On July 22, 1999 the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs declared the Research Society of Falun Dafa, an organization founded and chaired by Li Hongzhi, illegal. Following this announcement the Chinese Ministry of Public Security issued a notice prohibiting all public activities propagating and supporting the Falun Gong. The notice read:
• No-one may hang or post in any place streamers, pictures, insignias or other signs that advertise Falun Dafa (Falun Gong).
• No-one may distribute in any place books, magazines, audio and video products, and any other propaganda materials that advertise Falun Dafa (Falun Gong).
• No-one may assemble in any place for promoting Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) activities, such as "synthesizing energy" or "fostering the Falun law."
• Activities, such as assemblies, parades, and demonstrations held in the form of sitting in and submitting petitions, for the purpose of protecting and advertising Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) are prohibited.
• All forms of activities of inciting the public to disturb social order through fabricating and distorting facts, or spreading rumours deliberately, are prohibited.
• No-one may organize, link up, and command activities of contesting relevant government decisions.
Any person violating these regulations will be disciplined or punished according to the law the notice declared. 1
Religious freedom has been at the center of human rights dialogue between western democracies and China. In recent years much of that attention has shifted to China's crack down on the Falun Gong which has been called a human rights violation. In response the Chinese government argues that the Falun Gong threatened the lives of its own members, public health, public order and violated the rights of others. Thus, its ban was legitimate.
Amnesty International admits that international laws do permit restrictions on freedom of expression, the right to form associations and religious freedom. But "such restrictions must be 'provided by law,' must be 'necessary,' and must be in pursuance of a 'legitimate' objective, such as the protection of national security, public order, or public health or morals."2 But the ban of the Falun Gong meets none of those requirements, Amnesty International contends.
The justification provided by the Chinese government has been ignored and discounted by western human rights groups, media and politicians. In the West the Chinese government has the image of a tyrant. It's human nature to conclude "once a villain, always a villain." Nevertheless, the story behind the ban needs to be told.
The death of 1,404 practitioners and Falun Gong's threat to pubic health
Master Li and the Falun Gong organization were held responsible for the deaths of 1,404 practitioners occurring between May, 1992 and July, 1999. Of these deaths, 1,218 died as a result of refusing needed medical treatment, 37 died while practicing the exercises, 109 committed suicide and 40 died of unidentified causes.3 The Chinese government charged that Falun Gong's advocacy and practice of abandoning medical treatment endangered the physical and mental health of Falun Gong practitioners as well as public health.
We know that Master Li claims to have the power to cure the sicknesses of his followers and by using psychological manipulation he persuades his followers to stop seeking medical help. But how creditable are the Chinese government's claims? If we can confirm these 1,404 people were Falun Gong practitioners who died following Li's teachings, if we can show that Li was aware of the grave danger of abandoning medical treatment, yet still promoted it, then the government's concern is justified and its charge is valid.
The first documentation of deaths of Falun Gong practitioners was the "Exposé of the Swindler Li Hongzhi" written by Li's earliest followers in 1994. In Chanchun City alone, the Exposé documented many ills among practitioners: seven died, one went into a coma, three fell unconscious during their exercises and one became psychotic. These ills occurred during the first two years of the Falun Gong's existence in Changchun city; the names and work places of these practitioners were provided for verification.4 Five years before the Chinese government made its charges, this Exposé accused Master Li of endangering the health and life of his followers by urging them to substitute needed medical treatments with his supernatural healing power.
In addition to the cases reported by the Exposé, testimonials written by Falun Gong practitioners published on the Falun Gong's own website also validate some cases. Jin Youming, the daughter of Ma Jinxiu whose death was one of the 1,404 cases reported by the Chinese government, believed her mother's death was not the responsibility of Master Li and the Falun Gong. In her account, her mother had been diabetic for sixteen years before joining the Falun Gong in 1996 and she had been taking "more than 30 prescribed pills daily." Shortly after picking up the Falun Gong, "my mother's health improved miraculously," Ms. Jin says; as a result "she stopped taking medicine." Then in the middle of 1997, Ma's condition suddenly deteriorated. She was taken to the hospital where she later died. Ms. Jin argues that before her mother's death she was treated in the hospital therefore "the problem of refusing medical treatment" did not occur.5
By Ms. Jin's own observation her mother did abandon medical treatment after joining the Falun Gong and her health deteriorated while she was not taking needed medicine. As is generally recognized, diabetes is a chronic illness which requires ongoing medical care in order "to reduce the risk of long-term complications."6 A recent study shows that it can be deadly to quit taking drugs for heart disease or diabetes.7 Thus, ironically, Ms. Jin's rebuttal verifies the government's claim - the Falun Gong advocates abandonment of medical treatment and Ms. Jin's mother died prematurely in following this belief.
