Falun Gong

Falun Gong (alternatively Falun Dafa) is a system of beliefs and practices founded in China by Li Hongzhi in 1992. The practice emerged at the end of China's "qigong boom" as a form of qigong practice. Falun Gong differs from competing qigong schools through its absence of daily rituals of worship, its self-consciousness about outside critics, its greater emphasis on morality and the purported theological nature of its teachings. There is on-going debate about Falun Gong's classification as a religion, or new religious movement (NRM), and "cult", a term used by the Chinese government to describe the movement. Its teachings are influenced by both Taoism and Buddhism.

In April 1999, over ten thousand Falun Gong practitioners gathered at Communist Party of China headquarters, Zhongnanhai, in a silent protest following an incident in Tianjin. Two months later the Chinese government banned the practice through a crackdown and began a large propaganda campaign. Since 1999, Falun Gong practitioners in China have been reportedly subject to torture, illegal imprisonment, beatings, forced labor, organ harvesting, and psychiatric abuses. Falun Gong has responded with their own media campaign, and have emerged as a notable voice of dissent against the Communist Party of China, by founding organizations such as the Epoch Times, NTDTV and the Shen Yun Performing Arts to publicize their cause.

The number of Falun Gong practitioners is unknown, and the group has no organized membership system. In 1998, the Chinese government published a figure of 70 million practitioners in China. Falun Gong asserts over 100 million practitioners of Falun Dafa in "114 countries and regions around the world".

Beliefs and teachings

Falun Gong was introduced to the public by Li Hongzhi(李洪志) in Changchun, China, in 1992. Its teachings cover spiritual, religious, mystical and metaphysical topics. Falun Gong is an introductory book that discusses qigong, which introduces the principles and provides illustrations and explanations of the exercises involved in Falun Gong practice.

The main body of teachings is articulated in the core book Zhuan Falun (轉法輪), published in late 1994. According to the texts, Falun Gong (or Falun Dafa) is a "complete system of mind-body cultivation practice" (修煉). 'Truthfulness' (眞), 'Compassion' (善), and 'Forbearance' (忍) are regarded as the fundamental characteristics of the cosmos—an omnipresent nature that permeates and encompasses everything. In the process of cultivation, the practitioner is supposed to assimilate himself or herself to these qualities by letting go of "attachments and notions," thus returning to the "original, true self." In Zhuan Falun, Li Hongzhi said that "As a practitioner, if you assimilate yourself to this characteristic, you are one that has attained the Tao."

Falun Gong draws on Oriental mysticism and traditional Chinese medicine, criticizes self-imposed limits of modern science, and views traditional Chinese science as an entirely different, yet equally valid knowledge system, according to Yuezhi Zhao, professor in the University of California. Concomitantly, it borrows the language of modern science in representing its cosmic laws. Zhao says: "Falun gong is not conceptualized as a religious faith; on the contrary, its practitioners, which include doctorate holders from prestigious American universities, see it as 'a new form of science.'"

Theoretical background

Qigong refers to a wide variety of traditional "cultivation" practices that involve movement and/or regulated breathing designed to be therapeutic. Qigong is practiced for health maintenance purposes, as a therapeutic intervention, as a medical profession, a spiritual path, or a component of Chinese martial arts. Unlike in the West, where many may believe that qigong is a socially neutral, subjective, New Age-style concept incapable of scientific proof, much of China's scientific establishment believes in the existence of qi. Controlled experiments by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in the late 1970s and early 1980s concluded that qi, when emitted by a qigong expert, "actually constitutes measurable infrared electromagnetic waves and causes chemical changes in static water through mental concentration."

Falun Gong also borrows from Buddhist and Taoist teachings. Theories about the cultivation of elixir (dan), "placement of the mysterious pass" (xuanguan shewei), among others, are also found in ancient Chinese texts such as The Book of Elixir (Dan Jing), Daoist Canon (Tao Zang) and Guide to Nature and Longevity (Xingming Guizhi). Falun Gong's teachings tap into a wide array of phenomena and cultural heritage that has been debated for ages. However, the definitions of many of the terms used differ somewhat from Buddhist and Daoist traditions. Francesco Sisci says that Falun Gong "re-elaborated old, well-known Taoist and Buddhist routines, used the old vocabulary that people found familiar, and revamped them in a simple, persuasive way."

