The year 2026 marks the final year of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “Three-Year Tough Battle” against The Church of Almighty God (CAG). In an effort to achieve its goal of eradicating the church, the CCP has continued to intensify its arrests and persecution of CAG Christians while further expanding its “Zero-Out Campaign.” According to sources within the CCP, authorities plan to carry out a “Zero-Out Campaign” targeting The Church of Almighty God in Linyi City, Shandong Province, with a goal of arresting 600 believers. The campaign is expected to continue through October 1. Since January 2026, CAG Christians have been arrested in Linyi every month. As of May 31, at least 133 arrests had been confirmed.
In May 2026, the CCP launched arrest operations in several districts of Linyi, including Lanshan District, Luozhuang District, and Hedong District. Among them, Luozhuang District experienced the most severe crackdown. Between May 19 and May 31—a period of less than two weeks—at least 40 CAG members were arrested, including 14 believers over the age of 60. An eyewitness said, “More than a dozen police vehicles were parked in front of the Ceshan Police Station, along with several large SWAT vehicles. Many people were coming and going inside the station, and it looked like they were family members of those who had been arrested. Police officers were everywhere. After asking around, I learned that they were arresting Christians. They seemed absolutely frantic in their efforts to make arrests.”
According to insiders within the CCP, all 13 police stations in Luozhuang District participated in the operation, and officers from other regions were brought in to assist. Acting on lists provided by higher authorities, police carried out arrests one by one, determined not to miss a single target. Even two CAG Christians in their eighties were not spared. For a time, the entire Luozhuang District of Linyi was overshadowed by fear as the CCP carried out its sweeping arrests of CAG members. Many local believers were forced to go into hiding and could no longer return home. Others, having nowhere else to go, remained at home in constant fear, always on guard against the possibility of police arriving to arrest them.
At the same time, CAG Christians in Hedong District and Lanshan District continued to face persecution. In Lanshan District, after obtaining lists of church members, police primarily focused on tracking down and arresting church leaders and supervisors. A Christian using the pseudonym Su Lin was arrested on May 7. During interrogation, police told her that they had been tracking her for several years and had already gathered substantial evidence against her. They showed her photographs featuring her attending a gathering at another Christian’s home in 2023 and demanded that she identify the other believers in the photos. The police also mentioned her contact with another Christian in 2024. On May 9, Su Lin and several other arrested Christians were transferred to a “study class” for ideological transformation and indoctrination. She was not released until May 15.
Another CAG Christian, Han Jie, and her daughter were arrested on April 23. Police told Han Jie that they had been monitoring her for a long time and presented her with photographs of many CAG Christians, demanding that she identify them. During the interrogation, officers also brought in an instructor specializing in ideological transformation in an attempt to brainwash and transform Han Jie’s daughter, but because of health problems, she was released the same day. Han Jie herself was detained for fifteen days and was released only after developing severe high blood pressure.
After June began, another ten CAG Christians in Linyi were arrested. As of now, the crackdown targeting members of The Church of Almighty God in Linyi, Shandong Province, remains ongoing, and more believers continue to face the risk of surveillance, tracking, and arrest.
Note: To protect the individuals involved, all names used in this report are pseudonyms.
