Close to 1,000 followers of the sect, which state-run media labels an "evil cult" - the same description it applies to the banned Falun Gong group - have been held in a nation-wide crackdown that began last week, state-run CCTV reported. Police detained more than 350 Almighty God members in the south-western province of Guizhou, while in the north-western province of Qinghai more than 400 were held for "gathering unlawfully", the Beijing Times reported.
Smaller numbers have been held in other areas across the country. Almighty God predicts that three days of darkness will begin on Friday, and has called on its members to overthrow China's ruling Communist Party, which it refers to as "the big red dragon", the state-run Global Times reported. It has also told believers that a new era presided over by a "female Jesus" has arrived and that tsunamis and earthquakes will rock the world, the Global Times said.
The apocalypse predictions have received widespread coverage in China, thanks in part to the success of the Hollywood disaster film "2012", which was inspired by the supposed Mayan prophecy. Chinese state-run media have condemned the group in lurid detail, with the China Youth Daily reporting that Almighty God "even uses 'sex communication', calling on female members to use their sex appeal to seduce single men". The sect was founded in the early 1990s, but has remained secretive in the face of government intolerance of non-official religious groups.