History

Falun Gong was founded by Li Hongzhi, a former trumpet player in a forest police unit in Jilin Province, and former grain clerk at the Changchun Cereals Company. In his spiritual biography in early versions of Zhuan Falun, Li Hongzhi claims that he was taught ways of "cultivation practice" (xiulian) by several masters of the Dao and Buddhist schools of thought, including Quan Jue, the 10th Heir to the Great Law of the Buddha School, a Taoist master from age eight to twelve, and a master of the Great Way School with the Taoist alias of True Taoist from the Changbai Mountains. Li also claimed numerous supernatural feats, including invisibility, levitation, and weather modification.

Li Hongzhi introduced Falun Gong to the public in May 1992, in Changchun, Jilin. Early versions of Zhuan Falun claims that the system was tested extensively before its introduction, between 1989 and 1992, while the Chinese government claims that Falun Gong was based on existing Qigong systems, namely Chanmi Gong and Jiugong Bagua Gong. Like many qigong masters at the time, Li toured major cities in China from 1992 to 1994 to teach the practice. Falun Gong websites say that during this time, Li was granted several awards by Chinese governmental organizations. According to Ownby, neither Li nor Falun Gong were particularly controversial in the beginning. Ownby wrote that Li became an "instant star of the qigong movement," with his practice method celebrated at the Beijing Oriental Health Expos of both 1992 and 1993. Falun Gong was welcomed into the Scientific Qigong Research Association, which sponsored and helped organise many of Li's activities between 1992 and 1994, including the 54 large-scale lectures given throughout China in most major cities to a total audience of 20,000. The movement enjoyed a rapid and huge success.

After Changchun, Li began to make his lectures more widely accessible and affordable, charging less than competing qigong systems for lectures, tapes, and books. On 4 January 1995, Zhuan Falun, the main book on Falun Gong, was published and became a best-seller in China. In the face of Falun Gong's rise in popularity, a large part of which was attributed to its low cost, competing qigong masters accused Li of unfair business practices. According to Schechter, the qigong society under which Li and other qigong masters belonged asked Li to hike his tuition, but Li refused.

From 1995 on, Falun Gong had established, according to Lowe, a clear competitive advantage over alternative qigong groups in its emphasis on morality and life philosophies, low cost, and its benefits to practitioners' health, and rapidly spread via word-of-mouth. Its rapid growth within China was also related to family ties and community relationships, which still retain great power in contemporary China. Falun Gong attracted a wide range of adherents from all walks of life. Some in China maintained that Falun Gong was the most popular qigong practice in the country, and that many professors from Peking University practiced the exercises every day on the campus grounds until the crackdown in 1999.

Skeptics, Tianjin, and Zhongnanhai

Falun Gong's rapid growth in China garnered widespread attention from the media, academics, and members of China's religious community. As early as 1995, critics called Falun Gong "superstitious" and were skeptical of its claimed health benefits. By 1996, the Buddhist Association and Buddhist journals were issuing in-depth critiques of Falun Gong.

Skeptic and journalist Sima Nan spoke out against qigong movements as early as 1995, arguing in books, articles and documentaries that qigong masters relied on deception and pseudoscience, tricked the uneducated and gullible, and performed "nothing more than dime-store magic" when demonstrating "supernormal abilities". Sima drew special attention to Falun Gong, alleging that Li Hongzhi used psychological manipulation and a questionable mixture of traditional thought and modern science to sustain his teachings. Articles critical of Falun Gong were also published in major Chinese newspapers. In response, founder Li Hongzhi called on disciples to "defend the Fa" by lobbying media outlets and government officials to censor content critical of Falun Gong. Many of these attempts were successful, and in 1999, a Beijing Television reporter was fired for airing content critical of Falun Gong as a result of lobbying from Falun Gong practitioners.

In April 1999, physicist and pseudoscience critic He Zuoxiu published an article in the Tianjin Normal University’s Youth Reader magazine, entitled "I Do Not Agree with Youth Practicing qigong," and criticized Falun Gong; He alluded to one of his college students who refused to "speak, drink, eat, or sleep" as a result of practicing Falun Gong. Practitioners regarded the article to be unfair and subsequently gathered in large numbers to protest the article in Tianjin. Falun Gong organizers sent an appeal to the Tianjin Municipal party headquarters and government. Subsequently the police were called, and practitioners were arrested.

