In 2023, Christians from the Church of Almighty God (CAG) across China were collectively given heavy penalties of imprisonment. Even common church members were sentenced to more than 8 years in jail.
2023 was the fourth year of the global pandemic of COVID-19. The severe disasters in the fields of economy and people’s livelihood impacted by the epidemic for years did not stop the CCP authorities from cracking down on religion. According to an insider, the CCP government shows no tolerance to the CAG and wants to make increasing efforts year by year to ban it completely. Once caught, its church leaders and their co-workers would be sentenced to long jail terms.
On August 30, 2023, the Court of Jiaojiang District in Zhejiang Province’s Taizhou City gave severe sentences to fourteen CAG Christians on charge of “using a cult organization to undermine the enforcement of the law.” Among them, Wang Zhongqiu (male), a root level church leader, was sentenced to nine years of imprisonment; Xie Chunhua (female), a common believer, was sentenced to eight years and three months in jail; Zhu Xingxiu (female), another root level church leader, was sentenced to seven years and six months of imprisonment. Together with them, six church members were sentenced to more than three years in jail.
Reportedly, the above-mentioned fourteen CAG Christians were arrested during the police’s round-up targeting the CAG launched in Zhejiang Province’s Taizhou City on October 4, 2021. Among them, Wang Zhongqiu was subjected to a torture named “Ao Ying” (refining the eagles) for five days and nights during an interrogation.
On August 24, 2023, the Court of Yiwu City in Zhejiang Province gave severe sentences of imprisonment to eleven CAG Christians on charge of “using a cult organization to undermine the enforcement of the law.” Among them, Ge Qin (female), Wu Xiangzhen (female) and Cai Yingge (female) were sentenced to seven years in jail, with a fine of ￥70,000 each; Deng Lihua (female), Zhang Fangfang (female) and Chen Aishe (female) were sentenced to six years and six months in jail, with a fine of ￥60,000 each. Another four church members were sentenced to more than three years in jail. Wu Xiangzhen and Cai Yingge were dissatisfied with the verdicts and appealed to the Intermediate People’s Court of Zhejiang Province’s Jinhua City who later announced the rejection of their appeals and upheld the original verdicts on November 15, 2023.
Reportedly, the above-mentioned eleven CAG Christians were arrested during the police’s round-up targeting the CAG launched in Zhejiang Province’s Jinhua City on October 15, 2021, when 119 CAG members were caught.
On June 20, 2023, the Court of Qixia City in Shandong Province gave severe sentences of imprisonment, ranging from seven years to seven years and two months, to seven CAG Christians. Among them, Zhang Hongxia (female), a then-church-leader, was sentenced to seven years and two months in jail, with a fine of ￥40,000; Hu Jinfeng (female), a common church member, was sentenced to 7 years in jail with a fine of ￥30,000 only because of passing church’s information.
On June 5, 2022, the police of Shandong Province launched a round-up in five counties / districts including Decheng District, Yucheng City, Qihe County, Wucheng County and Pingyuan County, where 147 CAG Christians were arrested. One of them died of heart failure after being arrested because the police intentionally delayed his medical treatments. Guo Shanshan (female), Zheng Xianqi (male) and Yu Aizhen (female), three then-church-leaders, were arrested in that police’s round-up. On March 23, 2023, the Court of Pingyuan County in Shandong Province’s Dezhou City sentenced Guo Shanshan and Zheng Xianqi to seven years in jail, with a fine of ￥20,000 each. While the Court of Wucheng County in Shandong Province’s Dezhou City sentenced Yu Aizhen to seven years in jail, with a fine of ￥20,000. Reportedly, a 19-year-old CAG Christian was sentenced to 3 years in jail.
On April 17, 2023, the Court of Xuanwei City in Yunnan Province’s Qujing City announced its ruling to send twenty CAG Christians to jail. These believers’ ages ranged from 80 to 19 years old. Among them, seventeen church members were sentenced to 2-5 years in prison. On April 27, the Court of Jianshui County in Yunnan Province’s Honghe Prefecture announced its ruling to send eighteen CAG Christians to jail. Fourteen of them were given jail terms ranging from 3 to 6 and a half years.
Reportedly, in 2022, the public security agencies in Yunnan Province put local CAG Christians under close surveillance and secret filming of their movements for a few months. From May to July, the police of Qujing City and Honghe Prefecture arrested 115 CAG Christians including the above-mentioned 38 church members.
On October 22, 2022, the police of Jiangsu Province’s Huai’an City launched a round-up targeting the CAG in Hongze District and Jinhu County, resulting in the arrests of twenty-one CAG Christians including Xu Jiamei. On November 17, 2023, the Court of Qingjiangpu District in Jiangsu Province announced its ruling to send the twenty-one Christians to jail. Ten of them were sentenced to three to seven years in jail, while Xu Jiamei was sentenced to seven years in jail.
Multiple verdicts to CAG Christians show that the CCP’s courts at all levels ruled that Christian evangelism is “recruiting organization members,” and that the church’s keeping its members’ offerings is “illegal collection of money.” Reading The Word Appears in the Flesh, doctrine of the CAG, and watching Christian movies while gathering were considered as spreading propaganda literature of Christian doctrine, even though they did not spread the gospel at all. For the arrested, the number of church literature they saved in their electronic devices has become the focus of their sentencing. Anyone who kept these materials will be regarded as “in particularly serious circumstances” if the quantity of the materials exceeds a certain amount. Reportedly, such church literature translated into more than 40 languages as books, videos and articles have been publicized on the official website of the CAG for more than a decade. As far as we know, except for the CCP, no country or government has convicted the possession of this religious literature. In fact, the films and videos produced by the CAG have frequently won rewards in the international Christian film festivals and have been favored and acknowledged by the audience. However, the CCP has made the possession of religious literature the focus of the sentencing to subject Christians to heavy jail terms.
