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Assignment: Chasing China's Doomsday Cult

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14/08/2014

Chasing China's Doomsday Cult

BBC World Service - Assignment, Chasing China's Doomsday Cult

Carrie Gracie travels to China in search of a secretive cult and its terrified victims

The BBC's China Editor investigates an elusive cult at the centre of a grisly murder that has shocked the nation.

Almighty God vs the Red Dragon: It sounds like a fantasy action film, but it is in fact a real and disturbing struggle in China. The most vivid case involves a group of people who beat a stranger to death in a fast food restaurant. They said they had no choice because the victim was a 'demon'. The killers are fanatical followers of the Church of the Almighty God, a Christian doomsday cult which claims millions of members across China and pledges to overthrow the Chinese Communist Party - which it calls the Great Red Dragon. Gracie uses her fluent Chinese to gain access to families of those caught up in the cult, including a man who infiltrated it to save his wife.

Produced by Becky Lipscombe

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