I think Falun Gong is dodgy. It is a strange cult and the leader, Li Hongzhi, is insane. And not just ordinary insane, but the manipulative, scary insane that characterises all effective cult leaders. He tells people to fight against China without regard for their own lives and they do it.
Falun Gong appears to be advised now by a fellow called Robert Helvey. He was previously involved with with anti-government groups in Myanmar and Yugoslavia. He's the president of the Albert Einstein Instititue which "[is] committed to the defense of freedom, democracy, and the reduction of political violence through the use of nonviolent action."
I'm pretty sure I don't like the US government funding any sort of attempts to overthrow foreign governments. Even if they are non-violent. I mostly feel this way because I think a preference for capitalism rather than a preference for democracy motivates the US in these sorts of things. And partly because every time the US goes anywhere they fuck things up. I wonder if the Falun Gong leaders want the unrestricted right to control people's lives, more than they want a stable nation. And I wonder if that led them to decided that they had quite a lot in common with the US. In China, Falun Gong appear end up accounting for most of the human rights abuses perpetrated by the government. So there is a strange cycle perpetuated, where the only reason they are opposed to the government is because they are being abused (supposedly) and the only reason they are abused is because they are opposed to the government. If Falun Gong truly were only interested in stopping the abuse, and had no interest in overthrowing the Chinese government, then it strikes me that there is a fairly simple way of ending the abuse. They can stop opposing the government. I'm not saying that is the right thing to do, because I'm not sure if the current Chinese government deserves to be in power. Maybe there is a role for non-violent struggle against a government like that.
Even if there is a role, I'm very much opposed to the idea of camouflaging political aspirations with spirituality and Amnesty reports. Falun Gong are not harmless. They are non-violent but they are not harmless. Which is the whole point of non-violent action. I started reading about this stuff because the whole issue wasn't adding up. I couldn't understand why the Chinese government hated Falun Gong so intensely. Because they present themselves as harmless victims. I think I understand now why the government hates them, and that is because Falun Gong is a real threat to their existence. Non-violent action does work and has overthrow governments.
(Fatvegan.com, May 5, 2007)
Original text from: http://fatvegan.com/2007/05/05/falun-gong/
