On January 4, 2013, The Church of Almighty God (CAG) leader Jiang Guizhi was arrested by the police because of her belief in Almighty God and subsequently died whilst being detained by the authorities. She was 46 at that time. Jiang had lived at Jiankang Road, Qinghe District, Pingyu County, Zhumadian City, Henan Province. She joined The Church of Almighty God in November 2002, and prior to her death had been a leader of the church.
Covert Raids and Secret Arrests
At around 1 p.m. on January 4, 2013, Jiang arrived for assembly at the rented accommodation of a 63-year-old Christian woman surnamed Zheng. The apartment was located at the southeastern corner of Qingping Square in Xinmi City, Henan Province. At a little past 7 o’clock in the evening, eight police officers headed by Yu Hongchao, the captain of the Xinmi City National Security Brigade, burst into the room after gaining entry to the apartment with a key. According to Zheng’s account, the police did not present any official credentials before apprehending her, Jiang Guizhi, and another woman present, Zhang Li. Jiang Guizhi and Zhang Li were put in handcuffs. The police ransacked the apartment; not even the toilet trash was spared, and they also cut a sofa open with a knife to see if there was anything inside. The apartment was turned upside down. The police took books containing the words of God, 10,000 RMB in cash, computers, mobile phones, items of clothing—even household goods, cooking utensils, and food.
That evening at around 9 p.m., Jiang Guizhi and the other two women were taken to the Xinmi City Public Security Bureau.
Torture, Abuse, and a Brutal Killing
On January 6, 2013, Yu Hongchao, the captain of the National Security Brigade of Xinmi City’s Public Security Bureau, and officers named Shen Ke, Wang Lei, and Bai Shuangfeng, secretly escorted Jiang Guizhi and Zhang Li to the Xiyuan Hotel in Xinmi City for interrogation. From then on, the two of them never saw each other again.
Jiang Guizhi is dead, and there’s no way of knowing the precise details of what she suffered. For the other Christians who were arrested and interrogated by Yu Hongchao and the other officers at the Xiyuan Hotel at the same time, thinking about what happened there still feels like a nightmare. According to a female Christian named Wang Fang (alias), in an attempt to force her to provide information about church’s leaders and its assets, officers including Yu Hongchao and Wang Lei didn’t let her sleep during the time she was detained at the Xiyuan Hotel; as soon as she closed her eyes, they’d kick and punch her. The extreme exhaustion and terror of the ordeal left Wang Fang disoriented and feeling mentally unstable. The police forced her to take off all her clothes and insulted her with dirty, filthy words. They did not let her use the toilet, forcing her to wet herself. They also made her lick the urine off the ground. Another female Christian, Mo Wen (alias) has also said that at the Xiyuan Hotel, Shen Ke and other officers forced her to spread her legs and squat on a wooden baton. They also used a belt to beat her about the face and head, in addition to hoisting one of her legs into the air on a metal frame, leaving her balancing on tiptoe by the other leg. In another method, called “grilled lamb,” she was handcuffed with her arms around her legs, a metal pipe was threaded behind her knees, and she was then hung upside down. … The various methods the Chinese police used against these Christians give an indication of the kind of torture and maltreatment Jiang Guizhi would have suffered.
After being secretly interrogated for 21 days, Jiang Guizhi was sent to Zhengzhou City No. 2 Detention Center on January 25, 2013. 18 days later she was dead.
Another female Christian from The Church of Almighty God who was held in the same cell as Jiang Guizhi and talked to her, has said that after arriving the No. 7 cell, Jiang was listless and seemed troubled. Several days later, Jiang dropped her bowl whilst eating and was unable to pick it up despite several attempts. One morning several days after that, Jiang was unable to get out of bed. She seemed confused, and her reactions were slow. The prisoner in charge of their cell, Chen Lin, sent several prisoners to force her to get up. She didn’t know how to dress herself, was incapable of holding a food bowl, and didn’t know how to use the toilet. Only when repeatedly asked by her cellmate did Jiang reveal that the police had taken her to a private room in a hotel where she was interrogated, raped, and had objects stuffed inside her vagina. After talking for a short while, Jiang fell silent and unresponsive. The only way to get her to drink was to spoon feed her soy milk. Seeing that Jiang was unwell, prison officer Guo Xiaoyun called several prisoners to carry her out in a sheet. That was the last time her Christian cellmate saw her.