Dissatisfied with the treatment in Tianjin, on 25 April, around ten thousand Falun Gong practitioners lined the streets near Zhongnanhai in silence, seeking legal recognition and protection of the practice in light of the alleged beatings and arrests in Tianjin. At the time of the Zhongnanhai Incident, Falun Gong had evolved to become a politicized and highly mobilized form of social dissent. Many Falun Gong practitioners were party members, and openly lobbied for the group. While Falun Gong's pre-1999 political involvement is difficult to verify, no other disenfranchised social group has ever staged a mass protest near the Zhongnanhai compound in PRC history. The incident raised questions about the Communist Party's control over the country, and led to fear, animosity and suppression of the movement. A World Journal article suggested that certain high-level Party officials had wanted to crack down on the practice for several years, but lacked sufficient pretext until the protest at Zhongnanhai—which it claims may have been partly orchestrated by Luo Gan, a long-time opponent of Falun Gong. There was also reportedly rifts in the Politburo at the time of the incident. Some reports indicate that Premier Zhu Rongji had met with Falun Gong representatives and gave them satisfactory answers, but was criticized by General Secretary and President Jiang Zemin for being too soft. Jiang Zemin is held by Falun Gong to be largely personally responsible for the final decision: Peerman cited reasons such as suspected personal jealousy of Li Hongzhi; Saich postulates at party leaders' anger at Falun Gong's widespread appeal, and ideological struggle.

The ban

On 20 July 1999, the Chinese government declared the Research Society of Falun Dafa and the Falun Gong organization under its control to be illegal for having been "engaged in illegal activities, advocating superstition and spreading fallacies, hoodwinking people, inciting and creating disturbances, and jeopardizing social stability." Xinhua further declared that Falun Gong was a highly organised political group "opposed to the Communist Party of China and the central government, [that] preaches idealism, theism and feudal superstition." Xinhua also affirmed that "the so-called 'truth, kindness and forbearance' principle preached by Li has nothing in common with the socialist ethical and cultural progress we are striving to achieve." In response, Li Hongzhi declared that Falun Gong did not have any particular organization, nor any political objectives.

The Chinese authorities branded Falun Gong, along with some other practices, movements or organizations xiejiao (Chinese: 邪教), it used the English word "cult" or "evil cult", and introduced a barrage of media material criticizing Falun Gong. A nationwide crackdown ensued with the exception of the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau. In October 1999, four months after the ban, legislation was created to outlaw "heterodox religions" and applied to Falun Gong retroactively. Leung remarked that the effort was driven by large-scale propaganda through television, newspapers, radio and internet. According to Johnson, the campaign against Falun Gong extended to many aspects of society, including the media apparatus, police force, military, education system, and workplaces. An extra-constitutional body, the "6-10 Office" was created, charged with monitoring and taking action against various religious groups. Human Rights Watch (2002) noted that families and workplaces were urged to cooperate with the government's position on Falun Gong, while practitioners themselves were subject to severe coercive measures to have them recant.

Response in China

Protests in Beijing were frequent for the first few years following the 1999 edict. According to Time, a Falun Gong website editorial instructed followers to step up demonstrations, "especially in Tiananmen Square"; founder Li Hongzhi urged followers to immobilize the police and other "evil scoundrels" through use of supernatural powers. Thus, Tiananmen Square was one of the prime locations where practitioners routinely demonstrate despite government deterrence. By 25 April 2000, within the one year after the massive demonstration at Zhongnanhai, a total of more than 30,000 practitioners were arrested there. Seven hundred Falun Gong followers were arrested during a demonstration in the Square on 1 January 2001.

On the eve of Chinese new year on 23 January 2001, seven people attempted to set themselves ablaze at Tiananmen Square. Although the Falun Dafa Information Center disputed that self-immolators were practitioners, on the grounds that the movement's teachings explicitly forbid suicide and killing, the official Chinese press agency, Xinhua News Agency, and other state media asserted that they were practitioners. The incident received international news coverage, and video footage of the burnings were broadcast later inside China by China Central Television (CCTV). Images of a 12 year old girl, Liu Siying, burning and interviews with the other participants in which they stated their belief that self-immolation would lead them to paradise were shown. Time reported that prior to the self-immolation incident, many Chinese had felt that Falun Gong posed no real threat, and that the state's crackdown had gone too far. After the event, however, China's media campaign against Falun Gong gained significant traction. Practitioners' presence in mainland China has become more low-profile, as they opt for alternative methods of informing the citizenry, such as through overnight letterbox drops of CD-ROMs.

According to the Chinese government, Falun Gong activists have launched attacks against Sinosat satellites and jammed television signals, replacing regular state television broadcasts with their own material. For example, in March 2002, Liu Chengjun, a Falun Gong practitioner, managed to intercept eight cable television networks in Changchun City and Songyuan City, Jilin Province, and televised a program titled “Self-Immolation or a Staged Act?”. Liu was arrested and subjected to 21 months of imprisonment that led directly to his death.

