Description
China says Falun Gong is a threat to its stability and calls their leader an outlaw. It’s a mysterious movement that claims 100 million followers in China and around the world; a phenomenon that has the Chinese government very worried. In 2000 it was banned in China. Followers do a kind of meditation and exercise in public places. Their beliefs are based on the teachings of one man, an enigmatic leader who now lives in exile in the USA. We met the man they call The Master when he visited Chicago. Li Hongzhi rarely mingles with followers, but did so when we met him. Li says Falun Gong cures illnesses and improves lives; it offers purification in a degenerate world.
Li left China for New York in 1996. Meanwhile, the Chinese government refused to give Falun Gong official recognition and criticised the movement. Then in 2000, 10,000 people appeared seemingly out of nowhere and circled the main government compound in Beijing. This silent vigil frightened the Communist Party. It was the biggest public protest in China since the student demonstrations of 1989. Stunned, the Communist Party assumed Li was behind the whole thing. The Chinese government hit back. In a scene reminiscent of the cultural revolution, the government banned the organisation; raided bookstores and rounded up Li’s writings, destroying them. For weeks, state television broadcast reports discrediting Li. It charged him with tax evasion and more seriously, with sabotaging social order. Former practitioners denounced him, accusing him of trying to overthrow the Chinese government.
Li claims to live modestly, although the Chinese government alleges he became rich by selling his books and videos and not paying Chinese taxes. The Chinese Communist government has crushed all opposition since it came to power. But the defiance of the Falun Gong movement sets a dangerous precedent. Despite arrests and persecution, Li’s spiritual message has found a residence with a disillusioned people and his supporters show no sign of backing down.