(image from the BBC) and
(image from the BBC) and
"China has ordered the arrest of the leader of the banned Falun Gong meditation sect as part of its continuing campaign to eradicate the movement. The Ministry of Public Security issued what it called a "Wanted circular" for the arrest of the group's founder, Li Hongzhi, for disturbing public order. The ministry appealed for international co-operation to secure the arrest of Mr Li, who lives in the United States, and said it had sent details to Interpol. ... The BBC's David Willis in Beijing says Mr Li would face immediate arrest if he were to attempt to return to China, and by seeking the assistance of Interpol, the authorities are clearly also looking into the possibility of extradition. There is however no extradition treaty between China and the United States. ...".
On 22 July, 1999,
"Falun Gong is simply a popular qigong activity. It does not have any particular organization, let alone any political objectives. We have never been involved in any anti-government activities. I am a cultivator myself, and I have never been destined to be involved in political power. I am just teaching people how to practice cultivation. If one wants to practice qigong well, he/she must be a person of high moral standards. In actuality, I have achieved this -- more than 100 million people have become good people, or be even better people. As a matter of fact, I had not intended to do this, but when the morality of cultivators is upgraded, it really has brought benefits to society.
Some sources claim that I forbid people to take medicine. Actually, that is absolutely untrue. I have simply explained the relationship between cultivation practice and taking medication. I have enabled more than 100 million people to achieve health. Countless terminally ill patients have recovered and have become healthy. This is a fact. As for those who are critically ill or mentally ill, I have always advised them to not learn Falun Gong. Yet some people nonetheless insisted on learning it without my knowledge. In that case, is it fair to call this kind of individual who died of his own illness my disciple? I have never heard that people who are not being taken care of do not die just because they have learned a few exercise movements. Then, just because hospitals are able to treat illnesses, does that mean that there should not be anyone dying in hospitals?
Some people spread rumors that I changed my date of birth, and this is true. During the Cultural Revolution, the government misprinted my date of birth. What I did was simply to change the misprinted date of birth to the correct one. As for the fact that Sakyamuni was also born on this day, what does that have to do with me? Many other people were also born on this day. In addition, I have never claimed that I am Sakyamuni.
With regard to the issue of practitioners gathering at Zhongnanhai in Beijing to present the facts, I was on my way to Australia and was changing planes in Beijing. I departed without knowing at all what took place in Beijing. I always travel alone in order to avoid inconvenience. I do not get in touch with local practitioners wherever I go because there would be many people hoping to see me. As a result, I was not aware of what was going on in Beijing.
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.
We are calling for all governments, international organizations, and people of goodwill worldwide to extend their support and assistance to us in order to resolve the present crisis that is taking place in China. At present, my mother and sister are still in Beijing, and they are in a difficult situation. It has been said that police intend to detain them. Some reports said that policemen have beaten up many people in Shenyang, Dalian, and in other areas. I am asking the Chinese government to not treat them this way. It is my hope that the Chinese government and its leadership will not treat the people who practice Falun Gong as enemies. Chinese people throughout the country have a very in-depth understanding of Falun Gong, and the consequences would cause people to lose confidence in the government and its leadership and to be disappointed in the Chinese government."
The images are from articles in the BBC about Shanghai (1 at top), The New York Times about Beijing (2 from top), the BBC about Beijing (3 from top), CNN about Beijing (4 from top), and The London Telegraph from Guangzhou (5 from top).
Here are some earlier news reports:
On 23 July 1999, The Wall Street Journal carried an article by Craig S. Smith, Marcus W. Brauchli, and Leslie Chang, the text of which is:
The leader of a mass spiritual movement appeared shaken but defiant in the face of the Chinese government's unprecedented crackdown on his group Thursday, adding momentum to what is evolving into the largest expression of public discontent with the government since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
In a sparely furnished apartment overlooking the Hudson River in New York's lower Manhattan, Li Hongzhi said he supports the mass protests by his "students" that began in several Chinese cities two days ago, after the government arrested scores of the movement's leaders.
"The government can punish people's bodies, but they cannot change their hearts," Mr. Li said. He warned that by outlawing his spiritual discipline, called Falun Dafa and sometimes Falun Gong, the Communist government has wounded itself and threatens to lose the confidence of "more than 100 million people."
