/u/yang_xiangbin

In September 2021, a Reddit account was created for a user named /u/yang_xiangbin. Named after a founding member of the Church of Almighty God, the user claimed to be stuck in a controlling, abusive relationship and seemed to be seeking help. Was this a genuine cry for help? Or was it an elaborate hoax?

On May 28th, 2014, a woman named Wu Shuoyan walked into a McDonald's in Zhaoyuan, a city in northeast China. The McDonald's was located inside a shopping mall, and the 37-year-old mother of one worked at a clothing store a few shops down. She planned to meet up with her husband and 7-year-old son there.

While she waited, however, a strange group of people walked in. Numbering about half-a-dozen in total, this group began presenting a religious message inside of the McDonald's. Speaking to everyone inside, the group announced that they were Christian missionaries sent to recruit others to their cause. Two of their members carried mops. Wu Shuoyan, sitting and waiting for her family, would turn to social media. "I met some crazy people," she posted online.

But after concluding their sermon, the group of missionaries began requesting - no, demanding - phone numbers of those inside. This included Wu Shuoyan, who was just waiting for her family and had no interest in getting caught up with whatever version of Jesus the others were selling. She refused to give them her number. In response, the religious group turned on her.

Two of the missionaries began violently attacking Wu Shuoyan, using the mops they had carried with them to begin bludgeoning the woman after pushing her to the floor. Another would throw a chair at her. Soon, multiple members of the group were hovering over her, stomping at her face and head while shouting things such as "Go die! Evil spirit!" and "Go to hell, demon!" In the midst of this beating, one of the members would tell Wu Shuoyan that she would "never come back in the next reincarnation." Another shouted at the other customers and employees, "Whoever interferes will die!"

As the group of missionaries violently attacked Wu Shuoyan inside the McDonald's, another customer filmed on a cell phone nearby. This footage would end up going viral a short time later, getting notice on several global news networks. Some of you may remember seeing or hearing about this when it happened. If so, you may recall that, sadly, that footage captured what were some of Wu Shuoyan's final conscious moments.

Within minutes, she'd gone from minding her own business to being murdered on the floor of a McDonald's, all for daring to refuse a small group of religious extremists. Emergency personnel would take her to a nearby hospital, but she was pronounced dead within an hour.

Authorities quickly narrowed in on and arrested the perpetrators of this crime, who all happened to be members of a Christian organization known as the Church of Almighty God. Decades beforehand, this group had come to prominence under the name Eastern Lightning. We'll touch on them some more throughout this episode, but they're, in essence, a doomsday cult that has been outlawed in China, for reasons that, again, we'll touch on some more later. But their members have been linked to numerous violent incidents such as this one, in which an innocent woman was killed for daring to simply say no. For wanting nothing more than to be left alone.

The individuals captured in the video footage were quickly arrested by Chinese officials. The ringleader, captured in the video leading the assault, was identified as Zhang Lidong, a member of the Church of the Almighty God for nearly a decade. Two of the other offenders were his adult daughters. One was his 12-year-old son. In an interview that later aired on state-run CCTV, Zhang Lidong admitted to killing Wu Shuoyan, and did so gladly, referring to the victim multiple times as a "monster" and a "demon" who had to be "destroyed." When asked about how he felt after killing the woman, Zhang stated that he felt "great." He told reporters:

"We are not afraid of the law. We have faith in God."

When asked about the victim, Zhang Lidong stated:

"You could just tell she was not a good person. She was a demon, the evil spirit. We had to beat her to death."

Several of the perpetrators, including Zhang Lidong, were later convicted to death. He and another were sentenced to death and ultimately executed, while the others were sentenced to life.

As I mentioned a moment ago, you may remember this footage coming out back in the middle part of 2014. It was a big deal for a couple of weeks, with news agencies like BBC, CNN, Washington Post, and others dedicating news stories to explaining who these people were and what organization they had been associated with: the Church of Almighty God or Eastern Lightning. For many, this was the first that they'd ever heard of this organization, which had started in China in the early 1990s. But some were already familiar with this organization due to similar attacks overseen by its more zealous members; attacks tragically like this one, which dated back to the early years of the church's founding.

