ADHRRF – On May 20, 2018, a Beijing Christian of The Church of Almighty God was intercepted and arrested at Beijing Capital International Airport by Beijing State Security Bureau after her arrival from travel abroad. She was illegally detained and interrogated for 5 days.
It is learned that Zixuan (pseudonym, female), a Christian of The Church of Almighty God from Changping District of Beijing traveled to Canada and the United States in early May this year. On May 6, Zixuan used her mobile phone to call the gospel hotline of The Church of Almighty God in Canada. Upon her arrival back in China at 4 o’clock in the afternoon on May 20, she was intercepted by several plainclothes police of Beijing State Security Bureau at Beijing Capital International Airport. The police took her to an interrogation room, forcibly photographed her, took a video of her, frisked her, and confiscated her belongings. Subsequently, the police showed a red-headed document, then hooded Zixuan and escorted her to a secret base near the airport on the grounds of assisting the police with the investigation of the status of believers in God having gone abroad.
Around 7:00 o’clock that evening, the police searched Zixuan’s luggage and found out the record of the call to the Church and a note writing the gospel hotline number. One hour later, Zixuan was brought into an interrogation room. A policeman asked her whether she believes in Almighty God and the source of the note and the phone number. On seeing that Zixuan didn’t answer, the police said deceitfully, “We just want to learn about the status of faith overseas.” The interrogation lasted for more than six hours but without any results. The police threatened Zixuan that if she didn’t speak out the information she knew about the inner workings of the Church, they would ransack her house and raid her company.
At 4 p.m. on May 23, 14 policemen of Beijing State Security Bureau forcibly escorted Zixuan home. After showing their credentials, they conducted a blanket search until 9 p.m. and seized a note regarding belief in God and a printer box with the name of Zixuan on it. The police took her back to the secret base and continued to interrogate her about the information on The Church of Almighty God abroad. A policeman asked, “How did you contact the Church in Canada? How did you get along with them?” Zixuan did not give a definite answer. Then the police drove to her company for ransacking, but did not find anything. On the evening of May 24, Zixuan was released for the police searched out nothing.
It is understood that The Church of Almighty God is a house church most severely persecuted by the Chinese Communist authorities but has kept growing continuously in the crackdown, many churches having been established in foreign countries. The overseas development of the Church panics the Chinese Communist authorities, who have schemed many special programs to closely monitor and crack down on Christians of The Church of Almighty God overseas. Recently, a source revealed that many Christians of the Church had been arrested by the CCP on their return to China and were brutally tortured and sentenced to imprisonment.
