Will they just keep coming, or will they be crushed? That is the question facing an increasingly frustrated government in Beijing after two weeks of bizarre arrests of members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement.
All the resources of the communist state from the security police to the official media have been mobilised to combat an enemy whose ranks include retired officials, middle-aged women and academics.
Practitioners of the movement which Beijing condemns as a dangerous cult keep arriving in dribs and drabs at Beijing's Tiananmen Square to perform defiantly the spiritual qi gong exercises associated with their practices and invite immediate arrest.
The atmosphere has become increasingly repressive, with increased security police activity against those who make contact with known Falun Gong members, including foreign correspondents. Some critics compare the official rhetoric employed against the movement's followers to that used to denounce the organisers of the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement in 1989.
Mr Li Bing, deputy head of the information office of the State Council, or cabinet, told foreign correspondents yesterday that since the movement was outlawed in July police have formally arrested 111 members of Falun Gong.
This figure did not include others held under various forms of detention, including labour camps, or undergoing anti-cult education, he said; nor had police compiled a nationwide list of those detained and released.
Mr Li estimated that more than 1,000 sect members had converged on Beijing's Tiananmen Square in recent weeks as parliament deliberated the anti-cult legislation. Most were from nearby provinces, and as many as 60 per cent returned to Beijing even after being picked up by police and sent home, he said.
Assessments of the extent of the crackdown can only be gauged from local newspaper reports of arrests. An official newspaper in the north-eastern province of Jilin, for example, disclosed that seven practitioners were sent without trial to labour camps for one year for disturbing social order.
What is not in doubt is the government's determination to suppress bluntly a perceived threat to the rule of the party and social stability. Some analysts in Beijing say that the authorities had little choice if the system is not to be undermined, but point out that over-reaction against a movement whose members fundamentally seek health and happiness implies fragility in the party's hold over the people.
Founded in 1992, Falun Gong has attracted millions of followers by promising cures and salvation through a mixture of mystical breathing exercises and elements of Buddhism and Taoism. The leader, Mr Li Hongji, who has claimed supernatural powers, lives in exile in New York.
The government last month rushed through legislation to enable it to imprison the movement's leaders, and those arrested can expect harsh treatment. These include Mr Li Chang, a former deputy director of the Ministry of Public Security, who is among four leaders arrested in Beijing. They have not yet been charged.
The State Council official denied reports from a Hong Kong-based human rights organisation that some members had been beaten and had died at the hands of the police. The rank-and-file Falun Gong practitioners who staged peaceful protests in Beijing in recent weeks were "not arrested, but were picked up, given re-education and sent back to their home towns," he said.
But the movement is creating martyrs. Quoting police reports, Mr Li acknowledged that three women members had died after being detained for Falun Gong activities. Zhao Jinghua of Shandong province collapsed during questioning and died in the lavatory. Li Ruihua of Chongqing had taken sick and died in hospital. Both had heart conditions, he said.
Chen Ying, an 18-year-old high school student, met her death after jumping from a train while being sent back to her home town in Heilongjiang province in the company of local officials, said Mr Li, who insisted, however: "There have been no cases of beatings or inhumane treatment in the handling and education of Falun Gong followers."
Six Falun Gong members had died in police custody since August, one from a hunger strike, one who was beaten to death and four who committed suicide, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China.
Authorities say Falun Gong caused more than 1,400 deaths by refusing to allow brainwashed followers to get medical treatment. "Some of the victims were seriously ill and wanted to go to hospital, but fellow Falun Gong members blocked them, in some cases surrounding their houses," Mr Li said.
The charges against those formally arrested included stealing state secrets, which could bring the death sentence, using a cult to obstruct the law, disturbing social order and illegal business practices.
Yesterday Mr Zhang Ji (20), a student at Qiqihar University in Heilongjiang, was charged with "using the Internet to spread subversive information".
The group said Zhang sent information to North America in August on what was happening to Falun Gong in his province.
The Legal Daily reported that in Changchun, Mr Zhang Haito was arrested for establishing a Falun Gong Internet Website in May.
Pregnant women being held in an Australian detention centre volunteered for abortions rather than risk their pregnancies being terminated later if deported to China, a Senate committee was told yesterday by a refugee advocate, Ms Marion Le. She said immigration department files were full of cases where pregnant Chinese women had pleaded to be allowed to have their children in Australia before being deported.