The Church of Almighty God or Eastern Lightning (whichever name you prefer to use) still exists today. Its creators have been living in the U.S. for years now, operating the church's mission from their headquarters in New York City. Meanwhile, their group continues to spread its outlawed gospel throughout China, becoming something that the Chinese government, the CCP, has worked hard to try and eradicate.

Today's episode will center around one of those two founders, a woman whose name is ubiquitous with the Church of Almighty God, who many believe is not only a religious icon, a prophet of sorts, but is the actual reincarnation of Jesus Christ. And surprisingly, her story is a mystery that was given a strange new life by an enigmatic Reddit account, of all things.

This is the story of /u/yang_xiangbin.

"For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man."

Those of you that are familiar with scripture might recognize those words as the Bible proverb Matthew 24:27. Those of you that are familiar with Chinese cults might recognize it as the mission statement of Eastern Lightning, a Christian denomination that has since become known as the Church of Almighty God.

The group originated out of rural China, descended from the group known as the Shouters, a Christian sect that evolved throughout the 20th century. Labeled counterrevolutionaries and then a cult by the CCP, the government worked hard to crack down on the Shouters throughout the 1980s and 1990s, leading to many of these groups splintering, gathering in private places such as homes and barns.

Amidst this chaos, a young man named Zhao Weishan began rising the ranks of the fractured leadership of the Shouters. A former physics teacher, he had been involved in various Christian groups throughout the 1980s, ultimately taking a leadership role with the Shouters at the end of the decade. In 1991, though, he would make a chance encounter, coming upon a young woman named Yang Xiangbin.

Yang Xiangbin was younger than Zhao Weishan. At the time they met, in the early 1990s, he was already a married man with a family. She was a girl with what the China's People's Daily described as a "history of mental illness" who'd failed the college entrance exam, resulting in her suffering from what was, essentially, a mental breakdown. With her unable to enter university, she wasn't sure what route her life would take, and her preexisting mental problems began to deteriorate. Unable to treat her through conventional methods at the time, Yang Xiangbin's family turned to the only place they thought might help: religion.

Yang Xiangbin's family took her to church, which resulted in her becoming smitten with the young preacher, Zhao Weishan. While attending church, her mental health seemed to improve a little, so she kept with it. Over time, she began to grow more religious, reading the writings of Witness Lee, another prominent Christian preacher in China. After a while, her psychological problems reappeared, but those around her at the time - namely, Zhao Weishan - began to attribute her strange dreams and visions to the Holy Spirit. He believed that God was speaking through Yang Xiangbin.

It's unsure which started first, their religious association or their romantic relationship, but from then on, Zhao Weishan and Yang Xiangbin were together. She became his mistress, and he began spreading the word of her visions throughout rural China. Later, he'd abandon his wife and kids for her, and the two would begin spreading their own version of Christianity, which focused on Yang Xiangbin. To hear Zhao Weishan tell it, she was not only a prophet, but the second coming of Christ on earth and the reincarnated Almighty God. He was recognized as "the man used by the Holy Spirit."

Believing that the second coming of the lord was coming from the east, not the west, the duo soon began building their own church together. It was first known as Eastern Lightning, but over time, would become known as the Church of Almighty God. They'd even go on to publish their own addition of the Bible titled "The Word Appears in the Flesh," which they claim replaced the New Testament.

The Church of Almighty God would go on to outline what they claimed was God's four-part plan for humanity:

- Age of Law: when God as Jehovah guided Israel

- Age of Grace: when Jesus Christ saved humanity, but did not eradicate our sinful nature

- Age of Kingdom: starting in 1991, when Yang Xiangbin was identified as the second coming of Christ, beginning work to free humankind from sin

- Age of Millennial Kingdom: in which presence divine incarnation will die and transform the world into a kingdom of peace and joy

As you can imagine, based on that last bit, many have identified this group as a doomsday cult... including the Chinese government.