By refusing to ask his followers to back down, Mr. Li has pitted himself against the Chinese government, a position that clearly makes the 47-year-old former grain-bureau clerk uneasy. Sometimes sitting on his hands, Mr. Li expressed dismay at the Chinese government's reaction to the growing movement he started in 1992, which is based on a system of exercises and beliefs rooted in Buddhism and promises followers salvation and supernatural powers, including levitation.
Mr. Li also expressed concern that Beijing would try to repatriate him with help from the U.S. government. "I've heard that the Chinese government wants to get me back to China through the FBI," Mr. Li said in the hourlong interview Thursday as a handful of young followers buzzed around him, fielding phone calls and drafting press statements. He said his followers have asked for protection and support from the U.S. State Department.
The State Department confirmed that it has been in touch with Mr. Li's group. "We do urge China ... to permit Falun Gong practitioners to engage in peaceful expression of their views and in peaceful assembly," department spokesman James Rubin said Thursday.
Earlier Thursday, China accused the eccentric but hugely popular spiritual movement of "evil thinking," declared Falun Dafa illegal, banned members of the Communist Party from following the group, and warned that the movement threatened social stability. The government's action is not only a response to immediate concerns; in past centuries, spiritually based mass movements have challenged governments and wreaked havoc in Chinese society.
In a news-style program televised nationally starting in midafternoon Thursday, the government pilloried Mr. Li as a charlatan who had built a vast, highly organized quasireligious group through deception and for personal aggrandizement. The broadcast, which was repeated throughout the day, alleged that many of Mr. Li's followers have died or committed suicide as a result of their involvement with Falun Dafa, which "propagated the myth" that mankind would be exterminated.
"Such activities have seriously disrupted public order and jeopardized the stable situation of reform and development," a government announcer declared on Chinese Central TV. She said the country's public-security forces would enforce the ban on Falun Dafa, which would mean disbanding the followers who gather daily, in some places by the thousands, to study and exercise together.
China now is in the curious position of having its most legitimate mass organization -- the 55 million-member Communist Party -- squared off against its newly designated least-legitimate mass group, Falun Dafa, with an estimated 40 million members. While Falun Dafa adherents claim they are strictly apolitical, Beijing clearly regards the group as a threat to its rule. A high-ranking government official accused the group of "using illegal organizations to engage in political activities."
Falun Dafa erupted into Beijing's consciousness on April 25, when more than 10,000 of the group's followers surrounded Beijing's leadership compound to protest the detention of some practitioners. The government Thursday not only televised pictures of that protest for the first time, but called it the most serious incident since the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in 1989, which ended in a military crackdown that killed hundreds.
In the hours before Thursday's government announcement, followers of Falun Dafa, which means the Wheel of Buddhist Law's Great Way, continued to protest against Beijing's treatment of the group, with thousands trying for the second consecutive day to converge on the compound in the capital where China's top leaders live. Police detained and bused them away, sometimes after physical confrontations.
Falun Dafa members also staged protests in other cities, though the scale seemed reduced from Wednesday, when government offices in dozens of cities were besieged. In Shanghai, the square abutting the municipal-government offices was filled with schoolchildren bused in for the day, preventing demonstrators from gathering.
The demonstrations followed the arrests earlier this week of as many as 100 of the group's leaders. The government also angered practitioners by blocking access on Chinese computer networks to the group's Internet sites, its prime means of communication with others on the mainland.
Whether the crackdown will quell the movement, or only fuel it, is unclear. "If you really want to ban us, you'll have to tie us up," says Sophie Xiao, a spokeswoman for Falun Dafa in Hong Kong. "People are quite firm and know in their hearts what is good."
Most Chinese know Falun Dafa only vaguely as a group with incomprehensible beliefs that descended en masse on Beijing in April. "To practice is fine, but once you surround the country's leadership compound, that is against the law," says a Shanghai office worker. "This kind of thing hurts social stability."
That's what worries Beijing most: If this group is allowed to challenge authority with impunity, other disgruntled citizens might be inspired to do the same.
