social order.”

Three CAG members – Geng Xin (pseudonym, female, 53 years old), Zeng Qian (pseudonym, female, 43 years old) and Wang Hui (pseudonym, female, over 50) – were having a meeting in the afternoon when the police suddenly broke in, arrested them and took them to the police station.

At about 5 p.m., four policemen from Hongyang police station of Qingbaijiang district escorted Wang Hui home and ransacked it. They turned her room into a mess and took away two mobile phones, a computer, a hard drive, an MP4 player, and some TF memory cards. They later escorted Wang back to the police station.

At over 8 p.m. that day, seven policemen escorted Zeng Qian to her house and rummaged through it. Eventually, they took away all of her religious books, a computer, and other items, which have not been returned since. They also arrested another CAG member, Zheng Huang (pseudonym, female, 0ver 60), who was there visiting Zeng, and took both of them to the police station.

On the morning of May 8, two plain-clothed police officers from Dawan police station of Qingbaijiang district raided Geng Xin’s house. They seized a dozen religious books, an MP4 player, and other items that have not been returned since.

On May 11, the police came to Geng’s house again. They threatened Geng’s son and husband, saying that Geng was arrested for believing in Almighty God and that cases of this kind are paid great attention to by the government, the penalties of which are much more severe than the normal criminal cases.

Communist party authorities have always been oppressing and persecuting the house churches, in particular, The Church of Almighty God. Many CAG members have been arrested and sentenced to 3 to 7 or even more years just because of believing in God, having meetings, and preaching the gospel. With the adoption of new Regulations on Religious Affairs in early 2018, a new wave of oppression and arrests against the CAG members is being carried out again nationwide.

Bitter Winter

Bitter Winter plans to report on how religions are allowed, or not allowed, to operate in China and how some are severely persecuted after they are labeled as “xie jiao,” or heterodox teachings. We plan to publish news difficult to find elsewhere, analyses, and debates.
Placed under the editorship of Massimo Introvigne, one of the most well-known scholars of religion internationally, “Bitter Winter” is a cooperative enterprise by scholars, human rights activists, and members of religious organizations persecuted in China (some of them have elected, for obvious reasons, to remain anonymous).