On the morning of January 14, 2021, Lin Qing (pseudonym, female, age 53 at the time), a Christian from The Church of Almighty God (CAG) in Shandong Province, and four other fellow believers drove to a local residential community to deliver church offerings. At around 3:00 p.m., as they were preparing to leave, they were suddenly surrounded by the Chinese police. Without showing any identification or other credentials, the police forcibly searched them and confiscated their cell phones and identity cards. The five Christians were then taken to a local police station.
That evening, Lin was taken to an interrogation room. In an attempt to force her to disclose the whereabouts of the church offerings, six or seven police officers wearing “Frontline Special Police” uniforms took turns brutally beating her. One officer yanked her hair and repeatedly slapped her more than 20 times, leaving her face numb. He then kicked her to the ground and continued kicking her shoulder, back, abdomen, and head. He grabbed her hair again and slapped her face more than 10 additional times. Next, another officer ordered her to stand with her back toward him and repeatedly kicked the bone of her left lower leg more than 10 times with his leather shoe. He then grabbed the hair above her forehead and slapped her dozens of times while verbally abusing and humiliating her with vile language. At around 9:40 p.m., an officer forced Lin to repeat blasphemous statements against God. When she refused, the officer picked up a hardcover book and repeatedly smashed it against her head and face dozens of times, causing her vision to go dark and her ears to ring. After 11:00 p.m., a police official ordered Lin to place her right hand on the floor. He then repeatedly stomped, stepped on, twisted, and ground her fingers and palm with his leather shoe for six or seven minutes, causing her palm to become bruised and severely painful. At around 1:00 a.m., an officer who had arrived to take over the shift entered the room and immediately kicked Lin forcefully in the back, knocking her to the ground. He then repeatedly kicked her head, shoulders, and abdomen. The officers repeatedly knocked Lin to the ground, then grabbed her by the hair and pulled her back to her feet. He repeated this five or six times, causing her to suffer severe retching and coughing. After multiple rounds of beatings, Lin was forced to squat in a horse stance against the wall and was then made to stand continuously until 5:00 a.m. the following morning. During this time, the police gave her only small amounts of food and water.
On January 15, several police officers continued to slap Lin repeatedly and verbally abuse her with obscene language. After 4:00 p.m., police forcibly drew her blood and collected her fingerprints and footprints. At 11:00 p.m. that night, police put Lin into a vehicle and transferred her to a secret location at a hotel, where they continued torturing her to extract information and subjected her to forced ideological indoctrination. Later that night, the police moved Lin to another hotel for continued secret interrogation and torture. At the beginning, a special police officer repeatedly smashed a hardcover book against her face dozens of times. The officers then forced her to watch propaganda videos slandering The Church of Almighty God. They denied her water and forced her to stand directly in front of the television screen throughout the day. The loud volume of the television made her feel extremely anxious and caused pressure and pain in her head.
On the morning of January 17, the police captain became enraged after the interrogation failed to produce the information he wanted. He kicked Lin to the ground and repeatedly and violently kicked her chest and head. When Lin screamed in pain, the police captain wrapped several layers of wide adhesive tape around her mouth, nearly causing her to suffocate. He then removed Lin’s shoes and stood on both of her feet, repeatedly stomping, crushing, and twisting them for several minutes. The police captain also ordered that Lin be denied water and forced her to stand from the morning until 2:00 a.m. the next day. Her feet and legs became severely bruised and swollen. During the bitter cold of winter, she was forced to go barefoot except for a pair of oversized men’s sandals. Because Lin’s injuries had become severe, the police feared that something might happen to her and that they would be held responsible. They finally took her to a hospital for an examination. Doctors diagnosed Lin with severe injuries to both legs and a deep-vein thrombosis in her left leg. Despite her serious injuries, the police did not stop persecuting her.
On January 20, because Lin refused to write a review of the propaganda videos slandering The Church of Almighty God that she had been forced to watch, police did not allow her to use the restroom. They forced her to urinate in her pants, causing her extreme humiliation.
Beginning January 21, the police played blasphemous statements against God through a high-powered loudspeaker on a continuous loop for three consecutive days, subjecting Lin to severe psychological torment. Lin previously suffered from polyarteritis nodosa. After enduring this torture, she developed severe dizziness, numbness in her legs, and other symptoms.
At the end of January, two police officers showed Lin videos of her family members and threatened her. They told her that if she did not cooperate, she would receive a lengthy prison sentence and that her children and grandchildren would also be implicated. When these threats failed to make her cooperate, the officers instructed Lin to soak her feet in warm water in an apparent attempt to conceal the severity of her injuries.
The interrogation continued for nearly a month. On February 10, Lin was forcibly transferred to a local detention center.
After being detained there for more than a year, Lin was sentenced by a court to one year in prison and fined RMB 10,000 (about USD 1,500). During this period, Lin’s family members, desperate to secure her release, were reportedly deceived and extorted by personnel involved in the police, procuratorate, and court systems. They lost more than RMB 300,000 (about USD 45,000), yet were still unable to secure Lin’s release.
On February 9, 2022, Lin completed her prison term and returned home. However, the persecution did not end. Afterward, police from the local police station broke into Lin’s home and searched it, attempting to find books belonging to The Church of Almighty God.