The attractions of Falun Dafa are many in China. Its doctrines mix Buddhism, the most common religion here, with health-centered breathing and stretching exercises known as qigong. Its leaders claim that Mr. Li, and not the Communist Party, has the answers to making China a more stable, more moral society. Falun Dafa's teachings are especially popular among older retirees and unemployed people who make up China's "lost generation," the age group that has suffered most under communism.
China's leaders clearly see Falun Dafa as something much more than a dawn exercise regimen, though. In the last century, a number of cultlike religions with mass followings swept through China, triggering civil wars that left tens of millions dead. Today, the shrinking relevance of communism in this increasingly free-market, free-for-all economy has left a void in many lives.
Falun Dafa isn't the only spiritual group filling that void. Hundreds of spiritual leaders have emerged in the past two decades, some attracting huge followings. Zhong Gong, a qigong group founded by Zhang Hongbao, claims 30 million members and has chapters in most Chinese cities, according to the Chinese government. Its adherents advocate fasting -- with some members claiming to have stopped eating for months at a time.
But none of the groups have spread as rapidly as Falun Dafa, which has been aided by China's accelerating adoption of the Internet, with its easy, anonymous means of communication.
After virtually ignoring the group's activities publicly, the government is now pulling out all stops to discredit it. On Wednesday evening, all party officials in Shanghai were summoned to urgent meetings to learn the government's new position on Falun Dafa. Thursday morning, meetings were held in party work units and residential committees, at which the group was accused of disturbing the social order and leading people astray. And in attempt to play down Falun Dafa's importance, the government said it now estimates the group's core membership at about two million.
Thursday's TV broadcast began with a statement from the top organ of the Communist Party, the central committee, which warned that the party was engaged in a "serious political struggle" -- a phrase rich with historical connotations from earlier times, when politics, not economics, ruled the day in China. The committee's statement reminded party members that they should study "Marxist materialism and atheism" and "draw a clear ideological line of demarcation" from Falun Dafa. Those who failed to do so would be expelled from the party, the announcement said.
The elaborate production of Thursday's hourlong broadcast indicated that Chinese leaders have been preparing a crackdown for some time. It featured footage that appeared to have been shot clandestinely at Falun Dafa functions, and included poignant interviews with ordinary Chinese whose relatives had either died because they believed Falun Dafa could cure their illnesses or because they believed the practice made them Buddhas. One segment cited a worker who used scissors to cut open his abdomen looking for a "Wheel of Law" -- a protective device that Mr. Li says he installs in his followers telekinetically -- and a 19-year-old who killed his parents because he believed that he was a Buddha and that they were demons.
The broadcast accused Mr. Li of repeatedly lying to his followers. It showed immigration documents purportedly proving that Mr. Li had been in mainland China just prior to the group's April protests; Mr. Li said he did spend one day in Beijing while in transit between the U.S. -- where he has lived since 1998 -- and Brisbane, Australia. But he said he didn't meet any with his followers while in Beijing, and insisted that he had nothing to do with organizing the mass protest. "If I had intended to instigate the protest, I wouldn't need to go to Beijing, I could just make a phone call," he said, adding that if he had ordered the protest, it would have been far larger.
The report also accused Mr. Li of enriching himself through the group, citing interviews with people who helped Mr. Li organize Falun Dafa in 1992. It said he had collected "benevolent money" from followers totaling 1.2 million yuan ($145,000) in 1993 and 1994 alone, which he used to buy houses and autos for relatives. Mr. Li says he doesn't solicit money from backers.
In the interview Thursday, Mr. Li said the suicides cited in the Beijing broadcast were committed by people who were already mentally unstable and had practiced a variety of spiritual disciplines besides Falun Dafa. "It's not fair to blame their deaths on Falun Dafa," he said.
As for reports of his wealth, Mr. Li argued that Chinese government organizations sponsored his lectures during the early 1990s and retained 60% of any revenue. He said his portion was used to publish books and rent venues, and that the total never amounted to 1.2 million yuan.
Mr. Li appealed to the Chinese government for dialogue to resolve the confrontation with his followers, but he offered encouragement to the protesters.