Response outside China

Due to its ban in mainland China, Falun Gong practitioners have taken to their cause internationally, especially in Australia, Canada, the United States, New Zealand, and Britain. Since the ban in China, Falun Gong has alleged that its practitioners in China were subject to torture. Falun Gong related cases comprise 66% of all reported torture cases in China, according to the Special Rapporteur on torture, and at least half of the labour camp population. Amnesty International urged the government to "take seriously its commitment to prevent torture and take action immediately." The United Nations asked the Chinese government to respond to the various allegations by Falun Gong and human rights groups.

Falun Gong practitioners in the United States routinely file cases in U.S. federal courts against Chinese leaders once they step upon foreign soil. According to International Advocates for Justice, Falun Gong has filed the largest number of human rights lawsuits in the 21st century and the charges are among the most severe international crimes defined by international criminal laws. Practitioners engage in promotional activities by handing out flyers in busy intersections, in the subway or at the mall, leaving Falun Gong literature in stores, libraries, laundries etc. Although some of the literature deal with Falun Gong's situation in China, other publications also include the Nine Commentaries of the Communist Party, a critical editorial of the Communist Party of China, which are distributed by practitioners in both DVD and book form. Falun Gong members also openly participate in activities such as marches, parades, and celebrations of Chinese culture.. Response to these appeals have been mixed.

Falun Gong has also been active in establishing university chapters. Practitioners also utilize various parade venues around the world to publicize their group and its message. These have included large events such as the Independence Day Parade in Washington, D.C. to smaller events such as the Auckland New Zealand's Santa Parade. These parades also offer an opportunity for the group to disseminate promotional literature. The response to Falun Gong involvements in some parades have also been mixed.

Since 2006, a central part of the Falun Gong campaign focused on alleged organ harvesting from living practitioners. The Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong commissioned Canadian parliamentarian David Kilgour and human rights lawyer David Matas to investigate the allegations. The Christian Science Monitor considered the evidence is circumstantial, but persuasive, and criticized the Chinese government for a lack of openness in investigating the claims. Likewise, U.N. special rapporteur Manfred Nowak, said the report "shows a coherent picture that causes concern." In November 2008, the United Nations Committee Against Torture noted that an increase in organ transplant operations coincided with “the beginning of the persecution of [Falun Gong practitioners]” and demanded an explanation. The Chinese government has repeatedly denied these allegations, saying that the report was based on "rumors and false allegations". The United States Congressional Research Service report by Dr. Thomas Lum stated that the Kilgour-Matas report relied largely on logical inference without bringing forth new or independently-obtained testimony, and that the conclusions also rely heavily upon questionable evidence. Human rights activist Harry Wu also voiced doubts about conclusions of the Kilgour-Matas report. David Ownby, a noted expert on Falun Gong, said that he saw "no evidence proving [organ harvesting] is aimed particularly at Falun Gong practitioners."

Media branches and public relations

Falun Gong practitioners have also set up international media organizations to promote their cause and criticize policies of the Communist Party of China. These include The Epoch Times newspaper, NTDTV, Sound of Hope radio station. Maria H. Chang of the University of Nevada, says these organisations seem to be "[treated as] front organisations to influence public opinion via a concerted information-PR-propaganda campaign". She argues that, like the Chinese state, Falun Gong has to create organisations that are publicly unaffiliated with it for the organization to survive.

Together these organizations also promote the Chinese New Year Spectacular, performed by the Falun Gong-affiliated Shen Yun Performing Arts troupe. In addition, Falun Gong has a considerable presence on the Internet, with websites such as clearwisdom.net, faluninfo.net, mingui, pureinsight etc., which they use not only to spread Li's teachings, but also to publicise the plight of practitioners with graphic testimonials.

While Chinese media have launched an unrelenting assault on Falun Gong since 1999, Falun Gong's response through its various media organizations has earned the practice considerable public relations clout in the West. In North America and Europe, where Falun Gong practitioners are a strong presence, media obtain much of their information about the spiritual group through Faluninfo.net, although Kavan says it comes from a public relations firm for Falun Gong managed by Gail Rachlin, who is considered part of Li’s inner circle. Kavan also compared Falun Gong practitioners' media strategies with those of the Chinese Communist Party: common traits include intolerance of criticism, issuing blanket denials when accused, exaggerating and sensationalizing claims, and deflecting blame by charging the other of the same offense.