Although some of the 1,404 deaths can be confirmed by Falun Gong practitioners, it is impossible to independently verify every one of them without the help of the Chinese government. However, such verification is unnecessary because neither the Falun Gong nor Li himself deny their status as Falun Gong practitioners. The day after the announcement of the ban, Li in New York issued a statement responding to the charges against him. In a carefully crafted response he stated:
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 against them learning 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?8
Li has made giving up medical treatment an "enlightenment quality" that his followers should strive for, yet he always denies it in public. Does Li define for his recruiters' edification what exactly constitutes a "terminally ill" or "critically ill" patient? He doesn't. His argument is simply a pretext to rid himself of responsibility.
Li was aware of the sudden deaths of his followers, but he gave different explanations. In 1995, in the first of his two directives that addressed the issue, Li characterized the sudden deaths of practitioners as a "prominent problem" and explained its "real" cause:
At present there is a prominent problem: When some students' Primordial Spirits leave their bodies, they see or come into contact with certain dimensions at certain levels. Feeling that it is so wonderful and that everything there truly exists, they don't want to return. This has resulted in the death of their flesh bodies…I have addressed this problem before… So when your Primordial Spirit goes out, no matter how wonderful you find those places, you must return.9
A normal Qigong exercise group or a legitimate religion would not have to come up with this kind of excuse for the deaths of their members. But Li needed such a bizarre explanation because he claimed to have the divine power to heal and protect his followers. He could not afford to have his followers attribute their colleagues' sudden deaths to illness or infirmity. A year later, Li again talked about the sudden deaths of practitioners, but this time he characterized it as the dire consequence of altering his teachings. He warned: "Did you know that in recent years some students suddenly died? Some of them died precisely because they did such things."10
Regardless of how Li rationalizes these deaths the fact that Falun Gong practitioners who abandoned needed medical treatment have died suddenly and prematurely over the years is a fact verified by his critics, his followers and his own words.
Is Li aware of the dire consequences of abandoning medical treatments when sick? The government believes he is. The medical record of Li's own family has been presented to the public. This record shows that from 1982 to 1992, when Li worked for the state-owned Changchun Grain and Oil Supply Company, he had 73 medical expense reimbursements from the government, 48 of which were for treatments he himself received.11 On July 8, 1984, Li had an operation for acute appendicitis in Jilin City People's hospital. He was released on July 18; his doctor was Yingjie Li.12
With this information it was clear to the Chinese government that Li is a swindler and the Falun Gong is a fraud. Li's government critics attribute his advocacy of abandonment of medical treatment as a control mechanism. By indoctrinating his followers to depend on him for their very health, their very lives, Li can gain complete control over them. And, as a matter of a fact, Li has threatened those who disobey him with the return of their sicknesses: "Your body will be reset to the level of everyday people and the bad things will be returned to you."13 Once a practitioner loses Li's protection, her body will return to its initial state, resulting in the return of sickness and sin.
Li refuted the Chinese government's claim. In an interview with Newsday, the then forty-seven year old Master proclaimed: "I have never been to hospitals, never been ill."14 However, Li has failed to provide any evidence to back his rebuttal. This evidence could be physical examination that shows his perfect health, his scar less belly and an appendix that is still in him. Without any evidence we can conclude with common sense that Li did receive medical treatment and he might still be seeking medical treatment in secret. Li has been called a swindler. Yet he can be also called a cruel manipulator and even a cold-blooded murder for putting those people who trust him into painful and life threatening situations.
How many Falun Gong practitioners have been manipulated into adopting this dangerous practice and to what degree do they jeopardize public health? The Falun Gong's own health surveys contribute to the answer. A survey conducted on October 18, 1998 in Beijing revealed alarming information - "418 [polled practitioners] had zero medical expenses after practice." The average annual medical expenses for the total 584 practitioners polled was reduced from roughly 3,500 RMB ($ 437.00) to only 70 RMB ($ 8.75). The practitioners were categorized according to illness. In the largest group, 225 out of 274 practitioners with cardiovascular system illnesses reported totally stopping their medical treatments. In a smaller group suffering from endocrine disorders (diabetes, hyperthyroidism, etc.) 26 out of 33 practitioners had totally stopped their medical treatment.15
Two important points need to be made here: 1) these Falun Gong practitioners were not poor people who could not afford treatment; they had received medical care before they were indoctrinated in the Falun Gong. 69.2% of practitioners in this survey were fifty-one and older, who had worked under China's old socialistic system and therefore were entitled to a sizable or full amount of medical expense reimbursement from the government. 2) Practitioners in affluent western countries have also adopted the dangerous practice of abandoning medical treatment. Dr. Palmer from Canada notes that "within the Falun Gong community there is considerable social pressure on practitioners to abandon conventional medicine."16 And this author's parents in the United States, who have medical insurance, refused needed medical treatments when seriously ill.17
An estimate of the population in the Falun Gong that refuses medical treatment can be calculated with the information provided by the October 18, 1998 survey. A simple calculation finds that 72% of practitioners in this survey refused medical treatment. Extrapolating this percentage to the entire government-estimated Falun Gong membership of 2.2 million in China in 1999, the number of practitioners refusing medical treatment comes to an alarming 1,584,000! If the actual membership is higher than the government's estimation, as many believe, then this number is actually much higher. With so many of its citizens neglecting their illnesses and spreading this dangerous practice, China's public health authorities were alarmed.