"What the students are trying to do right now is appropriate," he said, adding that his followers "are left with no alternative but to directly present their views to the central government."
He said his followers "should avoid bloodshed," but he concluded: "It's hard to know how the situation will develop, I don't dare say."
BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua) -- China today banned the Research Society of Falun Dafa and the Falun Gong organization under its control after deeming them to be illegal. In its decision on this matter issued today, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said that according to investigations, the Research Society of Falun Dafa had not been registered according to law and had been engaged in illegal activities, advocating superstition and spreading fallacies, hoodwinking people, inciting and creating disturbances, and jeopardizing social stability. The decision said that therefore, in accordance with the Regulations on the Registration and Management of Mass Organizations, the Research Society of Falun Dafa and the Falun Gong organization under its control are held to be illegal and are therefore banned. Enditem
BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) today made public a circular forbidding Party members to practice Falun Dafa (Falun Gong). The circular asks CPC members who currently practice Falun Dafa to separate themselves from Falun Gong organizations, and to make a clean ideological break from it. It also calls for the launching of education against Falun Gong for the entire party. The circular says that the Falun Gong organization has developed and spread in some places in recent years. Falun Dafa, concocted by Li Hongzhi, has propagated a set of malicious fallacies, seriously corroding the minds of some people. The Falun Gong organization plotted, and instigated, through deception, some Falong Gong practitioners into holding illegally gatherings outside the Party and government and media organizations, the circular says. Such activities have seriously disturbed public order and jeopardized the stable situation of reform and development. The circular says the fact that some CPC members have also taken part in such activities has tarnished the image of the party and made very bad impression in the society. The circular prohibits all Party members from practicing Falun Gong, attending any activities organized by the Falun Gong organization, assuming any positions in the Falun Gong organization, spreading materials of the Falun Gong organization, or providing places, funds, or other conveniences for activities of the Falun Gong organization. The circular asks party members to expose and rebut Li Hongzhi and his Falun Dafa, and aid party organizations and relevant departments to help people understand the issue. The circular says that for those Party members who practiced Falun Dafa, but can break ties with the Falun Gong organization on their own and make a clean ideological break with it, no questions will be raised. Those who have engaged in organizing and publicizing Falun Gong as key members will not be investigated or held responsible if they break away from the organizations on their own, and draw a clear ideological line of demarcation with Falun Gong, and expose the problems of Falun Gong. Party members who are important key members of the Falun Gong organization and have committed serious mistakes will be given disciplinary punishment according to Party discipline, the circular says. But those who repent or render meritorious service will have their disciplinary punishment reduced or not be investigate Those who refuse to correct their mistakes after repeated education will be asked to give up their Party membership, the circular says, and those who refuse to give up their Party membership will be expelled from the Party. Those few behind-the-scenes figures, plotters, and organizers who caused disturbances on purpose with political intentions will resolutely be cleared out of the Party, it says. The circular says that "exposing and refuting Li Hongzhi and his Falun Dafa is a serious political struggle," and every Party member should have a deep understanding of the political nature and severe harm of the Falun Gong organization. Falun Dafa, also called Falun Gong, was pieced together in northeast China's Changchun City by Li Hongzhi, now aged 47, on the basis of two Chinese Qigong forms, and incorporates some dance movements. Taking advantage of people's desire to rid themselves of illness and achieve physical fitness, Li first disguised himself as someone skilled at "curing sickness with Qigong." He then began enlisting disciples and circulating malicious fallacies to confuse and cheat people. Li propagated the idea, among others, that the end of the world is approaching and that mankind will soon be exterminated, and that he would be the sole savior. The CPC circular calls for educating Party members in Marxist materialism and atheism, enhancing their political sensitivity and their political capabilities to differentiate right from wrong in order to consolidate a correct world outlook and concept of values, and reinforcing their belief in communism to strengthen the cohesiveness and combat