Organizational Structure

Falun Gong denies having an organizational structure, and maintains that it is merely a spiritual group that practices a brand of qigong. It does not have an organized membership system, and eschews the term 'membership'. As a result, estimates vary over the number of people practicing Falun Gong. Before the ban, the government estimated 70 million, and later revised the figure to 2 million. Palmer notes that Falun Gong was highly centralised, and it maintained "absolute centralisation of thought, healing and money." Power flowed directly to or from the Master "whose authority was strictly moral and ideological". While it relied on traditional (in a Qigong sense) network for dissemination exercise techniques - a nationwide network of local and regional practising stations, the Falun Dafa Research Society (FDRS) was its national umbrella organisation. Only the Master, Li Hongzhi, was allowed to give lectures and to teach; assistants were also barred from giving Qigong therapy and from collecting money. Donations and the sale of all materials were centralised through the FDRS, and funds flowed directly to Li Hongzhi. Branches and stations maintained no resources.

Institutionally, Falun Gong was a part of the Scientific Qigong Research Association until 1994 as the Falun Dafa Research Society, then applied to be listed as an organization under the National Minority Affairs Commission, to which it was denied. It subsequently applied to the China Buddhist Federation as a cultural organization to study Buddhism, and was also rejected. Its final attempt at registering under a Party-sanctioned organization was an application to the United Front Department as a "non-religious, academic organization", to which it was also rejected. In early 1997, Falun Gong began pursuing a more decentralized and loose organizational structure, with its main bases in Beijing and Wuhan. Chinese state media claimed that at the time, the Beijing national office was led by Li Chang, Wang Zhiwen, Ji Liewu and Yao Jie; Li and Wang were members of the Communist Party. Their communication with founder Li Hongzhi is unclear. In addition, regional offices diverged in their organizational structures. Each office generally maintained a "propaganda department", logistics department, and "doctrine" committee, or variations of those functions thereof, according to reports in state media.

At the time of the movement's suppression in July 1999, Falun Gong websites claim that the movement had no "national organization", no regulations or by-laws, and that practitioners were free to join or leave at any time, and there were no membership rosters. The Chinese government, in contrast, claims that Falun Gong was a highly organized group, with 39 "main stations", 1,900 "guidance stations", and 28,263 practice sites nation-wide, overseeing a total of 2.1 million practitioners. A number of "Falun Dafa Associations" now exist around the world, of which Canada and American chapters are the most prominent. Not all practitioners are members of an association.

Falun Gong have set up groups CIPFG and WOIPFG to lobby foreign governments/legislators, human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, who now expressed their concerns over allegations of torture and ill-treatment of Falun Gong practitioners in China. They have also urged the United Nations and international governments to intervene and bring an end to the ongoing persecution. Friends of Falun Gong USA is a non-profit corporation domiciled in New Jersey which raises funds for FLG causes.

Public debate

The 'cult' debate

Some debate exists over whether Falun Gong should be classified as a "cult", and this classification is more common in some social contexts than in others. Since the 1999 ban the Chinese government has repeatedly classified them as a xiejiao, translated as "evil cult" in English, deeming it harmful to social stability in China. They also claim that Falun Gong damages people's physical and mental health like the Branch Davidians and Aum Shinrikyo. David Ownby and Ian Johnson have argued that the Chinese state seized the cultic appellation of Falun Gong by borrowing arguments from Margaret Singer and the West's anti-cult movement to blunt the appeal of Falun Gong and put it on the defensive. Western media's response was initially similar to that of the anti-cult movement, but later used less loaded terms to describe the movement. Other scholars, for example, Cheris Shun-ching Chan considers cults to be new religious movements that focus on the individual experience of the encounter with the sacred rather than collective worship, and says that Falun Gong is neither a cult nor a sect, but a new religious movement with Cult-like characteristics. Other scholars avoid the term "cult" altogether because "of the confusion between the historic meaning of the term and current pejorative use" These scholars prefer terms like "spiritual movement" or "new religious movement" to avoid the negative connotations of "cult" or to avoid mis-categorizing those which do not fit mainstream definitions.

Practitioners

Li Hongzhi, founder of Falun Gong
Wenyi Wang, The Epoch Times reporter
Jennifer Zeng, human rights activist

Translation

The phrase "Falun Gong" occurs as such in the following languages: English, Breton, Czech, Danish, German, Spanish, Esperanto, French, Galician, Indonesian, Icelandic, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Malay, Dutch, Norwegian (Bokmål), Polish, Portuguese, Simple English, Finnish.

Translation(s) in other languages: Min Nan: Hoat-lûn-kong, Persian: فالون‌گانگ, Korean: 파룬궁, Croatian: Falun gong, Italian: Falun Dafa, Hebrew: פאלון גונג, Latvian: Faluņgun, Japanese: 法輪功, Russian: Фалуньгун, Albanian: Falun Dafa, Serbian: Фалун Гонг, Swedish: Falungong, Ukrainian: Фалунь Дафа, Vietnamese: Pháp Luân Công, Chinese: 法轮功.