What is the estimated membership of Eastern Lightning? Eastern Lightning is a 20th century Chinese Christian movement, primarily known for its belief that God returned to Earth as the woman Yang Xiangbin to lead humanity a third and final time (after Yahweh in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New Testament).

However, the Wikipedia article currently lacks any information about membership. Given that the Chinese government considers the group to be an "evil cult" (邪教; xiéjiào) and tries to suppress it, I suspect that reliable numbers are hard find, but I would like to know how large it’s membership is estimated to be. Is it hundreds? Thousands? Tens of thousands?

If possible, I would like to have estimates of their membership both before and after their failed 2012 doomsday prophecy, given that the event was a heavy recruitment tool.
Eastern Lightning also goes by the name of The Church of Almighty God.  The Church of Almighty God split from the Shouters, who were led by Li Changshou, aka Witness Lee. It is virtually impossible to obtain verifiable statistics, but below are extracts from two reports. The first article is dated 29 July 2017.


  "In 1995 the group was banned by China, so the couple moved to America and maintained the cult's headquarters there.  China is not the only country in which the group has a presence. In fact, its website has details for sections in more than 20 countries.  Emily Dunn, an Asian studies academic at the University of Melbourne, claims it is estimated that the group has between several hundred thousand and one million members.”


Source: http://talkradio.co.uk/news/eastern-lightning-banned-chinese-cult-believes-woman-reincarnation-jesus-17072816806 


  “The Church of Almighty God releases periodical statistics, and claims that between 2011 and 2013 more than 300,000 members were arrested. These figures are impossible to verify, but do not appear unbelievable if one considers the frequent references to “successful” campaigns against the Church of Almighty God in Chinese anti-xie-jiao propaganda and other official sources. The Church also reports that many of its members were tortured in China, and some died while in custody in suspicious circumstances. Despite governmental repression, and hostility by some leaders of the mainline Christian churches, the Church of Almighty God grew in China and, according to Chinese official sources, had reached four million members in 2014. The figure is disputed by scholars, and the situation in China makes statistics difficult.”


Source: https://censamm.org/resources/profiles/church-of-almighty-god