Following the mass protest in Beijing on Sunday by members of the Fa Lun Gong movement, it has emerged that university professors and students, as well as government officials, were among the 15,000 demonstrators who besieged government headquarters at Zhongnanhai for 13 hours.
A worried Communist Party leadership has sent instructions to the heads of all ministries and government units to persuade cadres who joined the demonstration to go back to their work units and not return to the streets, according to official sources in Beijing. Chinese authorities have also instructed officials to require local groups to register with district party committees.
At one point on Sunday President Jiang Zemin telephoned the mayor of Beijing to find out what was going on, one source said, and to inquire if there had been any arrests. (There were none.) The State Council has apparently decided on a conciliatory approach without ceding the movement's demand for recognition. Qi gong is a respiratory and meditation technique which is claimed to have healing powers.
In 1996 the China Qi gong Science Research Association removed Fa Lun Gong as one of its qi gong groups, alleging that its leader, Mr Li Hongzhi, had turned it into a cult.
In response to the protesters' claim that they suffered suppression and prejudice, and were unable to conduct activities openly and legally, the State Council announced that "normal" qi gong activities would be permitted. Academic debate on Fa Lun Gong and qi gong is also to be allowed and the opinions of members listened to.
The government measures came after delegates of the movement held lengthy negotiations with senior party and state council officials on Sunday and Monday. The protests were the first aimed directly at the top party leadership which is anxious to maintain stability in the run-up to the 10th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown on June 4th.
Officials were reportedly criticised for concentrating too much on students and foreigners and failing to anticipate the first serious street challenge in a decade.
A Fa Lun Gong member said the Prime Minister, Mr Zhu Rongji, intervened personally to defuse the protest on Sunday. Members of the organisation outside China have been calling into newspaper offices (including The Irish Times) to protest at being described as a religious cult or sect. Associates in Beijing emphasised strongly that they were not a religious sect.
The protesters on Sunday were infuriated by critical articles in the Chinese media. They called for the punishment of a physics professor, Dr He Zuoxiao, who wrote in the Tianjin magazine Youth Scientific Review that many young people had suffered serious psychological problems and some had to be hospitalised after practicing Fa Lun Gong.
The newspaper Nanfang Zhoumo said that "anti-scientific" groups, such as those who practise Fa Lun Gong, have been multiplying like carp in a river, and it called for the urgent raising of scientific education to prevent "magical doctors" finding a market.
It called the movement a "new folk heresy fully equipped with tutoring centres, giving it the characteristics of a cult.