By 1991, shortly after Zhao Weishan started Eastern Lightning, the group had around a thousand followers. By 1995, four years later, the group had grown to multiple times that number. That same year, China's Ministry of Public Security classified Eastern Lightning as a cult, making it illegal to join or participate in church gatherings. Despite that, however, word of the church continued spreading throughout China, mainly in rural areas where governmental presence was not as heavy-handed. In the years since, despite this ban, the church's following has grown to hundreds of thousands, if not millions. Because of its predominantly rural following, a true accounting is nearly impossible.

While the church itself has been outlawed by China, participation has not slowed, especially as resentment against the Chinese government has grown over the years. With Chinese president Xi Jinping's control over the nation becoming more consolidated over time, frustration with his tenure has increased amongst the rural following of the church, and they've embraced their antagonistic role. In addition to preaching this unusual brand of Christianity, the Church of Almighty God has carried forward the resentment built up over many years by not only their organization, but also their predecessors, the Shouters. They are devoutly anti-communist, having identified the Great Red Dragon from the Book of Revelation as the Chinese Communist Party itself.

Emily Dunn, an Asian studies academic at the University of Melbourne, talked to CNN about Eastern Lightning, or the Church of Almighty God, back in 2014, stating:

"It's about as illegal and politically sensitive as religion gets in China. As the government has cracked down more, Eastern Lightning's rhetoric has escalated against the government."

Over many years, dating back to the late 1990s, members of Eastern Lightning have been known to violently assault or kill those that refuse to join or provide funds to the church. Certain subsects of the church were even involved in widespread riots that took place throughout China back in 2012, tied to the mistaken belief that the end of the Mayan calendar meant the end of the world was imminent. It has even been theorized that the man who stabbed 23 children back in December 2012 (coincidentally on the same day that the Sandy Hook shooting took place in America) was mentally ill and influenced by the doomsday predictions propagated by the Church of Almighty God.

Every time that the Church of Almighty God is caught up in the various scandals or reporting of its aggressive behavior, church leadership does what they can to distance themselves, claiming that these actions were not sanctioned by them. But rather, these were the actions of some rogue actors, going against leadership's wishes to proselytize. They constantly seem to wash their hands of the more extreme actions taken by those within the church.

Following those riots back in 2012, hundreds of the group's members were rounded up and prosecuted by the state for their involvement. In the years since, the CCP has been incredibly heavy-handed in their response to the group, arresting thousands of the church's members and subjecting them to either torture or "forced indoctrination." A U.S. human rights organization reported in 2019 that hundreds of its members had been tortured to death. In the time since, many of its members have been subjected to the same treatment as the Uyghars, having been sent to "re-education" camps and essentially disappeared from China. Yet, even then, that seems to have not made much of a dent in the church's ability to recruit new members.

In fact, the Church of Almighty God has become very effective at pushing their message in certain online circles. Their YouTube channel has thousands of videos, many of which are full-length films. These are not only gospel films, but religious prosecution flicks, many of which outright promote dissent against the Chinese government, telling its China-based members what to do if the government ever detains them:

"Even if they beat me to death, my soul is still in God's hands."

In recent years, the church has even become active on websites like Reddit, recruiting members from faith-based subreddits under the guise of getting others to join them in Bible study through Facebook or WhatsApp. They often use feminine-sounding names, and have been known to recruit mostly middle-aged women, but don't discriminate. Throughout China, they have been known to use coercive tactics such as building up a friendship before beginning to recruit and have even been known to use sex as a tactic to lure others to their cause. After that, they begin to isolate the individual using common cult tactics. Those of you may recall that I interviewed author Jeff Guinn a couple of years ago, and during our conversation I asked about common cult tactics to be on the lookout for. He mentioned that whenever anyone wants to control another - not only physically, but emotionally and financially - that is a sign of seriously abusive and controlling behavior. Maybe the biggest red flag of them all.

These aggressive and isolating tactics have been reported throughout China over many years. In fact, if you Google "Eastern Lightning" or "The Church of Almighty God" you'll find reports from people that have spent years trying to get their spouse or sibling or parent or child from the organization. It's heartbreaking.

