19 November 1999 Use this version to print The first trial involving members of the quasi-religious Falun Gong movement took place on November 12, in China's Hainan province. Two other men received seven and three-year sentences, while a woman, Liang Yulin, received two years for assisting Song Yueshang evade arrest.
More show trials are likely to take place before the end of the year.
On November 8, the Chinese government stated that 111 Falun Gong members had been formally charged. There are signs that the Chinese government is contemplating the execution of Falun Gong's main leaders. Two days later, a ruling was issued that leaders of cults can be charged with murder and endangering national security, offenses that carry the death penalty. The major Communist party newspaper, the Peoples Daily , has supported this move with continuous editorials and columns that denounce Falun Gong in hysterical and often ludicrous language. Established in 1992, Falun Gong is based on popular fitness exercises known as qigong, which its founder Li Hongzhi combined with a conservative social outlook and mystical conceptions derived from traditional Chinese Buddhist and Taoist religions.