Mourning at McDonald's for victim of heretic sect

The family of Wu Shuoyan, the woman beaten to death in a McDonald’s outlet by followers of heretic sect Quannengshen in east China’s Shandong Province, visited the scene of the tragedy yesterday, the seventh day after her death.

Traditionally, Chinese believe that is the day the souls of the dead return home to bid a final farewell.

Jin Zhongqing, Wu’s husband, and their 7-year-old son were among the mourners.

“I don’t want to tell him the truth, but he seems to know everything,” Jin said of his son. “He kept comforting me, asking me to stop crying. He said mom was looking at us in the heaven. My heart was broken.”

A group believed to be followers of the sect tried to disrupt the mourning in Zhaoyuan City but were quickly ushered away, according to Southern Metropolis Daily.

Several people who witnessed last week’s attack were in attendance. One man said he thought it was just a quarrel at first as the victim did not call for help. He and other witnesses tried to scare away the six attackers by saying they had called the police, but that didn’t work.

“It all happened in a sudden and I have never seen such a thing. Shaoyuan is always safe as I have lived here for such a long time,” he said.

One of Wu’s relatives told reporters that a number of witnesses had contacted the police to provide evidence of the attack, including a video and photographs.

Five of the six suspects were arrested on Monday for murder. The other, a minor under 14 years old, will be charged at juvenile criminal court, according to the Zhaoyuan government.

Wu was beaten apparently after refusing to give her telephone number to the group who were said to be trying to recruit new Quannengshen members. Witnesses said the suspects had called Wu “devil” and “evil spirit” and said they would destroy her while they beat her.

Suspect Zhang Lidong, 54, said after he was detained that the act was “the will of God” and he did not regret what he had done. The other suspects were his two daughters, his son, his partner and a friend of his elder daughter.

The newspaper said Quannengshen had many followers in villages in Zhaoyuan.

Appearing in the 1990s in central China’s Henan Province, the group claims that Jesus has been resurrected as Yang Xiangbin, wife of the sect’s founder Zhao Weishan, also known as Xu Wenshan. The couple fled to the US in September 2000.

In late October and early November 1998, robberies and assaults connected with the cult were reported in Henan’s Tanghe County, with victims’ limbs broken and ears cut off.

Wang Shuli, a national political adviser and expert on religion, said the killing of Wu had revealed Quannengshen to be inhuman, antisocial and unconstitutional.

Wang Zhongwu, a sociologist with Shandong University, said severe suppression of cults should be maintained to prevent more people from being hurt.

Under Chinese law, a cult is an illegal organization that tries to control people by deifying the sect leader, deludes members under the guise of religion or in other names and engages in activities that harm society.

The Chinese government currently lists 14 such cults, including Quannengshen.