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.

　　4. Those who establish and use cultist organizations to concoct and spread superstitious fallacies, and instigate and coerce their members or others to commit suicide or inflict wounds on themselves, shall be deemed to have committed intentional homicide or intentional harming and be punished according to the provisions in Articles 232 and 234 of the Criminal Law.

　　5. Those who organize and use cults to sexually exploit women or young girls by seducing, coercing, deceiving or other ways using superstitious fallacies, shall be deemed to have committed rape or raping underage girls and be punished according to the provisions in Article 236 of the Criminal Law.

　　6. Those who organize and use cults and swindle money and property from others by deceptive means, shall be deemed to have committed swindle and be punished according to the provisions in Article 266 of the Criminal Law.

　　7. Those who establish and use cults to organize, plot, carry out and instigate activities aimed at splitting the country, endangering national unification, or subverting the state power and overthrowing the socialist system, shall be convicted and punished according to the provisions in Articles 103, 105 and 113 of the Criminal Law.

　　8. All the money and property collected through various means by cultist organizations and the criminal offenders who establish and use cults to disrupt the implementation of laws, and tools and publicity materials used for criminal activities shall be confiscated according to law.

　　9. Organizers, plotters and leaders who establish and use cultist organizations for criminal activities and the enthusiastic participants who refuse to mend their ways despite repeated admonition shall be prosecuted for their criminal liabilities according to the provisions in the Criminal Law and this "Explanations". Those who have confessed their crimes or made contributions to the investigations, may be dealt with leniently, given reduced term of a sentence or exempted from punishment in accordance with the law.

　　Those who were deceived or coerced into joining cultist organizations and have already withdrawn from such organizations and no longer participate in cultist activities, shall not be dealt with as offenders.