Those responsible for organizing and using cults to carry out criminal activities must be severely punished, a leading legal expert said on November 5.

Zhou Zhenxiang, criminologist and vice-president of the China Youth Political Institute, noted that plenty of evidence exists to prove that the Falun Gong organization has every feature of a cult.

"Outlawing the cult organization and cracking down on their illegal activities and crimes has sufficient legal basis," Zhou said in an interview with Xinhua.

He noted that since the 1960s and 1970s, various cults have popped up throughout the world and have gained international attention in recent years.

For instance, the Aum Doomsday Cult, which was formed in 1984 in Japan, released poisonous serin gas in a Tokyo subway on March 20, 1995, resulting in 12 deaths and 5,500 injuries. And 39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult in the U.S. committed suicide in California on March 26, 1997.

Dangerous cult activities have been reported in Russia, Ukraine, France, Belgium and other countries. "This has seriously disrupted the social stability and development and led to a worldwide call for outlawing the cults," Zhou said.

For a long time, cults were virtually unheard of in China, but recently a few illegal organizations in the country are showing more cult-like tendencies, and some have even developed into full- fledged cults. Falun Gong is one of the most notorious.

The criminologist said cults have the following characteristics: the group defies outside authority; the leader and his followers fabricate and spread heresies; members are brainwashed so as to be effectively controlled by the leader; the leader make money illegally; and the group and its philosophies endanger society.

"The outlawed Falun Gong organization has all the characteristics of a cult," Zhou said. Its founder Li Hongzhi boasted that he is greater than Lao Zi, Sakyamuni and Jesus Christ. He controlled his followers' spiritual beliefs, concocted heresies such as the "doomsday theory" that the world is soon to come to an end, and that the earth will explode, and made a fortune through bilking cash from his followers. It has been revealed that the Falun Gong group has an elaborate organizational structure, with 39 centers, 1,900 coaching centers, and 28,000 practice sites across the country, controlling at one time over 2.1 million followers.

Since August, 1996, when it held its first illegal demonstration outside a national newspaper the Guangming Daily, Falun Gong has organized a total of 78 illegal demonstrations with at least 300 followers participating on each occasion.

"The April 25 siege of the Zhongnanhai government compound in Beijing has further exposed Falun Gong's motives that are against the Party and the government," Zhou said.

He believes the government should take resolute measures to outlaw cult organizations such as Falun Gong, and punish their crimes accordingly.

To deal with illegal organizations, including cults, the country has already put in place a host of laws and regulations. The Decision on Outlawing Cults and Preventing and Punishing on Cult Activities adopted last week by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress provides a powerful legal weapon to fight against Falun Gong and other cults, Zhou added.

The legal expert stressed that in fighting against the Falun Gong cult, all law enforcement departments should proceed from the principle of combining punishment with education.

The departments should strike hard at organizers, plotters and ringleaders, and investigate and prosecute their crimes according to law.

Meanwhile, more should be done to help those swindled by Li Hongzhi to see the true nature of Falun Gong, and to extricate them from the organization as soon as possible.

"In this way, the core members of the Falun Gong cult would be hit hard, their crimes punished and the country's social stability be maintained," Zhou said.