Hello Skeptic
author: Leeshai Lemish
 e-mail: lsl02001@pomona.edu
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A couple of years ago "Skeptic" offered some comments and raised some questions about an article that appeared on this website concering a Falun Gong candlelight vigil at PSU. At the time, I wrote a long comment, sharing my thoughts, but for some reason could not find that page again. Now I can, and I posted it back on that article. It is also here below. "Skeptic" - I hope you are still checking this website and will see this. Thank you.
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Hello Skeptic.
My name is Leeshai, I was visiting my fiancée in Portland when I saw your post. Behind the questions and concerns you raised I sense a genuine wish to understand what is really going on with Falun Gong. You have raised some good questions, and I will try to provide you with some answers based on what I have studied as a Chinese Studies major at Pomona College and my trips to China and Hong Kong. Although I've been told that skeptics will always have more questions, I hope you are still checking the site and will get a chance to see this. If you or anyone else would like to continue this discussion in person, I can be reached at  lsl02001@pomona.edu and will be happy to talk to you.
What led the Chinese government's top leadership to ban Falun Gong? What has been happening in China since the ban? Is there a difference between Falun Gong in China and overseas?
I grew up in Israel, and I very much agree with your comment that many governments, including our current one both in Israel and the U.S., are guilty of some horrible acts of killing innocent people, no matter what title we put on it. Regardless of US policy and interests in China, there is no arguing that the Communist Party in China has a horrific track record in dealing with a nation's people: from the 20-30 million death toll as a result of Mao Zedong's "Great Leap Forward" policy, to the destruction during the Cultural Revolution; from the killing of 1.5 million Tibetans to the June 4th Incident, and yes, to today's persecution of Falun Gong - Mao, Deng, and Jiang have been responsible for the suffering of the people in the world's largest nation. Certainly ruling a nation such as China is no easy task, but I am not here to discuss that. On a side note, I also don't think that this discourse falls under the category of either "Orientals" or "China Bashing".
Falun Gong (Falun Dafa) is introduced to the public in 1992 by Li Hongzhi, and grows in popularity until a late 1998 published Chinese government survey estimates there are 70 to 100 million people practicing Falun Gong (Falun Gong itself has no record or list of membership and thus cannot verify this number). In 1993 Li Hongzhi receives an award from the Ministry of Public Security for his contributions, and in 1995 he is honored at the Oriental Health Expo in Beijing and later given the "Special Gold Award" and the title "Most Acclaimed Qigong Master."
Li Hongzhi's book, Zhuan Falun, becomes a best seller in Beijing in 1996. On June 17, 1996 Guangming Daily (the mouthpiece of the State Council), publishes an article by a columnist denouncing Falun Gong, breaking the government's "Three No's" policy which made criticism of qigong in the media illegal. On July 24, 1996, the Chinese News Publication Office issues a nationwide circular banning the distribution of all Falun Gong publications.
The Public Security Bureau begins a nationwide investigation hoping to gather evidence in order to outlaw Falun Gong. However, the investigation is closed because no insufficient evidence was found. I believe this is the development you were referring to in your previous comment.
In May of 1998, a disgruntled Buddhist Monk tried to publish a piece attacking Falun Gong. He was frustrated that, not being a religion that had to register with the government, Falun Gong practitioners were allowed to pass out flyers freely, hold large conferences, and participate in big parades, activities that his registered Buddhist association was not allowed to engage in on such a large scale due to government restrictions. His paper could not get published by any of the major media, however, and he had to settle for circulating it in a small Buddhist publication. That Buddhist monk later contacted the same Professor He Zuoxiu that you mentioned.
Interestingly, Prof. He's attack on Falun Gong (and all other Qigong, by the way) actually came a year before his publication in Tianjin. In May of 1998, while interviewing with Beijing TV,\ Prof. He severely criticized Falun Gong. Practitioners in Beijing then went to talk to the television station and made a case that the contents of the show were irrational and groundless. The executives of the TV station later said that broadcasting that material was the most serious mistake the television station had made since its setup, and published a corrective piece, portraying Falun Gong in a positive light. Prof He could not appear on that television station anymore, and so he turned to nearby Tianjin.
