Topic summary
Falun Gong
Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, is a new religious movement founded by Li Hongzhi in China in the early 1990s. The movement was built on interest in qigong with additional religious and moralistic dimensions. Central to Falun Gong is the concept of the "Fa", which Li describes as the Fundamental law of the universe that has existed for hundreds of millions of years. He claims to have developed abilities and insights that allowed him to understand and align with this law, and that he was the first person to reveal it to humanity. Falun Gong has its global headquarters in Dragon Springs, a 173-hectare (427-acre) compound in Deerpark, New York, United States, near the residence of Li.
Falun Gong emerged from the Qigong fever era in China in 1992, combining meditation, qigong exercises, and moral teachings rooted in Buddhist and Taoist traditions. Its central text, Zhuan Falun, also teaches that practitioners can develop supernatural abilities such as telepathy and clairvoyance. The movement is named after the "Falun" (Dharma Wheel), which according to Li's teachings, is a supernatural entity that he says he installs in practitioners' lower abdomen and is described as a spinning wheel. Adherents are taught that performing 5 exercises can keep the wheel rotating which the teaching says promotes health and eliminate disease. Li teaches that Falun Gong is the only means of truly curing diseases at their spiritual root, and characterizes that homosexuality, feminism, modern science, and conventional medicine as moral deviations incompatible with the Fa.
Falun Gong gained widespread popularity during the 90s largely due to many followers having reported that they had recovered from diseases that conventional Western medicine could not treat. Although initially supported by some government agencies in China, Falun Gong developed during a period of growing official scepticism toward qigong movements. From the early 1990s, Chinese authorities, scientists, and journalists increasingly criticized some qigong organisations and practices as "unscientific", as qigong research failed to produce unequivocal proof that it constituted a scientific field. Falun Gong's rapid growth and independence from state control later led several top officials in China to perceive it as a threat, resulting in periodic acts of harassment in the late 1990s. On 25 April 1999, over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered peacefully outside the central government compound in Beijing, seeking official recognition of the right to practice their faith without interference.
In July 1999, the government of China implemented a ban on Falun Gong, categorizing it as an "illegal organization". Mass arrests, widespread torture and abuses followed. In 2008, U.S. government reports cited estimates that as much as half of China's labor camp population was made up of Falun Gong practitioners. In 2009, human rights groups estimated that at least 2,000 Falun Gong practitioners had died from persecution by that time. Falun Gong practitioners also face systematic societal discrimination in employment, education, housing, and business opportunities. Prior to its 1999 ban on Falun Gong, the Chinese government estimated there were 70 million adherents. In 2009, Falun Gong sources estimated that tens of millions continue to practice privately. A 2017 Freedom House report estimated there were between 7 and 20 million practitioners in China at the time.
Led by Li Hongzhi, Falun Gong practitioners operate a variety of organizations in the United States and elsewhere, including the dance troupe Shen Yun. The Falun Gong also operates the Epoch Media Group, which is known for its subsidiaries, New Tang Dynasty Television and The Epoch Times newspaper. The latter has been broadly noted as a politically far-right media entity, and it has received significant attention in the United States for promoting conspiracy theories, such as QAnon and anti-vaccine misinformation, and producing advertisements for U.S. PresidentDonald Trump. It has also drawn attention in Europe for promoting far-right politicians, primarily in France and Germany. Scholars and the media have discussed Falun Gong's opposition to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as well as its views on homosexuality, feminism, race-mixing, modern science and medicine, and evolution, which critics have characterized as socially conservative or anti-scientific.