On 28 May 2014, Wu Shuoyan, a 37-year-old salesperson at a clothing store, was beaten to death inside a McDonald's restaurant in Zhaoyuan, Shandong, China, while waiting to meet her husband and son. A group of six people, members of an extended family, entered the restaurant, identified themselves as "missionaries," and asked customers for their phone numbers. Wu was asked twice and refused. Two members of the group then fatally assaulted her using mops and a chair while shouting that she was an "evil spirit" who must die. The attack was filmed and the footage was widely circulated online. Police arrested the group at the scene.
The six people arrested in connection with the killing were identified as members of the Zhang extended family, originally from Wuji County, Hebei: Zhang Lidong, his lover Zhang Qiaolian, his daughters Zhang Fan and Zhang Hang, his son Zhang Duo (a minor, not tried), and Lü Yingchun, a woman from Shandong living with the family. In a jailhouse interview broadcast on 31 May 2014, Zhang Lidong expressed no remorse, describing Wu as a "demon" who had to be destroyed. Chinese authorities stated the group belonged to the banned religious sect Eastern Lightning (Church of Almighty God), and Eastern Lightning literature was reportedly found in the Zhang family home. In the aftermath, authorities carried out widespread arrests of Eastern Lightning members nationally.
Five of the six were tried before the Intermediate People's Court of Yantai, Shandong, beginning 21 August 2014. At trial, Lü Yingchun testified that she and Zhang Fan believed themselves to share a single divine soul as manifestations of "Almighty God," and that killing Wu was necessary because she was a dangerous "evil spirit" who was "draining" them. Zhang Lidong and Zhang Fan were sentenced to death and executed on 2 February 2015. Lü Yingchun received a life sentence, later reduced to 21 years and 3 months in May 2017 for good behaviour. Zhang Hang was sentenced to ten years and Zhang Qiaolian to seven years.
The case generated significant controversy over the group's actual religious affiliation. The Beijing News, in reporting published the day after the trial, quoted courtroom testimony from Lü Yingchun and Zhang Fan stating that their group, while having historical ties to Eastern Lightning, considered itself a distinct and rival "Almighty God" church, with Lü and Zhang themselves as the movement's true divine incarnations rather than followers of Eastern Lightning's recognized leadership. Eastern Lightning representatives publicly condemned the killing and denied responsibility. Scholars, including Australian researcher Emily Dunn, and later journalistic accounts, noted that court testimony indicated the convicted perpetrators had broken from Eastern Lightning before the murder, though Chinese authorities and much international media coverage continued to attribute the killing to that sect. The murder prompted a broader Chinese government campaign against groups officially designated as "evil cults."
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