On Jul 31, 2018, People's Court of Daqing High-tech Industry Zone in Heilongjiang Province heard a case of sabotaging legal enforcement by organizing and using heretical religion, according to cctv.com. It is reported that the case is related to "Almighty God" cult.
The four defendants on trial are the key members of the cult's northeast branch, according to the report. A police officer in charge of the case said that Almighty God cult forced many cult members to leave their home to "fulfill duty", bringing great pain to families, during recruitment. 19-year-old Xiao Man, who was rescued from the cult, had been arranged to make propaganda videos every day.
Xiao Man told the journalist that every day was fully scheduled and she went out two or three times only in half a year. "It seemed that the time was not enough to finish her jobs if she spent two or three hours on sleeping," said Xiao Man.
Last June the Heilongjiang police arrested in Daqing the leaders and key members of Almighty God cult's northeast branch fleeing around in northeast China.
According to Heilongjiang police, the northeast branch of the Almighty God cult transferred funds worth up to 140 million yuan, which are all from cult members, overseas from Nov 2016 to Mar 2017.
The cult members' daily activities were weird. They attended gathering with surgical masks on their faces. They sent messages with scripts and were not allowed to use mobile phones, get access to the internet, watch TV and listen to the radio. They could only watch videos about Almighty God cult and apocalypse, as well as fake policemen played by cult members extorting confessions by torture, and books on the cult.
The cult's doctrines are borrowed from and misinterpret the Bible. They advocated apocalypse and engaged in illegal activities in the name of Christianity. The Chinese government identified the cult as an evil organization in 1995. The cult was established in the 1990s and spread from Henan Province to the north and then nationwide discreetly. At the end of 2012, they acted sharply in the name of Almighty God with the rumor of doomsday. Though the cult is strictly forbidden by the government, its influence is still extensive.
When gathering, they don't pray, preach, or read the Bible, but read their own "classics", share what they learned, dance, and sing their own new songs, as well as threaten and violate members sometimes. It is reported that there are "truth protectors" beating those who refuse their recruitment or intend to get rid of the organization.
-Translated by Lin Changfeng