Despite its recent economic success, China is still a poor developing country with overcrowded cities and over 800 million peasants in rural areas served by a dilapidated medical system. The Chinese government has been at work to put infectious disease like tuberculosis and hepatitis B which have ravaged people's lives under control. In 1991 the government and the World Bank implemented a project to provide free medical treatment to fight tuberculosis which had infected 1.2 million Chinese each year. The project was a big success. In the 13 provinces implementing the project between 1991 to 2000, the tuberculosis infection rate "fell by 37% more than in other areas of the country" the WHO reports.18 China's pubic health authorities had good reason to regard the Falun Gong as a serious threat to their work.
The scariest and deadliest infectious disease that broke out in China and spread elsewhere in recent years was Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), caused by a deadly virus strong enough to live up to 24 hours outside of the human body and transmissible by air. In 2003, it contaminated 7,864 people and killed 643 in days, worldwide. Many of its victims were medical professionals - nurses and doctors - who were at the front line battling this virus. China, where the main battle took place, suffered the heaviest casualty - 580 lives.
The ban of the Falun Gong in 1999 might have saved China and even the world from a pandemic. To understand how the Falun Gong could have jeopardized the containment of SARS, we need to first understand the containment of the deadly virus and the group's position on SARS.
Without a known cure, the only hope for survival and for containment of the deadly virus was early detection and quarantine. All those infected, as well as all who had close contact with them within a two-week period, had to be quarantined. Beijing had 2,521 probable cases and 30,178 people were quarantined.
While SARS was contaminating thousands, killing hundreds, and frightening world health professionals, while doctors and nurses risked their own lives to help the infected, Master Li called the SARS "heaven punishing people!" On April 20, 2003 Li made the following statement at a Falun Gong conference in New York predicting a worldwide pandemic.
You must have seen the epidemic that's come along in China now, right? Hasn't a huge epidemic arrived? To put it in human terms, it's Heaven punishing people. What it's targeting, we Dafa disciples know full well: it's targeting those who don't deserve to be saved,… This is the first round of cleansing… People find it scary, but in fact, the truly horrible thing hasn't begun yet. This isn't the real, big cleansing when the Fa starts to rectify the human world. It'll be even more horrifying when that big cleansing arrives, and it'll target the entire world… Wait and see, this is going to be an eventful year. A lot is going to happen.19
Li's statement leaves little to the imagination: a catastrophic SARS pandemic is good, victims of SARS are evil and deserve to die, Falun Gong practitioners - the only people who are truly righteous - will be saved. He also used SARS to remind followers about the Falun Gong Judgment Day, a psychological device used to scare his followers into obedience.
While Li was excited about the possible mass die-off, one of his faithful followers, Dr. Lili Feng, an associate professor from the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, assured her fellow practitioners that they had the power to resist and contain SARS. Her statement was published in a Falun Gong website on June 02, 2003.
A research experiment in our lab has discovered that many Falun Gong practitioners' immune systems demonstrate a type of two-directional, regulating ability. What does this mean? In their cases it means that when the immunoreactions become too high, they are automatically restrained, and when the immunoreactions are too low, they are automatically increased. It is this kind of a regulating function that acts as a safety valve for one's body to guard against viruses. Yet, the Chinese government has cracked down on the Falun Gong group. If the total of over 100 million initial Falun Gong practitioners in China had been allowed to keep up the practice of Falun Gong, they would have formed a gigantic, protective layer for Chinese society. They can protect more than just themselves. Why? If over 100 million Falun Gong practitioners had been allowed to practice Falun Gong, they would have been able to resist the SARS virus, stop the SARS virus from being transmitted through them, and form a large immunity shield, which could protect more vulnerable people in China. This is the saddest thing for me and brings me to something I must emphasize. What I want to say is this: persecuting Falun Gong is the most evil and foolish act. While this plague prevails over China, what we need most are those people with resistance to the SARS virus.20
It's amazing how medical scientists with credentials like hers can make such nonsensical statements. It is a testament to the power of Falun Gong's brainwashing techniques. With the Master's revelation and Dr. Feng's assurance, practitioners in and outside of China truly believed that they were immune to SARS.21 While the government struggled to put SARS under control some practitioners in China organized a campaign to promote the Falun Gong. "The SARS outbreak in China was a warning to those who persecute and hate the Falun Dafa," they claimed and "people who practice Falun Gong will not contract SARS."22 The Chinese government arrested 180 practitioners.
