FORMER qi gong enthusiast Sima Nan is China's chief witch hunter and for him the crackdown against Falun Gong is a sweet victory.
'I am very happy. For 20 years, the government has tolerated these sects but now at last our efforts are being rewarded,' he said.
A former journalist, he has devoted his time and risked his life in a bid to expose qi gong charlatans in China.
'My life has been threatened many times in the last 10 years. People have shot at me, detained me, beaten me.' Despite this he has continued to research and publish exposes of dozens of fake qi gong masters, whose numbers have multiplied on the mainland.
Now Mr Sima and a handful of other independent activists who tried for years to sound the alarm over Li Hongzhi, the qi gong master who founded the sect, are touring the country giving daily lectures and interviews.
'This is modern witchcraft. We who fought against the claims of those with paranormal powers and pseudo qi gong have been in a difficult position for many years. Our voice has been weak because such activities have been connived at by government departments at all levels,' said Li Shen, a researcher at the World Religions Research Institute who is also the secretary general of the China Atheism Society.
Such has been the support for qi gong at the highest levels of the Communist Party and the People's Liberation Army that qi gong comes close to being virtually a state religion.