RT Article
T1 “Cult Crimes” and Fake News: Eye-Gouging in Shanxi
JF The journal of CESNUR
VO 1
IS 2
SP 96
OP 109
A1 Folk, Holly
LA English
YR 2017
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/172450262X
AB On August 24, 2013, a six-year  old  boy  called  Guo  Xiaobin  was  kidnapped  by  a  woman who  gouged  out  his  eyes.  The  investigation  on  the  horrific  crime  was followed  with  considerable emotion  by  Chinese  public  opinion,  and  was  concluded  by  the  police  early  in  September  2013.  The crime  had  been  perpetrated  by  the  boy’s  aunt,  Zhang  Huiyeng,  who  had  committed  suicide  on  August 30, 2013. There were no references to religion in the Chinese media until the homicide committed in a McDonald’s diner in Zhaoyuan on May 28, 2014 was attributed by the Chinese authorities (falsely, as it later came out) to the Church of Almighty God. In June 2014, the attack on Guo Xiaobin was presented by  Chinese  anti-cult  sources  as  perpetrated  by  the  Church  of  Almighty  God.  No  evidence  of  any involvement  of  the  Church  of  Almighty  God  on  the  crime  exists,  and  the  government  seems  to  have created  the  accusation  after  the  McDonald’s  incident  to  further  justify  its  persecution  of  the  Church, exploiting a century-old Chinese anti-Christian theme of accusing Christians of gouging out eyes.
K1 Church of Almighty God
K1 Eastern Lightning
K1 Eye-Gouging Accusations Against Christians
K1 Eye-Gouging Themes in China
K1 Guo Xiaobin
K1 New Religious Movements in China
K1 Xie Jiao
DO 10.26338/tjoc.2017.1.2.5