Party leaders are convinced by the demonstration that the group is disciplined and well-organized, despite its claims to have no hierarchy. In their eyes, the Wheel of Law verges on the semi-religious secret societies that sought to overthrow unjust emperors. Leaders will have to move carefully against the group. Officials ordered qigong practitioners and masters to register with authorities in the early 1990s, said Nancy Chen, an anthropologist at the University of California at Santa Cruz. One Beijing resident said police have already started doing so in a village on the city's outskirts.
State media are likely to begin publicizing stories to show the dangers of the Wheel of Law.
According to the source, one says that a female devotee in northeastern Chaoyang city jumped to her death from a building, shouting Li Hongzhi's name.