In the latter half of 1998, a group of retired National People's Congress cadres led by Qiao Shi (the former Chair of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress) conducted a detailed investigation and study over a certain period of time on Falun Gong. This was because so many people had sent letters mentioning the Public Security Bureau's illegal treatment of Falun Gong practitioners. The conclusion of the study was that "Falun Gong only benefits and does no harm to the nation and the people." This report was delivered to the Politburo headed by Jiang Zemin.
On April 11, 1999 the same He Zuoxiu published an article in the Tianjin College of Education's Youth Reader magazine entitled "I Do Not Agree with Youth Practicing Qigong." Because of He's history, this article was banned from being published in Beijing, but came out in Tianjin. The main example he gave was of a student who also practiced Falun Gong. This student decided to go on a long fast as part of his practice. This story is true.
I spoke with a friend of mine who was practicing Falun Gong and working in Tianjin, 500 meters away from where this article was published at that time. He knew about this student.
Allow me to digress for a moment. In China, there are many different traditions and schools of Qigong (or mind-body meditation and exercise). In the west the most familiar of these forms is Tai Chi Chuan. Some may have seen the Shaolin Temple monks who travel around the world displaying some strange abilities, or the ones who practice in the Himalayas and have been scientifically documented to be able to sit in the snow practically naked for hours while keeping their body temperature high in meditation. Actually, with its tradition of Chinese Medicine and Qigong, modern Chinese science has conducted many experiments on the energy emitted by Qigong masters, and has even established Qigong research institutes and organizations. Li Hongzhi, for example, had been verified as a genuine Qigong master in several of these institutes, and was often invited to speak to the Chinese Qigong Research Society in different parts of the country.
Many of these disciplines appear rather strange and hard to understand. There are some who indeed practice "Bigu" (Chinese - no grain ), or fasting as a method of practice. In addressing the issue of Bigu in Falun Gong's main text, Zhuan Falun, Li Hongzhi explicitly states: "You do not need to employ this method at all. In addition, if your school of practice does not include it, you should not casually do something at will." But this college student had practiced many other forms of Qigong before learning Falun Gong and he insisted on fasting. Many practitioners from Tianjin went to meet with him and tried to explain to him that he shouldn't do this, asking him to stop, but his mind was not quite right. He insisted on doing this and thus brought damage to the reputation of Falun Gong. This was the main case He was talking about. One last point about professor He, and perhaps the most overlooked of all - he is the cousin of Lou Gan, head of "Office 610", an office that Jiang formed in order to eliminate Falun Gong. Analysts have said that Luo's recent promotion to a top Party position was due to his tough arm in dealing with Falun Gong.
Let me run through the rest of the developments rather quickly, as this has been rather long so far and I have not yet made my main point. After this slanderous article was published, practitioners went to appeal to the college executives and other officials. Several days later, the number of people appealing to restore the reputation of Falun Gong was fairly large, and 45 of them were arrested. Finally, the police officials in Tianjin told the practitioners - 'this is actually a matter between you and Beijing, you need to take your appeal to Beijing.'
As you may or may not know, the Chinese law and Constitution allows for appeals, and calls for them to be made to the Appeals Office, located in Zhongnanhai, the residential block in Beijing where all of the Party's top officials live. Since Beijing and Tianjin are two of China's three largest cities, and with so many millions of people practicing Falun Gong, in no time there were 10,000 people on the sidewalks in front of the Appeals Office. That day, April 25, 1999, Prime Minister Zhu Rongji invited a few practitioners up to his office. They had a meeting in which the practitioners asked for the release of those arrested in Tianjin. After several talks with various officials, the officials released those in Tianjin and everybody went home. (I wish we could witness such a display of civil rights by the people and their government here in the U.S. ...)
Then Jiang Zemin stepped in. On the evening of April 25, he wrote a letter to the Standing Committee of the Politburo attacking Falun Gong. On June 7, Jiang gave a speech at the meeting of the Central Government's Politburo and stated, "The issue of 'Falun Gong' has very deep political and social background and even a complicated international background... It is the most serious incident since the political turbulence in 1989."
Jiang made his Prime Minister make a self-criticism statement in the style of the Cultural Revolution, and led a series of policy changes. In May, people practicing meditation in the park where driven away by high pressure fire houses. On July 19 Jiang announced an official ban of Falun Gong, and arrests began on July 20.