Some online seem to believe that the Church of Almighty God has been slandered by the CCP, who disseminate this information to vilify them in the hope that it'll ultimately snuff them out. And honestly, I wouldn't be surprised - the CCP is known for aggressively trying to control the media’s perception of things both in and out of their borders. But based on what I've learned about this organization, the tactics used by this cult are not normal. This isn't just inviting people over for bible study. This is an organization that is known as incredibly duplicitous and controlling, to the point that several of its members are known to disappear entirely once within it. Their friends and family never see them again. Dennis Balcombe, an American pastor who spent decades preaching in China, told CNN back in 2014 about the church:

"We don't hear of people coming out of it. It's like a mafia - once you're in it, how do you get out?"

He also told VICE that same year:

"They're extremely violent and use sex to try to convert people. I've heard stories of Christians being burned, beaten, and told to kill their children. When they kidnap you, you usually don't get out for six months, and that whole time they're trying to brainwash you."

At this point, I'm sure you might be wondering: where the hell is all this going?

Well, I wanted to detail the background of the church and its tactics, as well as its antagonistic nature, because I think it is all important context for the main crux of our story.

Zhao Weishan, the Church of Almighty God's founder, fled China back in 2000. He headed to the U.S., where he has continued to oversee the organization from New York City. The U.S., which has long tried to highlight human rights abuses in China, likely welcomed him with open arms. This wouldn't necessarily be an endorsement of Eastern Lightning or its practices but would align with America's history of trying to promote religious freedom (as ironic as that seems nowadays).

When Zhao Weishan fled China to the U.S., he reportedly took Yang Xiangbin with him. But in the time since they fled China, the pair has become less integral to the history of the Church of Almighty God, with Yang Xiangbin's name becoming more of a historic footnote, replaced by a vague description of the woman. Despite making a big deal of Yang Xiangbin's reported visions back in the early 1990s, nowadays, the church claims that the reincarnation of Jesus Christ will happen in secret... that the second coming won't be a big spectacle. Per Emily Dunn, an Asian studies academic from the University of Melbourne, who told CNN in 2014 about this reincarnation of Christ:

"... they don't say whether she's still alive or where she is or what her name is. They don't tell you anything but that she was a middle-aged woman who was inspired by God and God spoke to her, so she started speaking God's word."

Despite continuing to oversee the Church of Almighty God from New York City, neither Zhao Weishan nor Yang Xiangbin have become prominent public figures. In fact, if you try and look them up online or find out any information about them, you'll find it incredibly hard to do so. Much has been written about their origins in China, but there are no public statements or appearances from either since then.

Based on what I've found, both Zhao Weishan and Yang Xiangbin have lived very secretive lives since moving to the U.S., to the point that their names are not present in any of the church's current literature or videos. But our story revolves around the even more secretive of the pair, Yang Xiangbin, who has remained shielded from the public for quite some time now.

The secrecy surrounding her is where today's mystery begins to play out.

On September 12th, 2021, at around 7:13 AM (Eastern Time), a Reddit account was created for a user named /u/yang_xiangbin, who quickly followed that up with a post in the /r/confession subreddit. This is a place where people confess to things both trivial and serious. There, people confess to planning out their suicides while others confess to being fast food employees that put extra fries or nuggets in the bag, things like that.

This post, which went online at around 7:49 that morning, read as follows. Apologies for the length (that's what she said) but the audio is around four minutes long for anyone that wants to skip ahead. I'll summarize afterward.

“The cult I may have founded is called the church of the almighty God, it was founded in China by me and Zhao weishan, he was a priest who was a part of this infamous group in rural China, this group would go around yelling random bible verses and other Christian things, i never liked them and i was not a Christian so those loud people always tried taking me to some random underground church, my slight fear of the religious people all changed when possibly the worst part of my life happened, i truly felt useless and terrible after and I wanted to die I failed the chinese collage exam, my family tried everything eventhough we were not relgious when a priest named Zhao weishan said the people at his church could try and bless me in a attempt to "fix" me my family said yes immediately, they should have never have trusted that Zhao weishan, he was a power hungry maniac and when he and his strange group claimed i was healed I believed it, I did feel better but, not for long, to try and keep well and away from my depression and instability I went to his church a lot i felt like I needed to as Zhao and his group saved me, no it was the opposite I was a idiot back then i had mental problems and they all have biblical excuses to it all.

