A Chinese website collects and publishes photographs of CAG asylum seekers in democratic countries. China will easily identify them with facial recognition software.
by Massimo Introvigne
Some months ago, “Bitter Winter” exposed the scandal of the Chinese website Da Ai Wang, which published lists of asylum seekers in Italy (as well as in the United States and South Korea) of The Church of Almighty God (CAG), the most persecuted Christian new religious movement in China. Da Ai Wang is a website likely connected with Chinese intelligence services and it might only have obtained the lists of these asylum seekers illegally. The story was picked up by mainline non-specialized Italian media as well.
As “Bitter Winter” also reported, on January 13, 2025, the Section of Perugia of the Italian Territorial Commission for Recognizing the Status of Refugee issued a decision regarding L.J., a member of CAG from Henan. This decision is notable because L.J.’s initial asylum request had been denied up to the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation, as the judges were not convinced that she was a CAG member in China, although they acknowledged the possibility of her conversion to CAG after arriving in Italy. Consequently, L.J. filed a second asylum request after the first was rejected, despite having an adverse decision from the Supreme Court of Cassation, placing her in a challenging legal situation.
L.J. presented new evidence, proving that her name appeared on the Da Ai Wang list. The commission used screenshots from Da Ai Wang and articles from “Bitter Winter” and other media to highlight the risk she faced. Reliable country of origin information (COI) confirmed that returning CAG members typically face imprisonment or worse in China. The United Nations Committee Against Torture in a landmark decision rendered on July 27, 2021, against Switzerland ruled that if persons known to be members of CAG are deported to China from the countries where they have sought asylum they are “at risk of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” As a result, L.J. was granted asylum in Italy.
The Perugia decision also noted that L.J. had participated in human rights public initiatives in Italy and had appeared in CAG videos, and noted that this also exposed her to risks in case she would return to China, as Chinese intelligence abroad is known to monitor such events and videos, as confirmed by court decisions in several countries. For instance in Germany, a decision by the Administrative Court of Freiburg dated September 12, 2019 granting asylum to a CAG refugee, stated that, according to the German national intelligence agency, Chinese agents in Europe are “spying on and combating movements that, in the view of the Chinese Communist Party, challenge its monopoly on power… In the process, these agents now no longer limit themselves to gathering information abroad, but also actively, systematically, and aggressively pressure dissident exiles, intimidate them, and threaten them, including by filming them at close range and without even hiding.”
As for CAG members appearing in videos or picture posted on CAG’s websites or social media, the Freiburg judges commented that “the Internet sites of forbidden religions are increasingly monitored by the security authorities. Since the Chinese security service has the technical means to identify persons not named in the videos using facial recognition software […]. the court is also convinced that the applicant [a CAG refugee in Germany] has now been identified by the Chinese security authorities and is perceived as a threat to the Chinese state.”
Da Ai Wang publishes the names of CAG asylum seekers in democratic countries with the purpose of intimidating them and their families in China. Now, the Chinese Communist Party has launched a slightly different but equally dangerous initiative, through another website called “Anti-Almighty God Alliance; China’s largest anti-Almighty God website.”
It collect pictures of CAG refugees in democratic countries, in some cases with their names but in many cases without names. These pictures are taken from CAG videos, social media, and probably from illegal activities of surveillance as well. Some seems to be passport-size photos refugees typically enclose with applications for asylum. When names are identified, “appeals” from relatives in China of the refugees living abroad, asking them to return to China, are also published. Of course, there is no way to know whether these appeals are genuine, and at any rate it is well-known that Chinese relatives of dissidents seeking asylum abroad are submitted to all forms of pressure and blackmail.
While the website asks relatives in China to inform on the names of these photographed (see for example a post of February 26, 2025, “The Latest Photos of Overseas ‘Almighty God’ Believers Exposed”), a look at the whole website clarifies the nature of the operation. On the one hand, it is intended to put pressure on relatives of CAG members in China: “We know that your relative is seeking asylum abroad,” something which routinely leads to harassment and punishment of families. On the other hand, it tells refugees that “We know where you are and we watch you.”
The Chinese authorities do not need relatives to contact the website to identify the refugees. China has the most sophisticated facial recognition software in the world and can identify all its citizens. Not only is this confirmed by the decision of the Freiburg court quoted above, but also by COI published by the Italian Ministry of Internal Affairs in 2020. This Italian document is entirely devoted to the facial recognition of CAG members and confirms that Chinese agents infiltrate public events of the CAG and monitor websites where pictures of CAG refugees appear. The identity of those photographed is then ascertained through facial recognition software.
It should be concluded that refugees whose pictures appear on the “Anti-Almighty God Alliance” website, which is also a likely product of China’s intelligence services, even if their name is not mentioned, should be regarded as known as CAG members by Chinese authorities through facial recognition software. If they will be deported back to China they will, as the United Nations Commission Against Torture stated, face “torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
source: Bitter Winter
