Bloody history

The mainland's crackdown on the banned Falun Gong sect is nothing new as the quashing of quasi-religious sects and secret societies has played a large part in shaping the history of the country.

In 1850, a Cantonese schoolmaster, Hong Xiuqing, founded the Christian-based 'Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace' movement with the goal of overthrowing the reigning Manchu (Qing) dynasty. The following year, with an army of more than a million, Hong, who had by then declared himself the 'Heavenly King of the Taiping' (Heavenly Kingdom), declared war against the Manchus marking the start of the Taiping Rebellion.

From his base in Nanjing, Hong was successful in capturing much of southern China before eventually being taken down by a new imperial army led by scholar Zen Guofan in 1864.

Hong had committed suicide before the taking of Nanjing but in the aftermath, more than 20 million people died in an extended revolt further weakening the Manchu's authority.

A further uprising would occur in 1900 when hundreds of Chinese and more than 200 foreigners were killed in the Boxer Rebellion. The bloody uprising was the climax of a movement which had been gaining momentum since the 1890s among the secret society, I-ho-ch'uan (Righteous and Harmonious Fists).

The group, dubbed by Westerners as 'Boxers' for its daily exercise regimen, had opposed the spread of outside influences in the country and began destroying everything it considered foreign including slaughtering anyone who supported Western ideas.