strength of Party organizations. The notice points out that this education focuses on transformation and is based on the principle of learning from past mistakes to avoid future ones, and curing the disease to save the patient. The circular expresses the belief that most of the Party members who practice Falun Gong will follow the Party's instructions and correct their mistakes. The circular says that Marxist dialectic materialism and historical materialism represent the world outlook and methodology of the proletariat, and that the scientific theories of Marxism established on the basis of this world view should serve as the spiritual pillar of communists. Falun Dafa as created by Li Hongzhi preaches idealism and theism and denies all scientific truth, and thus is absolutely contradictory to the fundamental theories and principles of Marxism, says the circular. It points to the fact that any CPC member practicing Falun Dafa has completely gone against the Party's nature and tenets, and therefore shall not be tolerated by Party discipline. In the face of this significant issue which involves the fundamental beliefs of the communists, concerns the ideological foundation for people across the country to unite behind and strive together with, and has a bearing on the future and destiny of the Party and the state, every CPC member must take a clear and firm stand and must unify their thinking in accordance with the decision of the Party Central Committee, the circular says. Enditem
BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The Ministry of Public Security today issued a notice prohibiting all activities in support of Falun Gong, which was termed illegal and has been banned. Earlier today, the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued a decision banning the Research Society of Falun Dafa and the Falun Gong organization under its control after judging them to be illegal. The Ministry of Public Security in its notice prohibits anyone from hanging up or posting any scrolls, pictures, insignias or other signs in any place that publicize Falun Dafa or Falun Gong. The notice says that no one is allowed to distribute books and other publications, audiovisual materials or any other propaganda products in any place publicizing Falun Dafa. The ministry also prohibits anyone from rallying people to "practice Falun Gong in groups," "publicize Falun Dafa," or carry out any other activities to propagate Falun Gong. The ministry prohibits activities that support or publicize Falun Dafa such as holding gatherings, parades, or demonstrations in the form of sit-ins, or by appealing to higher authorities for help. The notice prohibits all activities that incite disturbances of public order by creating fabrications and distortions of fact, intentionally spreading rumors, or by any other means. The ministry also bans anyone from organizing, establishing ties for, or conducting any activities which resist related government decisions. Any violation of these aforementioned regulations will be pursued for criminal liability or given administrative punishment according to the degree of seriousness of each case, the notice says. Enditem
BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Facts have demonstrated that Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong, is in fact an evil figure who, by deceiving, has been seriously disrupting social order and sabotaging the hard-earned social stability. Li, 47, is also accused of establishing illegal organizations to erode and harm people in body and soul using fraudulent methods. Li was born on July 7, 1952 in the city of Gongzhuling (formerly Gongzhuling Town of Huaide County) in northeast China's Jilin Province. He studied at primary and junior high middle schools in Changchun, the provincial capital, between 1960 and 1969. From 1970 to 1978, he first worked at an army stud farm, and then acted as a trumpet player at a forest police unit in Jilin Province and afterwards served as an attendant at a hotel attached to the same police unit. In 1982 he was transferred to civilian work and became a worker at the security department of the Changchun Cereals Company. In 1991 he quit this job and became involved in the practice of Qi Gong. In May 1992 he began teaching and propagating Falun Gong. On his fabricated resume, Li proclaimed that he was enlightened by Buddhist and Taoist masters when he was a child, and that they had raised his power to a high level. He also claimed that he possesses supernatural power. He even changed his date of birth to make it coincide with the birthday of Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, in an attempt to show that he was the "reincarnation of Sakyamuni." In fact, Li didn't begin learning Qi Gong until 1988. Based on the doctrines of two Qi Gong forms, and by emulating certain styles of foreign dances, Li pieced together Falun Gong. The "experiences" he has boasted of are sheer fabrications and outrageous lies. Li set up the Research Society of Falun Dafa in Beijing and proclaimed himself as the "president", shortly after the concoction of Falun Gong in 1992. Since then, he has established 39 general teaching centers with more than 1,900 instruction stations and more than 28,000 exercise spots