Considering the power of this deadly virus - the hundred plus deaths and the thousand plus cases of SARS in Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam and Canada can all be traced back to one infected person23 - if the Falun Gong had continued to thrive into 2003, it would certainly have created a SARS pandemic. How many more millions of practitioners would have been there if its geometric growth was unchecked? Even if just one practitioner who did not believe in medical treatment was infected, it would have allowed the SARS virus to break through all epidemiological defenses and spread to the general population. This practitioner would not have reported the symptoms, cooperated with medical authorities, or observed the quarantine. Instead she would have spread this deadly virus to fellow practitioners in group practices and studies, who would have spread it to their acquaintance, families and co-workers thus creating a catastrophe in China. They could also have spread SARS to other countries, especially the United States, which has the largest group of practitioners outside of China. This is not a far-fetched scenario. And if so, Li would proudly have proclaimed himself a prophet.
One of the Chinese government's major justifications for banning the Falun Gong was its fear that the group's belief and practice in abandoning medical treatment endangered the health of both practitioners and the public. The deaths of 1,404 practitioners provided sound evidence, as did Falun Gong teaching and health surveys and testimonials of practitioners. The ban was "necessary" to save lives and was in pursuance of a "legitimate" objective.
Some human rights activists who are aware of Falun Gong's practice of refusing medical treatment argue that the state has no right to restrict an individual's liberty for his or her own good. In other words, Falun Gong practitioners have the right to get sick and resist medical treatment. These people have overlooked an important point: practitioners cannot be said to have made a rational choice in the matter. Free choice implies that the chooser has access to enough information to make a rational choice. But practitioners are lied to in recruitment and brainwashed by this cult. The fact that Li and the Falun Gong constantly deny the existence of the teaching and practice of abandoning medical treatment in public - while leading their followers to believe the opposite in private - clearly shows this deception. Also, the ban does not force practitioers to take medical treatment, it only prohibits practitioners from spreading this dangerous practice.
Perhaps the following analogy will be useful: a company being charged for selling counterfeit drugs that kill defends itself by arguing that its customers "willingly" paid for such drugs without anyone holding them at gun point. Therefore, the defendant insists, the government should not punish them even though the drugs they sell kill.
Another argument from the same people is that groups which promote faith healing such as Christian Science are legal in the United States and other western democracies, therefore the Falun Gong should not be banned in China for similar practices. This argument fails to acknowledge the differences between such groups. Christian Science, for example, attributes healing to God, but the Falun Gong holds that Master Li - himself the recipient of medical treatment - is the source of the power to heal. Christian Science is open about its faith-healing; therefore, members know about its beliefs before they choose to join this religion. The Falun Gong cult deceives in public and brainwashes people in private. Further more, Christian Science is much smaller than the Falun Gong was in 1999.
People who equate Christian Science to the Falun Gong to justify their objection to the ban fail to consider the cultural differences between the West and China. Faith-healing has been a part of western culture for a thousand plus years but it is not found in the Chinese culture. None of China's religions - Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism - claim their gods and leaders have the power to heal. Westerners have the right to believe that groups promoting faith-healing should not be banned in their country, but if they respect the principle of self-determination they should acknowledge that the Chinese people also have the right to believe that cults like the Falun Gong be banned in their country. In any case, the Chinese government has the right to take action to protect its society and citizens as long as these actions do not violate international human rights laws and Chinese laws.
International human rights laws such as the United Nation's "International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights" and the "Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief" permit limitations on freedom of religion or belief under certain circumstances. These human rights laws call for the protection of freedom of thought, conscience and religion, but they also both include the following clause: "Freedom to manifest one's religion or beliefs may be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health, or morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others."
Religious fanaticism can threaten human rights and the well being of societies; numerous religious persecutions and wars that took place in the history have proven this point. International human rights laws stipulate that everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion on a personal level. In other words everyone should have the right to believe whatever they want to believe no matter how crazy that belief might be. However, when manifestation of this belief threatens "public safety, order, health, or morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others," government can lawfully restrict the manifestation of this belief.
In the case of the Falun Gong, the notice issued by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security prohibits practitioners from manifesting their beliefs - they are not allowed to hold practices, studies and meetings in public nor are they allowed to distribute banners and pamphlets in public which promote and support the Falun Gong. But the notice does not demand practitioners to give up their beliefs. The Chinese government's action is in accord with the International human rights laws.
