At least 3,428 CAG devotees have been arrested in the province as of November 2025.
by Jiang Tao
In recent years, the CCP’s frenzied repression and brutal arrests of members of The Church of Almighty God (CAG) have intensified even further. The so‑called “Three‑Year General Battle,” launched in September 2020, failed to achieve its goal of crushing the Church. As a result, in 2024 the CCP initiated a new “Three‑Year Tough Battle” (2024–2026), openly declaring its determination to “completely destroy” and eradicate The Church of Almighty God. Shandong Province has been one of the regions most heavily targeted by arrest campaigns in recent years.
A premeditated mass arrest operation
On October 30, 2024, the cities of Yantai and Weihai in Shandong Province simultaneously launched a coordinated operation, carrying out mass arrests of CAG members. In Weihai alone, 219 CAG members were arrested that day. Church funds totaling 109,310 RMB (about 15,600 USD) were confiscated, while personal property seized or looted amounted to 2,465,303 RMB (about 350,000 USD).
According to accounts from multiple CAG members and their families, the police had conducted more than a year of surveillance and preparatory deployment ahead of the operation.
One CAG member discovered shortly before their arrest that tracking devices had been secretly installed on all four of their vehicles. Others reported that suspicious individuals had visited their homes under the pretext of “inspecting gas lines,” but were in fact gathering information about their families and religious beliefs.
According to our sources, in preparation for the operation the police deliberately purchased several second‑hand vehicles for long‑term surveillance and, combined with high‑tech tools such as the “Skynet” monitoring system, gained comprehensive control over CAG members’ movements.
On the day of the arrest operation, 34 CAG members were taken away in Rushan alone.
One CAG member was in the hospital preparing to undergo surgery when the operation began. Police stationed officers inside the hospital. According to a subsequent court judgment, the individual was arrested and taken into custody immediately after the surgery, without being given any normal time to recover.
Several CAG members who were later released confirmed that during interrogations the police showed them large quantities of secretly recorded videos and photographs, bluntly stating that they had long since deployed officers to carry out sustained surveillance.
Mass sentencing: from arrests to “batch convictions”
As 2025 progressed, the Weihai area moved to carry out centralized sentencing of CAG members arrested in the “10.30” (October 30) operation.
On May 23, the People’s Court of Rushan City collectively imposed harsh sentences on 12 CAG members. Four of them, for refusing to “plead guilty and accept punishment,” were given heavy prison terms of five years each and fined 50,000 RMB apiece. After these four filed appeals, the Intermediate People’s Court of Weihai City ruled on September 18 at second instance, upholding the original verdicts. All 12 were subsequently sent to prison to serve their sentences. According to our sources, on the day of the trial the 12 CAG members were escorted into the courtroom by judicial police, all wearing handcuffs and leg shackles. Prolonged detention and ill‑treatment had left them haggard and emaciated, almost unrecognizable from their former appearance.
On September 25, the People’s Court of the Weihai Economic and Technological Development Zone collectively sentenced 11 CAG members, with the longest prison term being three years and six months.
On October 28, the Wendeng District in Weihai City carried out collective sentencing against 24 CAG members, among whom seven church leaders and co‑workers received prison terms of more than three years.
According to a witness who attended the hearings and reported what happened to “Bitter Winter,” the CAG members refuted the charges in court, asserting that adhering to their faith and believing in God is entirely legitimate and not a crime. The judges dismissed these defenses entirely and convicted them under the charge of “organizing and using a xie jiao to undermine the implementation of the law.”
Heavy sentences for demanding religious liberty
During the trials, several CAG members openly refuted the charges, insisting that faith is a fundamental human right and that “believing in God is not a crime.” However, regardless of how they presented their defense, the judges dismissed their arguments entirely, and the verdicts had clearly been predetermined.
Among those sentenced in the same group was a CAG member undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. Despite being fully aware of the individual’s medical condition, the police arrested and detained the person, who served the entire sentence in custody.
Arrest quotas and bonuses for “meeting targets”
Even more disturbing is the blatant profit motive driving these arrests. According to a CAG member detained during the same operation, she personally overheard police officers discussing bonuses during her interrogation: “Five thousand yuan (about 700 USD) for each person arrested—we’ve met this year’s quota.”
Such claims are an open secret. The arrest of CAG members has long been turned into a quota‑based system with assigned targets directly tied to financial rewards.
According to incomplete statistics, as of the end of November 2025, at least 15,316 CAG members had been arrested across mainland China, including 3,428 in Shandong alone. The actual figures are almost certainly far higher. In some church communities, nearly all members have been detained, and many individuals remain unaccounted for. The arrests are still ongoing.
Uses a pseudonym for security reasons.