in different provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities. Thus, a complete and systematic organization was formed. At the same time, he drew up a series of rules and regulations which standardized and institutionalized Falun Gong and its activities. This tightly constructed system has enabled Li to enforce his orders and instructions in a timely manner. The Research Society of Falun Dafa and its teaching stations periodically or irregularly held various mass activities, and they have several times created plots and instigated a certain number of Falun Gong followers to besiege and attack some media and publication units and Party and government departments, seriously affecting people's normal activities and social order in these institutions, and disrupting the country's hard-won stability. All these facts show that Falun Gong is a highly organized, fully functional, and unregistered illegal organization headed by Li Hongzhi. Li Hongzhi has taken advantage of Falun Gong to amass huge amount of money and evaded large sum of taxes. When he began to "spread Falun Gong", Li collected "benevolent money" from his followers in the name of curing diseases. In 1993 and 1994 alone, Li Hongzhi collected 1.217 million yuan by giving courses and selling books, according to incomplete statistics. With this money Li purchased luxury residences and expensive cars in Beijing and Changchun under the names of his relatives. On April 25 this year, more than 10,000 Falun Gong followers gathered outside Zhongnanhai, the compound housing the headquarters of the Communist Party of China Central Committee in downtown Beijing, seriously disrupting social order and affecting people's daily lives in this area, and creating an extremely harmful impact at home and abroad. After this incident, Li lied to the international media when he said, "I knew nothing about it beforehand." In fact, Li Hongzhi flew into China on April 22 and stayed in Beijing for 44 hours. On the second day of his entry, the gathering of Falun Gong followers at the Tianjin Normal University escalated. On the morning of April 24, while Li was still in China, many Falun Gong centers received a notice calling on followers to "collectively practice Falun Gong" outside Zhongnanhai. When the "April 25 Incident" took place, Li Hongzhi was in Hong Kong. Li's evil instructions and fallacious ideas are extremely harmful. According to Li, practicing Falun Gong will enable the human spirit to exist forever and help people enter a heavenly paradise. He has proclaimed that diseases are punishments for the debts a person owed in his previous life, and those who oppose Falun Gong are "demons." Cheated and hoodwinked by Li's malicious fallacy, some followers refused to go to the hospital for medical treatment when they became ill, and a number of them died as a result. Some people committed suicide or became psychopathic after practicing Falun Gong, and others even turned into cold-blood killers. There are numerous cases demonstrating the disastrous effects of Falun Gong. Enditem
BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong, is not the "highest Buddha" who brings salvation to suffering people, but an evil person who has had an extremely disastrous effect on society. Li was born in the city of Gongzhuling in China's Jilin Province on July 7, 1952. He went to primary and junior high school in Changchun, the provincial capital, from 1960 to 1969. From 1970 to 1978, he worked on a People's Liberation Army stud farm and then as a trumpet player in a band. From 1978 to 1982, he worked as an attendant at a guest house. Li was discharged from military service in 1982 and went to work in the security department of the Changchun City Cereals And Oil Company. In 1991, he quit this job and began practicing "Qigong", a form of martial arts that combines meditation and breathing techniques and is believed to tap the practitioner's inner strength. In May, 1992, Li started to teach Falun Gong. In a resume he prepared in 1993, Li claimed that he had started learning a special form of Qigong in childhood from a Buddhist master, Quanjue, and completed his training at the age of 8, and that a Taoist immortal, Baji, discovered him when he was 12 and taught him Taoist practices. Then, in 1972, he learned the essence of Taoism from a master, Zhendaozi, and in 1974 started to study Buddhism from another Buddhist master until he entered public life. Li also claims that he has supernatural abilities like the ability to move objects, control thinking, and make himself invisible and that he understands the truth of the universe and has insights into life and can see the past and future. On September 24, 1994, Li changed his date of birth from July 7, 1952 to May 13, 1951 and acquired a new ID card. On the Chinese lunar calendar, May 13, is the birthday of Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, so by changing his birthday Li could pretend that he is a reincarnation of Sakyamuni. However, Li's family members, relatives, neighbors, former schoolmates, teachers, leaders, and fellow servicemen say that they believe Li is just an ordinary person and that his so-called Qigong learning and miraculous abilities were "nonsense" or "impossible" or