People from all walks of life denounced the pseudoscience Falun Gong yesterday and called for an extended publicity drive to promote science.
Scientists yesterday issued a joint statement denouncing the Falun Gong and pledged to refute its fallacies with science.
The statement, read aloud during a forum by Zhu Lilan, minister of Science and Technology, asked those working in the field of scientific research to "play a leading role in promoting science, popularizing scientific knowledge, and in opposing superstition and pseudoscience."
Scientific researchers themselves should not take part in any kind of anti-scientific or pseudoscientific activities, nor should they support or popularize hypotheses not yet proven by science, said the statement.
It also prohibited scientific and technological institutions from assisting anti-scientific and pseudoscientific activities, especially those related to Falun Gong, such as providing equipment or conducting so-called "scientific appraisals" or "scientific research."
The statement, initiated by the Ministry of Science and Technology, four major scientific research institutions and Science and Technology Daily, called on scientists to refute the "theories" of the Falun Gong, which are against science and common sense.
More than 40 renowned scientists attended the forum, terming the Falun Gong a kind of "anti-science" and "pseudoscience."
Lu Yongxiang, president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the battle between science and pseudoscience is a long and winding one.
"Scientists should be the avant-garde in popularizing scientific knowledge and advocating the scientific spirit," said Lu.
Lu was joined by other participants, who called for enhancing promotion of popular science.
"It is not only scientific knowledge that we should teach the public," said Gu Fangzhou, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Medicine, "but also a scientific spirit and method in handling things."
Pharmaceutists gathered in Beijing yesterday to expose harms brought by Falun Gong from a medical perspective.
"It is against science that Li Hongzhi and his Falun Gong ask followers not to take medicines to treat illnesses," said Du Guiyou, a professor with Chinese Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Other pharmaceutists attending the discussion organized by the State Drug Administration agreed that Chinese qigong can help keep people fit, however, it is not "all mighty" as Li Hongzhi described his Falun Dafa.
Sun Yunxiao, deputy director of China Youth and Children Research Centre, said that Falun Gong organizations are doing great harm to State security and the physical and psychological health of the people.
"It is an adverse current against the knowledge-based economy and poses a threat to the future of human beings," Sun said.
"Compared with a foundation of superstition, the promotion of science and technology in China is far from being satisfactory," Sun said.
Model workers and representatives from trade unions participated yesterday in a separate symposium on the ban.
The ban is in accordance with the fundamental interests of all Chinese people, including the working class, said Zhang Junjiu, vice-chairman of the All China Federation of Trade Unions.
It reflects the will and demand of country's workers, Zhang added.
In Yunnan, a leading person in charge of spreading Falun Gong in the area announced yesterday that she had realized the damage the organization could cause society and has decided to break away from it.
In a letter to a local government official, 45-year-old Xu Xiaohua said she had been misled by the doctrines of Falun Gong which she thought could help improve people's health.
"Now it turns out to be a ridiculous fallacy, and I must dump it once and for all," she said.
Xu was reportedly the first high-ranking person of a local Falun Gong organization in China to denounce the organization since the government outlawed Falun Gong on Thursday.
(China Daily 07/24/99)