Since then, as you are aware, there have been numerous reports of police brutality, torture, and killing. The death toll that has been verified (that is, specific information about the victims and the perpetrators - such as names, phone numbers, cause of death, detention center and so on) stands at 521. A source inside of the Chinese government claims the number is over 7,000 yet he refuses to reveal his identity.
We only know through various sources such as media investigations, human rights reports from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Hong Kong Center for Democracy and Human Rights, that the situation is grim. With hundreds of thousands of people locked in labor camps and specially built concentration camps for practitioners (such as Masanjia and Wanjia labor camps in Liaoning and Heilongjiang provinces respectively), and with the media blockage and refusal of calls for international investigations, the truth is, we don't really know how bad things are. May I remind everyone, though I dearly hope it is not the case, that only after the tanks pulled into Auschwitz and the other concentration camps in 1945, did the world learn about the horrors of the Holocaust, which had only been rumors up until that point. Unfortunately, and as a skeptic you know this too, history tends to repeat itself. I am not saying it is that way now, but I cannot say it isn't either.
So why is the Chinese Government persecuting Falun Gong?
Well, as I just mentioned, it really cannot be said to be the Chinese government who initiated this, rather it is a policy initiated, propagated, and escalated by Jiang Zemin. In addition to the above mentioned Zhu Rongji, Hu Jintao reportedly also opposed the persecution. Yet with absolute control (because of control of the military which he still has) Jiang was able to do this.
The persecution is for one reason - though you may think it sounds ridiculous when I say it - it is born entirely of Jiang Zemin's jealousy and fear. Is history lacking cases of such "leaders"? As most of those who have studied China deeply know, this is not Jiang's first time. Jiang was the one behind the 1989 massacre, which is actually what led to his appointment as head of state by Deng Xiaopeng. Jiang has been working very hard to develop the "cult of Jiang" like Mao and Deng before him. He has added his three principles to the Party's version of neo-Marxism, and this persecution is his attempt to align power to himself.
While last century's fascist leaders tried to do this by targeting another country or an ethnic group, Jiang picked Falun Gong, the most popular thing at the time, even though it is not limited to race or social class. Jiang openly stated: "the Communist Party must defeat Falun Gong." As such, he has also made crushing Falun Gong the Party's top priority.
It is not the fighting in Xinjiang Province, nor is it the growing unemployment, the flooding, the world's highest suicide rate or the fastest spread of HIV. It is Falun Gong, a group of people who practice meditation and the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance. Say all you want about spiritual paths, but the peacefulness of this group of people cannot be ignored. They have endured of three years of brutal persecution without resorting to violence. While the democracy movement of '89 was crushed in three short months, in reality Jiang is no closer to crushing Falun Gong today than he was three years ago when he first tried. The result has been that the criminals who should be in jail are out on the street to make room for practitioners; over half a million websites in China are blocked and internet cafe's are being closed so that people won't find out what is really going on and how Falun Gong is practiced freely in over fifty countries; and a large portion of foreign investment money is going to maintaining labor camps and producing electric batons instead of to health and education. How different is this from when Empress Dowager at the end of the Qing Dynasty diverted the money that was earmarked to go to constructing China's navy to building a marble boat and palace in the middle of the imperial lake? With a marble boat instead of a fleet, China was invaded by multiple nations which brought financial ruin and disaster on the entire country and an end to the Qing Dynasty. Today another crazed ruler after his own self interest (as rulers tend to be) putting forth and insisting on an irrational policy, killing his own people along the way.
Now, why isn't this crystal clear to everyone? China is the world's largest nation and may currently have the largest influx of money of all times. Everybody is doing business with China and many are afraid of speaking out, especially knowing that their own countries are often not in the right either. Let me give you an example: a friend of mine has a proclamation in his home that was given to Falun Gong practitioners in Seattle for their contributions to the local community. You cannot find this proclamation on any public record, however. Why? The mayor rescinded it a day before the award ceremony after the Chinese government threatened to take away their shares of businesses in Seattle (including in Boeing if I am not mistaken) if official recognition of Falun Gong was given.
I have been to events in the US and Hong Kong where CNN reporters were very excited about a story about Falun Gong, yet the story was stopped up in the high windows due to financial interest (that is why we have this kind of website, right?). Similar instances have happened in papers whose owners are directly linked to Party. Nearly all Chinese language media is either run from Beijing or financially supported by the CCP. These media sources have continued to act as a mouthpiece whose primary propaganda focus has been the relentless attack on Falun Gong.
