The Church of Almighty God, also known as the “Eastern Lightning” or “The Practical God,” is a cult that cloaks itself in the banner of “Christianity” to engage in illegal activities. It was founded by Zhao Weishan, whose wife Yang Xiangbin is regarded as the incarnation of Jesus, or the “Female Christ.”

The Church of Almighty God distorts the Christian Bible (both the Old and New Testaments), teaching that the “Law” era ruled by Jehovah and the “Grace” era ruled by Jesus have passed, and that the “Kingdom era” ruled by Almighty God has arrived. It asserts that God has incarnated in the form of a Chinese woman to descend upon China to judge humanity. The group claims that the end of the world is near and that only believers in Almighty God can be saved; those who do not believe or resist will be struck down by lightning.

The Church of Almighty God exploits the extreme fear of a portion of its followers about the end times to extract supposed “devotion” as “atonement,” defrauding members of substantial sums of money. Many who were lured into the cult suffer greatly: they abandon farming or work, neglect their families, proselytize everywhere, and leave their households in disarray, exacerbating poverty for many families. Even more seriously, the group uses intimidation and threats against people who seek to leave the faith; in some places there have been heinous criminal cases involving harm to those who withdraw.

In October 2012, Zhao Weishan, leader of the Church of Almighty God, invoked a version of the so-called “Maya prophecy” to claim that the world’s end was near, inciting domestic members to engage in public promotion of the cult. Influenced by this, members of the Church of Almighty God in several provinces and cities gathered to create disturbances, severely disrupting social order. On May 28, 2014, a member of the Church of Almighty God committed a deliberate murder in Zhaoyuan, Shandong Province, further revealing the danger and harm of the cult.

The illegal activities of the Church of Almighty God severely disrupt regular religious practices, deceive the uninformed public, cause family instability, and pose great social harm. For its unlawful activities and for its core members’ criminal actions inside China, the Chinese government will take resolute enforcement measures in accordance with the law to protect the legitimate rights and interests of all citizens.