Explanations of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate Concerning Certain Problems Related to Laws Applicable to Handling Cases of Organizing and Employing Cults to Commit Crimes
(Adopted at the 1079th Meeting of the Judicial Committee of the Supreme People's Court on October 9, 1999 and at the 47th Meeting of the Ninth Procuratorial Committee of the Supreme People's Procuratorate
on October 8, 1999)

To punish according to law the crimes of organizing and employing heretical cult organizations to engage in criminal activities, and in line with related regulations of the Criminal Law, the following explanations on several issues in relation to specific laws applicable to handling such cases are hereby made:

1. "Cultist organizations'' in Article 300 of the Criminal Law refer to those illegal organizations that have been established under the guise of religion, Qigong or other forms, deifying their leading members, enchanting and deceiving others by concocting and spreading superstitious fallacies, recruiting and controlling their members, and endangering society.

2. Punishment shall be determined and meted out to those who organize and employ cults and have fallen into one of the following circumstances according to Section 1 of Article 300 in the Criminal Law:
(1) Assembling crowds to besiege and harass state organs, enterprises or institutions, and disturb the order of their work, production, operation, teaching and research; (2) Holding illegal assemblies, parades and demonstrations, or inciting, deceiving and organizing their members or others to gather together to besiege, harass, seize or disrupt public places or venues for religious activities, or disrupt social order; (3) Resisting concerned departments' decision on banning their organizations, or resuming the banned organizations or establishing other cultist organizations, or continuing their cultist activities; (4) Instigating, deceiving and organizing their members or others to refuse fulfilling their legal obligations, with the case being serious; (5) Publishing, printing, duplicating or distributing publications spreading cultist fallacies, and printing symbols of cults; and (6) Other activities that violate state laws and administrative regulations.

A case shall be regarded as "especially serious'' if it involves any of the following while conducting the above-mentioned activities:
(1) Setting up organizations or recruiting members across provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government; (2) Collaborating with overseas agencies, organizations or individuals to engage in cultist activities; (3) Publishing, printing, duplicating or distributing publications spreading cultist fallacies, and printing symbols of cults, involving a huge amount of copies and sales values; and (4) Instigating, deceiving and organizing their members or others to violate state laws and administrative regulations, resulting in serious consequences.

3. Cases of setting up and employing cultist organizations to deceive others and cause deaths in section 2 of Article 300 in the Criminal Law refer to the cases of establishing and using cultist organizations to concoct and spread superstitious fallacies, deceive their members or others into practicing fast and inflicting wounds on themselves, or prevent patients from taking normal medical treatment, resulting in deaths.

A case shall be regarded as "especially serious'' if any of the following occurs:
(1) Causing three deaths or more; (2) Causing fewer than three deaths, but serious injuries to many people; (3) Those who have received criminal or administrative penalties for engaging in cultist activities again establish and use cults to deceive others and cause deaths; and (4) Causing other especially serious consequences.