something they'd never seen. His only talent in childhood, many said, was the ability to play the trumpet. Li actually did not start learning Qigong until 1988, under a master named Li Weidong, with whom he studied Chanmi Gong. He then went on to study Jiugongbagua Gong from another master, Yu Guangsheng. Using these two forms of Qigong, with some movements from Thai dance that he got from a visit to Thailand thrown in, he came up with Falun Gong. Li's resume consists of nothing but fabrication and outrageous lies. After founding Falun Gong in 1992, Li established the Research Society of Falun Dafa in Beijing and made himself president. Following that, he set up 39 Falun Gong teaching centers in various provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities in China, which in turn had more than 1,900 places of instruction and more than 28,000 group exercise areas. The Research Society of Falun Dafa manages all affairs of the teaching centers and rules on the setup of any Falun Gong organizations, with the power to appoint or remove their major leaders. Li and the research society also make rules and regulations for all Falun Gong activities. Since May this year, Falun Gong practitioners in China have received instructions from Li, who is living abroad, in the form of "scriptures". Because of the Falun organization, instructions spread very fast and have an evil influence on a large number of people. "The Research Society of Falun Dafa" and general instruction stations organize large-scale activities to "spread the Falun word and to exchange experiences and hold various celebrations and commemoration ceremonies". On several occasions, when they were dissatisfied with news reports and articles that exposed the dark secrets of Falun Gong or when government departments banned books and audio-video products preaching the Falun word, they organized their members to besiege some news organizations, publishers, or Party and government departments, disrupting the normal work and social order and undermining the hard-won social stability. Falun Gong is an illegal organization with no official registration status, but with a tight system. In spreading the Falun Gong word, Li cast himself up as the "highest Buddha" who has transcended all secular desires. But, in real life he displays an enormous greed. In the early years of "spreading Falun Gong," Li attracted followers by supposedly curing their ailments and helping them improve their health. There was a special "donation box" at his home and he instructed with a hint his assistants to tell every patient to donate at least 100 yuan for every visit. Li also collected a large amount of money from training classes. From 1993 to 1994, he was reported to have earned 428,300 yuan in Changchun from teaching Falun exercises and from book sales. At the same time, he earned another 789,000 yuan in other parts of China from classes. Li also publishes a large number of books, cassette tapes, video tapes, and video CDs with his teachings and sells them to Falun practitioners for 300 yuan a set. He has encouraged people to believe that his photo and "Falun emblems" with his image can have a "miraculous and inspirational effect" and encourages people to buy them. In recent years, he has come up with new Falun products like special clothing and cushions for Falun practitioners and has reissued his books in a deluxe edition that sells at a higher price. Investigators have found that Li has several luxury houses and limousines in Beijing and Changchun in his relatives names and, through the Falun Gong, he has got a large fortune on which he has not paid taxes. On April 25, more than 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered outside Zhongnanhai, the government compound in Beijing, seriously disrupting public order, with a malignant effect. Li told foreign correspondents that he had known nothing about it in advance and that he was on his way from the United States to Australia at the time. He said that he didn't learn about the incident until he was in Brisbane. However, it has been proven that Li was in Beijing the day before the incident. On April 19, "Teenager Science-Technology Outlook", a Tianjin Normal University magazine, contained an article entitled "I'm Opposed To Qigong Practice By Teenagers" by Professor He Zuoxiu, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Some Falun Gong practitioners in Tianjin took offense at the article and staged a silent protest at the university. By April 22, there were more than 3,000 of them. Li flew back to China on Northwest Airlines Flight 087, entering Beijing at 5:35 p.m. on April 22, then, after a stay of 44 hours, left in a hurry for Hong Kong at 1:30 p.m. on April 24 on Air China Flight 109. On April 23, the day after he entered China, the number of Falun Gong practitioners at Tianjin Normal University swelled to more than 6,300. By the morning of April 24, while Li was still in Beijing, Falun group exercise sites around Beijing had received notices that practitioners were to go to Zhongnanhai for a "group exercise". By the time more than 10,000 exercisers showed up at Zhongnanhai on April 25, Li was in Hong Kong. He didn't leave Hong Kong for Brisbane until 10:15 p.m. on April 27. In