Q: Cults are the world's public plague. Various countries in the world, including China and Japan, have suffered from cults. On what basis does the Chinese Government list Falun Gong as a cult? In dealing with Falun Gong, is it possible to avoid taking measures of cracking down on its followers?

A: Present China is a country that is devoted to establishing and perfecting the rule of law. The Chinese Government treats present-day Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Catholicism and Islam with equality and carries out the policy of respecting freedom of religious beliefs. However, the government's outlawing of Falun Gong on July 22, 1999 shows that it is not at all a religious organization, but a cult to achieve antihuman, antisocial, anti-science and antigovernment goals with extremely nefarious and devastating means. There are four major foundations of Falun Gong.

First, Falun Gong destroys the religious order and freedom of religious belief with the camouflage of "doing missionary work," especially hurting the sentiments of true religious believers by classifying itself under the name of religion in order to establish the status of Li Hongzhi as the so-called world's highest hierarchy.

Second, Falun Gong endangers people's physical and mental health as well as their property. Incomplete estimates show that in the entire country, there are more than 1,500 people who died because of following Falun Gong. Falun Gong is not at all a deep breathing exercise that helps maintain good health, but full of heresy.

Third, Falun Gong is strongly antisocial. In our world, all religions and religious organizations protected by law must consciously respect and maintain the basic moral and legal order of society. For example, organizations such as Taoism, Islam and Christianity obey the laws detailing the requirements of a society. But Falun Gong and its organization are different. It isn't established according to law and stirs up troubles everywhere, with obvious antigovernment and antisocial characteristics.

Fourth, the so-called Falun Dafa Institute is an illegal retroactive organization with a rigorous structure, strong political aims as well as antigovernment and antisocial purposes. Falun Dafa is the highest guidelines of this retroactive organization.

Measures that the Chinese Government have taken in dealing with Falun Gong according to law are commonly supported by all walks of life. Of course, because we say that Falun Gong is a cult does not mean that all people who once exercised it are cult advocates. The policy of the Chinese Government is to differentiate common exercisers from the tiny minority of organizers with ulterior motives. The purpose of this is to educate and save the majority of duped practitioners and punish the minority of those who break the law or constitute crimes. To those practitioners who do not know the true nature of Falun Gong, we do not discriminate against or reject but instead patiently and painstakingly help them break away from the cult and return to normal life.

At present, the Chinese people as a whole lead a moderately prosperous life. The picture shows swimmers at the Silver Beach in Beihai, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.