‘Almighty God’ members stand trial
Print Edition
LEADING members of a branch of the “Almighty God” cult in northeast China have been on trial in Daqing, Heilongjiang Province, since July 31, a police source said.
Heilongjiang police arrested the leader and some key members of the cult branch in northeast China in June 2017, according to a police statement.
“Almighty God,” known in Chinese as Quannengshen, grabbed national headlines in May 2014 when videos went viral showing five of its members beating a woman to death at a McDonald’s in Zhaoyuan, east China’s Shandong Province, condemning her as an “evil spirit” after she refused to give them her mobile phone number for recruitment purposes.
“The ‘Almighty God’ cult has been predominantly violent,” said Huang Chao, managing director of the international research center on cult issue with Wuhan University in Wuhan, capital of central Hubei Province.
According to Huang, police have processed more than 100 violent incidents initiated by “Almighty God” members across the country and on more than 30 occasions they resisted law enforcement with violence.
“In 2012, some cult members attacked police stations, damaged police vehicles and injured police officers,” he said.
According to the police source, the cult was founded by a man named Zhao Weishan, born in 1951, who had launched and participated in several cult organizations in the 1980s.
In 1993, Zhao started to claim that his mistress Yang Xiangbin was the “Almighty Goddess” and “female Jesus” and himself the “high priest.”
Zhao and Yang both fled to the United States in 2000.
“He was an ordinary man, not different from others,” Zhao’s ex-wife suggested.
“He was smart but not in the right way,” said his older sister.
The “Almighty God” cult borrowed some ideas from Christianity, such as the Second Coming, but altered core doctrines of the Bible, Huang said.
Lu Dezhi, head of the Heilongjiang Theological Seminary, claimed that the cult has engaged in illegal activities in the guise of Christianity.
According to the police, the cult mostly recruited less-educated women who had family problems and at first lured them with normal Christianity teachings and then the cult ideology.
“In the beginning new recruits were not forced to donate or attend the gatherings but after becoming a convert they were manipulated to leave their family and devote everything to the cult,” said a Heilongjiang police officer who investigated the case and preferred to be anonymous.
Cult members were banned from using mobile phones, watching TV and even reading normal books such as fiction. They were only allowed to read so-called God’s books and watch videos meant for brainwashing.
As cult membership grew, hundreds of people set up groups on social networks, such as WeChat and QQ, to look for missing family members who had joined the cult and cut off contact.
A young woman surnamed Song from east China’s Anhui Province has not seen her mother since 2014. The mother, once an upbeat and kind person, started to believe in “Almighty God” and apocalypse in 2012.
“When she went missing, I was about to give birth. How indifferent she became that she chose to leave home at that time?” Song recalled in tears.
According to a former convert surnamed Zhang, cult “followers had to be devoted to the ‘Almighty God,’ in plain words, donating money to the organization. The more you donate, the closer you are to the God.”
Only a small amount of the donation was used for daily operations and a majority of the money was transferred abroad, revealed Zhang, who used to handle money transfers.
Low-ranking followers lived a frugal life, often collecting leftover vegetables from the market. Some elder female members would walk or ride bikes rather than taking bus to save money.
Zhao, the cult founder, apparently lives a luxurious life in plush villas in the US, commanding the money flow from China.
According to a document seized by the police, about 140 million yuan (US$20.4 million) was transferred abroad from northeast China from November 2016 to March 2017.
“The cult taught me to be indifferent to my family and to be non-human,” said an anonymous former convert. “All I want now is to stay with my family and make up for the pain I brought them.”
To prevent the spread of the cult, it’s important to raise awareness and improve education among people, Huang said.
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