his book "Zhuanfalun (Turn the Wheel of Law)" and in several of his "sermons", Li has said that there is a white material called "de" (morality) with an opposite side that is dark, called "ye" (evil). By practicing Falun Gong, he says, people can be helped by the Falun (Wheel of Law) and improve their "de" and reduce the "ye force" and purify their bodies and achieve enlightenment and immortality. Practitioners can ultimately attain "salvation and reach the heavenly kingdom," or paradise. Li also speaks of karma, or predetermination, and says that illness and other suffering is "retribution for evil deeds one has done in the past or in a past life, and that by enduring this suffering one can repay his or her evil debt." He says that anyone who believes in and practices Falun Gong doesn't need to take medicine to cure disease. Li has criticized people who try to persuade others not to practice Falun Gong, calling them "demons" and saying that they have harmed the Falun Dafa and have prevented people from attaining "salvation". As a result of Li's malicious fallacies and deceptive behavior, some Falun practitioners have refused to go to hospital or take medicine for their diseases, and some have lost their lives because of a lack of treatment. Some have committed suicide or lost their sanity after practicing Falun Gong, and a few have become homicidal. Li is not bringing salvation to practitioners, but is in fact leading them to a disastrous and miserable end, and Falun Gong is doing enormous harm to both the mental and physical health of people. Enditem
BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Cases of dire consequences caused by Falun Gong to the psychological and physical health of people are innumerable, according to facts collected by certain departments. Serious results have been reported, including sickness, handicaps, and even death from the practice of Falun Gong. Since beginning the practice of Falun Gong, many people have lost their appetites, some appeared to be disorganized in words and behavior, and some became paranoid. Still others found themselves suffering from hallucinations. A number of people jumped into rivers or off buildings, or killed themselves in other ways. Some even cruelly injured or killed relatives and friends. Ma Jianmin, a retired worker from the Huabei Oilfield in north China, was often in a trance and became distraught after two years of practicing Falun Gong. Ma insisted that he had a "wheel of law" in his stomach. Then, one day in 1998, Ma died at home after he cut his abdomen with a pair of scissors to look for the so-called wheel of law. Official Gao Encheng, who became a leader of a Falun Gong practicing group in Kaixian County of Chongqing Municipality in southwest China, got the idea that he had become an "immortal." Gao killed himself by jumping off a building while holding his son in his arms. Bai Changyu, a section chief geologist at a coal mine in northeast China's Fushun City, refused to see doctor or take any medicine when he was sick after he began practicing Falun Gong in 1997. Bai became seriously ill in April 1999, but still refused medical treatment until he finally died, still holding the belief that Li Hongzhi would come to help him. Liu Pinqing was a senior agronomist who had won a top prize given by the Ministry of Agriculture. Liu, however, became abnormal after practicing Falun Gong. He said many times that his master Li Hongzhi asked him to burn himself so as to become a buddha. Liu attempted to burn himself to death on February 4, 1999, at home by revolving open the gas valve. He finally committed suicide two months later by jumping into a well. Li Ting, a graduate student from a junior middle school under the age of 18, killed his parents with a dagger on March 20. Li, inquisited, said that after two years of practicing Falun Gong, he believed that his parents were demons while he himself a Buddha. "So I got rid of the two demons," Li said. Wu Deqiao, 36, a clerk with Wujiang supply and marketing cooperative in east China's Jiangsu Province, became a practitioner of Falun Gong in February, 1998. He then felt that he had become a Buddha, and women around would affect his practice. Wu chopped his wife to death with a kitchen knife when she tried to stop him from practicing any more. According to initial statistics, two madhouses alone in Beijing received six patients who became lunatic due to practice of Falun Gong in 1996. The number of such patients increased to 10 in 1997, 22 in 1998, and 16 during the first half of 1999. The perniciousness of Falun Gong has waken up many victims and their families. A female worker surnamed Jiang wanted to beautify herself by practicing Falun Gong. She attempted to kill herself, however, when she became a paranoid later. Jiang recovered after she was compelled by her family members to receive medical treatment. "I'll never practice that Falun Gong any more," vowed Jiang with resentment. Retired worker Zhang Yuqin, who had become infatuated with practice of Falun Gong, killed herself in 1998. "Falun Gong broke my family, and I ask Li Hongzhi and Falun Gong to be punished and banned, " said Lu Xingchong, Zhang's husband. Enditem
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