Ying Rong wrote on 7 June: If you are not aware of this latest battle in the US, please read on. The world is intensely watching China, especially before the Bejing Olympics.
Mike Bonnie replies:
George W. Bush, Osama bin Laden and Li Hongzhi may well go down in the history books someday as the three most politically influential people of the 21st century. While much is publicized of the earlier two individuals, the later has yet to reach much of the mainstream headlines. Li Hongzhi is founder and leader of the internationally known apocalyptic cult Falun Gong (Falun Dafa). Secreted away with his family in Queens, New York, under U.S. protection, he and his organization have orchestrated protests throughout the world and a media campaign to discredit the Chinese government that rivals few.
Li's political agenda fits well with U.S. foreign policy toward China and the historic policy attempts to undermine governments from within. When it comes to theological devices, the effort for American and Chinese people will inevitably spell disaster.
While a great deal is known about Li Hongzhi, little is heard directly from him, outside of his highly secretive group. Li's claims have included being endowed with superhuman qualities: the ability to turn invisible, levitate from the ground, and save the world from total destruction. Samual Lou wrote, "[In] March, 2002, Li announced that 'no being knows who I am. Yet without me, the cosmos wouldn't exist,'" in *Exposing the Falun Gong* http://exposingthefalungong.org/
Li participated in an interview with *Time* magazine in the May 10, 1999 issue, during which he expressed the source of chaos in the world today--aliens from other planets.
*Time*: "In your book [*Zhuan Falun*] you talk about people levitating off the ground but you say that they should not show other people. Why is that?"
Li: "It is the same principle that Western gods in paradise should not be seen by ordinary mortals because they cannot understand its meaning."
*Time*: "Have you seen human beings levitate off the ground?"
Li: "I have known too many."
*Time*: "Can you describe any that you have known?"
Li: "David Copperfield. He can levitate and he did it during performances."
*Time*: "Why does chaos reign now?"
Li: "Of course there is not just one reason. The biggest cause of society's change today is that people no longer believe in orthodox religion. They go to church, but they no longer believe in God. They feel free to do anything. The second reason is that since the beginning of this century, aliens have begun to invade the human mind and its ideology and culture."
http://www.time.com/time/asia/asia/magazine/1999/990510/interview1.html
Also see:
http://www.time.com/time/asia/asia/magazine/1999/990510/opiate_of_the_masses1.html
Of course it must all be true. What else but this, because so many people are willing to take up the cause of defending Falun Gong on issues of religious persecution encouraged and supported by the Chinese including: torture, imprisonment and organ harvesting. Like so many photos of aliens from other planets and flying saucers, the facts of those allegations are grainy and out of focus. The broad sweeping accusations of Falun Gong practitioners fit a mold of a battle for the hearts and minds of China's largely poor and uneducated, as people struggle to come to grip with rapidly changing society. Due to its hidden sources of funding and influence Falun Gong rises to the top of a long list of deeply flawed beliefs.
Sarah Lubman, writing for the *San Jose Mercury News* on December 23, 2001 in "A Chinese Battle on U.S. Soil--Persecuted Group's Campaign Catches Politicians in the Middle":
"I think Falun Gong has been used as a tool by congressmen to extend pressure to the Chinese government, although some know it's a cult," said Wang Yunxiang, consul-general in San Francisco.
According to one veteran China-watcher, Orville Schell, the West's blind embrace of Falun Gong fits into a well-established pattern of viewing communist China in black-and-white terms, missing the complexities and nuances.
"This has been the tradition," said Schell, [former] dean of the journalism school at the University of California-Berkeley. "Anyone the Chinese government opposes gets lionized as righteous."
http://www.rickross.com/reference/fa_lun_gong/falun249.html
Original text from: http://waisworld.org/go.jsp?id=02a0&objectType=post&objectTypeId=15861&topicId=1