“After my many visits to zhao's church I truly fell in love with him, it wasn't about god or jesus I just wanted to hear his voice and look at him I felt better when I was always by him but then something bad happened it became very noticeable to me something was happening to my eyes, things appeared and disappeared sometimes I saw a figure at the corner of my eyes and panicked to look then saw no one, but why? These "visions" became a big problem so I asked zhao, that was the worst mistake I ever made. I went to his office and told him everything those things I saw made me panic and fear for my mental health, instead of him being concerned he jumped up at me and proclaimed what i saw was in fact god and the holy spirit and I was the next jesus, the lightning from the far East, i was the "almighty god" i tried to ask questions and he jusg grabbed me and he pulled me onto a chair and prayed to me! I didn't know what to do a part of me belives him to this day as he helped me through hard times but the day i discovered I was "the almighty god" i was almost in shock. that day he didn't let me leave his church he made me tell him the future (he just yelled a random thing and then if i looked a certain way it meant It was true), i was so stupid letting him do this i probably let him since i had a crush on him, i was Such a fool i let him marry me a day later and I became a almost second main character in his church he told me certain things to say and id say it to the crowd and they all loved it, why did I do it? Well i felt forced and he did promise to fuck me afterwards so it was a win for him and a win for me, but mostly a big big lose for me since i couldn't talk to my family, Zhao said they where dangerous and wanted to keep me from "awakening" I for some reason still trusted him I blame all my mental issues with this as i started to only trust Zhao weishan I lived in constant fear i started living with him and only went outside to go to the church and be praised as god, but I know you will not believe me so I shall explain where we are now, Zhao stupidly claimed the world will end in 2000 so he took me and fled to new York he then said the world will end in 2012 this actually caused protests across China, Zhao still runs many websites about this cult claiming ive gave him more messages, we have grown apart now i have my own phone now so I can finally come out about this, Zhao recently got covid so I've been away from his controll I wish he died of that damned disease, thankfully I've been getting some mental help but if Zhao finds out he will send his group after me

“Thank you reddit for this”

As you just heard, this person claims to be the Yang Xiangbin, the one whose identity was tied into the founding of the Church of Almighty God, which has grown to include millions of members. In case you skipped ahead and didn't listen, this individual claimed many things, several of them tied into the origins of Eastern Lightning itself.

In this post, the user /u/yang_xiangbin claimed to have been depressed following the failure of the college entrance exam, and in that depression, began to struggle mentally. Afterward, her family took her to church, where a prominent priest named Zhao Weishan claimed he could "fix" her. But what follows is a general description of Zhao Weishan grooming her, with her becoming enamored with him and continuing to go to church for him. Over time, she began to worry about her deteriorating mental health issues, but Zhao Weishan believed that these were signs that she was "the next Jesus, the lightning from the far East." She then claims that Zhao Weishan spoke for her from then on, becoming a secondary character in his version of events, which she went along with because she was enamored with him. After that, she was cut off from her family and lived in total isolation as her mental health issues worsened. She claimed to be living in New York with her own phone, but still lived in a controlling world governed by Zhao Weishan, writing:

"Zhao recently got covid so I've been away from his controll I wish he died of that damned disease, thankfully I've been getting some mental help but if Zhao finds out he will send his group after me"

This user would continue to make comments on Reddit, many of which were centered around her being stuck in a loveless marriage to her controlling husband. In an AskReddit thread asking, "What is the darkest thing you have kept from your partner", she responds:

"That I'm not Christian, he started a whole church yet I never believed it I did it all because i feared him I didn't want to upset him as he was so emotional about it"

When asked to clarify some more, she continues:

"It's hard to hide anything from my husband I'm very shocked he has not found my reddit yet, if he found out I left something he cared about so much he'd probably send his followers after me"

In a thread asking "if you had permission to kill 1 person, no one will arrest you, no sin will be made, nothing will happen to you, whom would you kill?" she responds:

"My husband"

In another asking "If you could pick, how do you wanna die?" she answers:

"Any way as long as it's not by my husband or the church he founded."

