China tries five cult members for McDonald’s murder

BEIJING // China tried five members of a banned religious group on Thursday for the murder of a woman who was beaten to death at a McDonald’s restaurant after they tried to recruit her.

The five, including a man and his two daughters, were accused of hitting the woman with chairs and a metal pole after she refused to give them her phone number.

China has sentenced dozens of followers of Quannengshen, or the Church of Almighty God, since the murder of the woman in May in the eastern province of Shandong.

One man and four women were charged with murder and with illegal cult activities, according to the court in Shandong’s Yantai city.

The court’s official microblog carried pictures of the five, dressed in orange jackets identifying them as the accused, with about a dozen policemen standing behind them.

“The facts are clear and there is plenty of evidence,” Gao Cheng, the lawyer for the murdered woman’s family, said.

The accused had shown no sign of repentance and so should be severely punished, Mr Gao said.

The court said the accused were allowed to defend themselves, but gave no details.

The trial, lasting just a single day as is common in China, ended by late afternoon with the court saying a verdict would be announced at a later date.

Chinese authorities have arrested nearly 1,000 members of Quannengshen, state media reported this week, the latest in a series of official moves against the group.

Li Ming, an editor for the state-backed China Anti-Cult Association, said China had at least 20 such cults, who had “coerced” millions of people.

“Once you have been brainwashed it’s very hard to get out. Because you have utter belief,” Mr Li said.

The Quannengshen group believes that Jesus was resurrected as Yang Xiangbin, wife of the sect’s founder, Zhao Weishan, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

Zhao is also known as Xu Wenshan, Xinhua reported, adding that the couple fled to the United States in September 2000.

In 2012, China launched a crackdown on the group after it called for a “decisive battle” to slay the “Red Dragon” Communist Party, and preached that the world would end that year.

The party brooks no challenge to its rule and is obsessed with social stability. It has cracked down on cults, which have multiplied in recent years. Demonstrations have been put down with force and some sect leaders executed.

Former President Jiang Zemin launched a campaign in 1999 to crush the Falun Gong religious group, banning it as an “evil cult” after thousands of practitioners staged a surprise but peaceful sit-in outside the leadership compound in Beijing to demand official recognition of their movement.

* Reuters