These instances have become fewer however, after CCTV as well as the Xinhua News Agency both lost major lawsuits for their attack on Falun Gong in Canada. In other words, there is simply too much misinformation out there for the public, and even many academics, to have an accurate picture of what led to what, and who is behind all of this. But when people get a chance to sit down calmly, get the facts straight, and think about this, it becomes clear, even to those from Mainland China who have been very influenced by their propaganda.
So what about the difference between Falun Gong in China and overseas?
From one perspective, Falun Gong is not persecuted anywhere else, so of course there is a difference. One only has to look as far as Taiwan to see what it is like when Falun Gong is practiced freely. Since 1999 alone there have been several hundred thousand people who have come to practice Falun Gong in Taiwan. Today, students can learn Falun Gong in school for extra credit, and teachers are encouraged to go to Falun Gong workshops as part of their continuing education. Nobody there is calling it a cult, nor have the same crazy stories appeared there or anywhere else outside of Mainland's media.
One big difference between the Chinese and non-Chinese practitioners is how long they have been practicing. Falun Gong was mostly introduced in North America starting in 1996. At that time, millions of people in China had already been practicing for four years. So there is that. However, at least 90% of the practitioners in the US today are ethnically Chinese, and many of them came from China after they started practicing. Some have even arrived after the persecution began, and there are some who had gone to Zhongnanhai, appealed in Tiananmen Square, and been tortured in labor camps. These practitioners who were active in China are the as the ones who are participating in activities and practice here. I know many of them in person.
Furthermore, the text is the same. I read Chinese, and I can tell you that both the book Zhuan Falun, and the articles that appear on the Falun Gong websites are translated accurately. On these websites, practitioners from Mainland China regularly share their stories and understandings, at great risk, I would assume. Furthermore, Li Hongzhi's teachings are the same for those both in and outside of China.
Anybody who has met Li Hongzhi knows both the integrity and humbleness of this man. While other Qigong teachers were collecting sky-high fees to attend their classes, Li Hongzhi was questioned as to why his fees were so low or even non-existent. When the persecution first started he announced in a press statement around the world: "We are not against the government now, nor will we be in the future. Other people may treat us badly, but we do not treat others badly, nor do we treat people as enemies." The Wall Street Journal once echoed a propaganda piece that attacked Li Hongzhi, claiming he owned large houses. After investigation, the newspaper had to offer an apology for that piece because the accusations were found to be false.
Li Hongzhi's teachings can actually be understood to be quite simple, and very much in line with the Chinese tradition as well as spiritual traditions of the West. It is hard to categorize practitioners. Even if one was able to do so in the U.S, there is then the question of those in Europe, Israel, India, Australia, Japan, and so on. Surely they can't all be called Orientalists. The teachings appeal to something very fundamental about being human, something that our technological era hasn't provided, and something that seems to evade us in our modern day of strife, "global village" or not. His teachings emphasize kindness, morality, and personal integrity. Throughout the persecution, both inside and outside of China, practitioners have been displaying these qualities on a large scale and have validated the power of these teachings. This is the main reason the persecution is failing - it is attacking what is good about human kind. This might be precisely what Jiang fears the most.
Jiang would like his people to believe that Falun Gong's teachings of propriety and virtue are not Chinese. What is really Chinese are the theories of a German named Marx and a Russian named Lenin. But in reality, Falun Gong offers the people of China something that they have been missing since the 1911 Revolution - a sense of return to their own culture and traditions, the values that have held China together through dynastic changes for thousands of years., a hark back to the days in which China led the world in philosophy and science, as well as the arts.
After so many years of disappointments, some people find it hard to believe there is someone out there who is not after power, is not after money, and is just trying to do something good. I used to think that way too.
Many today have lost all faith in humanity. Like many skeptics, they have only questions but no answers. I took a long time to write this response, and you have put in both time and effort in reading it. I hope that at the very least you will keep an open mind. Falun Gong's true nature is bound to be revealed over time. I think the fact that Falun Gong practitioners have been able to remain peaceful under such circumstances is not easy, and should be a good indication for what this group is about.
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