Again, when asked to clarify, she does so:

"My husband founded a well known violent religious group/church he has been using it against people for a while now and I fear that one day he will kill me when he finds out i do not believe in such things (I recommend you read my post about it)"

In yet another asking "What makes your blood boil?" she answers:

"People who blame me for my husband's actions, seriously how would I be responsible for my husband creating a cult that kills people? I have no choice in any of these things he just used me to be the 'almighty god' and nothing else I have no choice."

In addition to these numerous comments about her controlling husband and isolated life, there were snippets of personality that were shown by this Reddit user. When shown a picture of "Uranium A.k.A 'yellow cake'," she responds:

"It looks squishy"

"How does Reddit feel about milk?"

"Milky."

"Gun to your head and you have to sing a song from start to finish word for word, if you miss a single word, the trigger is pulled. What song you singing?"

"Goodbye my love - teresa teng"

Teresa Teng was mentioned a lot by this user, and they admitted that their husband hated this song in particular.

"What was the last movie you watched?"

"Akira"

"What do you want desperately right now?"

"A divorce"

"What's an opinion you have that always seems to start arguments?"

"Being too religious will ruin your life"

The Reddit account /u/yang_xiangbin would make a few comments a day, give or take, usually in the morning between 7:30 and 11:30 AM (Eastern Time). Occasionally they'd post in the afternoons, between 2:00 and 5:00 PM, but rarely ever outside of those two windows.

Their comments were often littered with spelling errors, but there seemed to be no real consistency in that regard. Common words were misspelled at certain points and then spelled correctly in others. They often forgot to capitalize the letter "I" when talking about themselves, and pretty much never capitalized the name "Weishan" when talking about their supposed husband, Zhao Weishan.

When questioned about their claims, this user seemed to become confrontational with others, calling them "puppets of Zhao weishan" and "rats," as well as "cultist pigs" (which in my opinion is a pretty rad band name for anyone out there looking for one).

On October 7th, 2021, they posted a question twice on /r/AskReddit, which was taken down both times. That question was "What's the quickest way to commit suicide?"

Ten days later, on October 17th, they posted on the /r/relationship_advice subreddit, telling users that "My husband won't let me get a covid vaccine."

“Hello reddit, I've made posts about my husband before but now i think I've found a correct subreddit to be able to post about this.

“My husband is very religious and I cannot go a day without him mentioning god but I feel like it has recently gotten a bit worse, not long ago he did get covid and it was a scary time i thought he would die and I didn't know what would happen to me if i did, but even though he got corona he will not let me get the vaccine, my age is supposed to but he isn't letting me he says I'm ‘too holy for a satanic weapon to be used against me’ does anyone know how I possibly be able to convince him that the covid vaccine isn't satanic and maybe I'll be able to get a chance to get it, it's becoming really annoying listening to him rant on and on about it.”

This user continued posting throughout November 2021, but then disappeared for approximately nine months, reappearing again in August 2022. At this point, they continued making angsty comments about their husband, which seemed to be even angrier and more pointed than ever.

"My husband, so I can kill him easier"

"Husband dying"

"He's pure evil, I don't think there's a single good thing he has done"

A number of these comments were actually deleted by Reddit because they broke the website's terms of service, explicitly calling for their husband to be killed.

On August 29th, 2022, at approximately 2:16 PM (Eastern Time), they posted in the /r/china subreddit, asking "will the government be mad at me if I return to China?" They asked if it might be safe for them to return to China if they offered to give up inside information about the Church of Almighty God, to which the response widely seemed to be 'no.'

