'Almighty God' cult members stand trial

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Leading members of a branch of the "Almighty God" cult have been on trial in Daqing in northeastern China since July 31, a police source said on Sunday.

Police in the province of Heilongjiang arrested the leader and some key members 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, eastern 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, central China's Hubei Province.

According to Huang, police have processed more than 100 violent incidents initiated by the "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.

August 21, 2014: The McDonald's case is heard in Yantai Intermediate People's Court of Shandong Province. /VCG Photo

According to the police source, the cult was founded by a man named Zhao Weishan, born in 1951, who had founded 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.

The "Almighty God" cult borrowed some ideas from Christianity, such as the Second Coming, but altered core doctrines of the Bible, Huang Chao said.

The cult has engaged in illegal activities in the disguise of Christianity, said Lyu Dezhi, head of Heilongjiang Theological Seminary.

According to the police, the cult mostly recruits less-educated women who have family problems and at first lured them with normal Christianity teachings and then the cult ideology.

According to a document seized by the police, about 140 million yuan (about 20.47 million US dollars) was transferred abroad from northeast China between November 2016 and March 2017.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency