Estimates vary of the number of people who materialised without warning outside Chinese government headquarters at Zhong nanhai in Beijing at dawn last Sunday, but I am sure there were more than 15,000 because, along with a colleague, I counted them.
It was fairly easy. The demonstrators remained static all day, sitting cross-legged in a row stretching for 1,500 metres, with at least 10 people to every metre. Foreign correspondents and security officials alike were taken by surprise, not just by the size but by the audacity of the demonstrators, members of the Falun Gong discipline, who came to air their grievances about the Chinese media and the authorities.
But if journalists were taken by surprise, the demonstration was a major intelligence failure for security officials, who failed to perceive that a qi gong-based organisation would resort to such political activity. Only an organisation of strict discipline could have staged the biggest protest demonstration in Beijing in 10 years at a time of great sensitivity about public protests.
The movement was founded in 1992 by Li Hongzhi, a martial arts master from Jilin province, as an advanced system of cultivation and practice based on qi gong, a respiratory and meditation technique claimed to have healing powers. What sets Falun Gong apart from ordinary qi gong is its devotion to its founder, Li Hongzhi, its secrecy and its merging of qi gong with religious theory.
"Much of the teachings are highly classified knowledge that are hitherto imparted exclusively from master to trusted disciple since antiquity in China," says the Falun Gong Website (address http://www.falundfa.org), which recommends nine-day workshops for new members on how the teachings reflect the Taoist ying- yang and the Buddha's Dharma wheel.
The Chinese government estimates there are 40 million Falun Gong members in China. They can be found in city parks seeking the gong or inner energy by performing bao lun (embracing the wheel) and da zuo (sitting in meditation).
Falun Gong has devotees in high places, including the Foreign Ministry, the People's Liberation Army, cadres, doctors, teachers and intellectuals. It turns out that there are scores of Falun Gong guidance stations in Beijing, with its headquarters in Haidian district, though most members simply participate in groups of 10 under a master, and are unaware of a formal organisation.
Of the 10 kinds of qi gong practised at the People's University in Beijing, Falun Gong is the most popular, a professor said.
One of the delegates who negotiated with the government during Sunday's demonstration was a senior official of the Department of Supervision. It also has adherents in many foreign countries, including Ireland.
Three members called at The Irish Times office in Dublin on Monday to complain about the use of the word "cult" to describe Falun Gong, and to disclaim any kind of formal organisation. Simultaneously, similar delegations called to the Straits Times office in Singapore, to ABC television in Sydney, and many other media organisations around the world with the same complaint.
Li Hongzhi (47), living in New York since he left China under pressure two years ago, is indeed widely venerated by his disciples as the only person who can save the world from evil and sickness. He claims that after being educated by Taoist priests and Buddhist monks he understands the truth about the universe and can foresee the future.
In one of his five books, regarded as sacred texts, he writes "Your diseases will be eliminated directly by me".
The emergence of a large cult-like organisation in China capable of secret planning and of infiltrating the highest levels of government has historical precedents which are worrying for the Beijing government. The Taiping rebellion of the mid-19th century was led by a mystic and resulted in great loss of life. The Boxer Rebellion in 1898 combined martial arts and folk religious traditions with resentment against foreigners. Secret societies played a role in the downfall of the last dynasty in 1911.
Falun Gong emphasises healing techniques and has not adopted a political platform, but today the decline in communist ideology has left people without core beliefs and their mass loyalty is harder to retain.
The question facing the government is how to prevent its moral authority being sapped now by cults and religious groups.
In the meantime the Chinese leadership is faced with the problem of how to deal with the grievances of Falun Gong members in such a way as to calm the situation while not giving it a victory. Their main complaint concerned a critical article in the Youth Science Review early in April published by a university in Tianjin.
In talks with a senior party official, Luo Gan, a Falun Gong representative said they wanted the punishment of the author, an apology from the journal, the release of five members arrested and beaten during a demonstration at the Youth Science office two weeks ago, and recognition of their rights.
Their demands have still not been met though the alleged beatings are being investigated. However, President Jiang Zemin is reported to have ordered that qi gong practice be respected but sit-in demonstrations should not ever again be allowed at Zhongnanhai.
Other Chinese newspapers have accused the founder of accumulating huge sums through sale of his books and cassettes. In an interview for Australian television, Prof He said that "the government hopes to gradually soften this event and the people to calm down".