Over the next couple of weeks, this user would continue to post and comment, alluding to the idea that she was a lesbian that had been trying to hide that part of herself for almost her entire life. This was something she wrote about under the notion that it might get her killed. She continued commenting about trying to escape the cult she was trapped in, with someone asking her to just post a video of herself asking for help or denouncing the cult, to which she responded:

"I will if I have the chance"

That last comment was made at 9:49 AM on September 10th, 2022, nearly an entire year after their account had been created. In the two-and-a-half years that have since passed, their account has not been active, making no additional posts or comments.

This is a story that I've struggled with wanting to tell since it first started to unfold back in 2021 and 2022. I've been following it since then and have tried reaching out to the user at the center of it, /u/yang_xiangbin, multiple times, but they've not gotten back to me. However, it's very possible that they simply haven't used or had access to their Reddit account since then.

One of the main reasons I debated covering it is because there is no guarantee that the person posting these comments is who they claim to be, to which I'm sure many of you are out there going "yeah, duh." That being said, I'd like to state that I'm not a stranger to the internet. I'm well aware that this may not be the real Yang Xiangbin. In fact, I'm pretty positive of it. There were a couple of discrepancies between their version of events and the known facts of Yang Xiangbin's story, but at the same time, a lot of what has been reported about the real woman has gone through so many filters (the Chinese government, the language barrier, the deluge of info put online by the Church itself, etc.) that it's hard to tell what's fact and what's fiction.

However, over time, that nagging part of my brain wonders... what if? What if the person on Reddit is/was who they claimed to be? What if this was Yang Xiangbin, stuck in a isolated existence, pleading for help? If what they wrote was true, then they'd been essentially groomed by a religious preacher and then whisked away to a foreign land, then sequestered within a cult. And if that was true, would that person online act any differently?

At the time these posts were made, the Church of Almighty God wasn't as active on Reddit as they now are. Did their account go quiet because they were worried about getting discovered? Or did it go quiet for some other reason?

If this person was faking it all along - which again, is very possible - then they were really committed to the bit. At times, they spend hours each day commenting or posting as this entity, focused entirely on ranting about their sad situation. It is possible that this person was just acting out some weird fantasy over many months, but I guess I just don't see the point? Maybe that's just my naivete coming into play.

I will admit that there is a part of me that does hope this was all just an act, because the idea of a woman being stuck in this existence for decades - a lifetime, really - fills me with a sense of unimaginable dread. And considering the vacuum of an existence that the real Yang Xiangbin has seemingly lived in for the past thirty years, it's hard not to see the parallels between her story and that of someone like Shelly Miscavige, the wife of Scientology head David Miscavige, who has been hidden away from the public for a similar amount of time.

The story of /u/yang_xiangbin is one that remains unsolved, lingering in the gray area between unsettling internet oddity and a genuine cry for help. Was this a woman trapped in a religious prison, using the only lifeline available to her to reach the outside world? Or was this an elaborate hoax, a performance piece meant to capture the paranoia and fear surrounding one of China's most infamous cults?

We may never know.

What we do know is that the real Yang Xiangbin has been a ghost for decades. Once heralded as the reincarnation of Christ, she now exists only in whispers - erased even by the cult she helped create. Whether she still walks among us, hidden away under the watchful eye of Zhao Weishan, or whether she met some darker fate, remains a question that may never be answered.

Perhaps this is just another story swallowed by the internet, lost among conspiracy theories and forgotten usernames. Or perhaps, just maybe, somewhere out there, a woman is still waiting for someone to listen.

As of this episode's recording, this story remains unresolved.

