The Case of Nan Xiangming, a Christian From The Church of Almighty God Persecuted to Death by the CCP Government

Mr. Nan Xiangming, born in 1942, resided at Ponan Group One, Podi Village, Junma Township, Liquan County, Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province. In October 1994, Nan Xiangming and his wife believed in the Lord, and in 1999 they joined The Church of Almighty God. Nan Xiangming and his wife were an honest and upright couple who were happy to help others. They were proactive in assisting the Church burning CDs of hymns and sermons. Due to the CCP government’s serious persecution of The Church of Almighty God, in order to evade police searches, in 2003, Nan Xiangming and his wife built a basement room to house Church books, CDs and CD writers.

On July 24, 2014, three Christians came to help Nan Xiangming and his wife renovate their basement. Unexpectedly, the CCP police learned of this and the five of them were arrested. Nan Xiangming was innocently sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for believing in Almighty God. The long time in prison without enough to eat coupled with high-intensity labour led to his aggravated diabetes. Treatment was delayed due to the police’s refusal for Nan Xiangming to receive treatment out of custody. In February 2016, Nan died in prison, at 74 years of age.

The following are the facts of Nan Xiangming being persecuted to death by the CCP:

At about 1 p.m. on July 24, 2014, Nan Xiangming’s wife Wang (aged 67) was making lunch and Nan Xiangming and three other Christians were resting in the living room. Suddenly five police officers, Liu Jiang and others from Junma Township Police Station, Liquan County, Xianyang City forced entry and without showing any documents, starting to search the home and confiscate property. They made a mess of Nan’s home and ultimately found these: 118 spiritual books, 2 CD-writers, 86 CDs, 2,795 blank CDs, 53 stamps, 4 MP4 players, 2 DVD players, 1 newly purchased tricycle, 1 used electric tricycle, 1 electric motorbike, 1 cell phone and 500 RMB in cash. These items were all confiscated. The police forced the arrest of Nan Xiangming and his wife, along with the other three Christians and took them into custody at Junma Township Police Station in Liquan County.

That evening at around 8 o’clock, Yang Chao, the Director of Junma Township Police Station in Liquan County, and other police officers conducted interrogations of Nan Xiangming and the others successively. The police forced Nan to answer what the source of the faith items at Nan’s home was and who the top leaders of the Church were. Nan Xiangming refused to answer, and the trial lasted until past midnight. Police intimidation coupled with long-time starvation resulted in Nan Xiangming, who already suffered from diabetes, becoming weak all over, paralysed, sat in the corner, holding strong until dawn.

Around 8 a.m. on July 25, the five Christians including Nan Xiangming were transferred to Liquan County Public Security Bureau. After that, Nan Xiangming was detained in Liquan County Detention Center.

On August 2, Nan Xiangming and the others, wearing prison uniform and handcuffs and shackles, were escorted to the village where Nan Xiangming lived and paraded in public.
On August 29, Nan Xiangming was officially arrested.

At 3 p.m. on May 14, 2015, Nan Xiangming was sentenced to three years of imprisonment by the People’s Court of Liquan County, Shaanxi Province, on the charge of “sabotaging the enforcement of laws by utilizing evil religious organizations” because of believing in Almighty God.

On July 13, Nan Xiangming was transferred to Weinan Prison in Shaanxi Province to serve his sentence.

On July 16, the prison authorities called Nan’s daughter and asked her to buy drugs to treat Nan’s diabetes. Since then, the prison officers refused visits by Nan’s family and only allowed a monthly remittance to Nan Xiangming’s bank card; no other items were allowed to be sent to him.

On February 1, 2016, Weinan Prison once again called Nan Xiangming’s daughter and asked her to send 20,000 RMB.

The next day, Nan’s daughter went to the prison and learned that Nan was in a critical condition and had been sent to Xin’an Central Hospital in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province (a prison hospital).

In the hospital visitation room, Nan Xiangming secretly said to his daughter that the long period of food deficiency in prison had resulted in a deterioration of his diabetes. Revealed by the examination, his blood sugar level had reached 14-15mmol/L (at home Nan’s blood sugar remained in normal range of 3-5mmol/L). Moreover, recently when he ate, he vomited whatever he ate. Nan’s daughter’s successive requests to prison guards for transferring her father to another hospital and approving his treatment on medical parole were rejected. The prison authorities said: “The Chinese Communist Party’s policy is this: Treatment out of custody for diabetes will only be given in the case of blindness or foot rot!”

At 9 p.m. on February 7, Nan’s family received a call from Weinan Prison. The prison authorities said that all rescue measures had proved ineffectual and that Nan Xiangming had died.

Later, a relative of Nan learned from the hospital that Nan died after invalid rescue efforts because his high level of blood sugar caused diabetes syndrome, which resulted in coronary heart disease.

At strong request from Nan’s family, Weinan Prison finished the case rashly by paying cremation fee of 8,000 RMB.