Episode Information

Episode Information

Writing, research, hosting, and production by Micheal Whelan

Published on February 23, 2025

Music Credits

Original music created by Micheal Whelan

Outro/theme music created and composed by Ailsa Traves

Sources and Other Reading

Articles and News Websites

1. Wikipedia. (n.d.). Murder of Wu Shuoyan. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Wu_Shuoyan

2. Los Angeles Times. (2014, June 7). Woman killed by alleged cult members in China McDonald’s. Retrieved from https://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-china-cults-20140607-story.html

3. The Guardian. (2014, August 18). Five stand trial in McDonald’s murder in China. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/18/mcdonalds-murder-china-five-stand-trial

4. CNN. (2014, October 13). China sentences two to death in McDonald’s cult murder case. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2014/10/13/world/asia/china-eastern-lightning-death-sentence/index.html

5. BBC News. (2015, January 31). China McDonald’s cult killers lose appeal. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-31087839

6. Wikipedia. (n.d.). Eastern Lightning. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Lightning

7. Wikipedia. (n.d.). The Shouters. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shouters

8. Washington Post (Archived). (2014, October 13). The murderous Chinese cult that thinks Jesus has returned—and she’s Chinese. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20150731211615/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/10/13/the-murderous-chinese-cult-that-thinks-jesus-has-returned-and-shes-chinese/

9. CNN. (2014, June 6). China Eastern Lightning killing: Authorities crack down on cult. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2014/06/06/world/asia/china-eastern-lightning-killing/index.html

10. GotQuestions.org. (n.d.). Church of Almighty God / Eastern Lightning. Retrieved from https://www.gotquestions.org/Church-of-Almighty-God.html

11. Kehila News Israel. (n.d.). Beware the Church of Almighty God (Eastern Lightning). Retrieved from https://news.kehila.org/beware-the-church-of-almighty-god-eastern-lightning/

12. The Daily Beast. (n.d.). These Chinese Christians were branded a criminal cult—now they have to flee. Retrieved from https://www.thedailybeast.com/these-chinese-christians-were-branded-a-criminal-cult-now-they-have-to-flee/

13. Facts.org.cn. (n.d.). Eastern Lightning / Church of Almighty God reference. Retrieved from https://www.facts.org.cn/n2588/n2696/c914523/content.html

14. China Daily. (2014, June 25). Police crack down on cult after McDonald’s murder. Retrieved from https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2014-06/25/content_17615554.htm

15. The New Indian Express. (2020, August 22). Nagaland’s highest church body wary of Chinese cult making inroads. Retrieved from https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2020/Aug/22/nagalands-highest-church-body-wary-of-chinese-cult-making-inroads-2186988.html

Videos

1. YouTube. (2021, June 1). Cult killing in a Chinese McDonald’s: The murder of Wu Shuoyan [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crQ9zeyd9hQ

Forum and Community Discussions

1. Reddit - r/TrueChristian. (2013, April 10). Beware of Eastern Lightning / Church of Almighty God [Online forum post]. Retrieved from https://old.reddit.com/r/TrueChristian/comments/18m64hg/beware_of_eastern_lightning_church_of_almighty/

2. Old Reddit Archive. (2021, October 17). My husband won’t let me get a COVID vaccine [Online forum post]. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20211017122317/https://old.reddit.com/r/relationship_advice/comments/q9xmx5/my_husband_wont_let_me_get_a_covid_vaccine/

3. Reddit - r/RBI. (2022, September 1). Redditor claims to be a prominent figure of a Chinese cult [Online forum post]. Retrieved from https://old.reddit.com/r/RBI/comments/xa5794/redditor_claims_to_be_a_prominent_figure_of_a/

4. Reddit - r/InternetMysteries. (2023, January 25). Does anyone remember Uyang Xiangbin, the redditor who… [Online forum post]. Retrieved from https://old.reddit.com/r/InternetMysteries/comments/10qypk2/does_anyone_remember_uyang_xiangbin_the_redditor/

5. Reddit - user/yang_xiangbin. (n.d.). Profile page [Online forum profile]. Retrieved from https://old.reddit.com/user/yang_xiangbin#res:ner-page=18

6. Internet Archive. (2022, September 18). Reddit profile of user/yang_xiangbin (Archived). Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20220918025203/https://www.reddit.com/user/yang_xiangbin

7. Reddit - r/confession. (2021, September 1). I might have accidentally created a cult with myself as the leader [Online forum post]. Retrieved from https://old.reddit.com/r/confession/comments/pmr9sa/i_might_of_accidently_created_a_cult_with_myself/