Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a cult that developed in certain parts of China in the early 1990s. Its leader Li Hongzhi promulgated heretical doctrines, claiming that practicing Falun Gong could strengthen the body, elevate moral standards, and lead to becoming an immortal or a Buddha. He deceived a large number of kind-hearted people into practicing Falun Gong in order to exert spiritual control over members, amass wealth, and fulfill his political ambitions.
Li Hongzhi’s doctrines are the main means of spiritual control over followers and the direct root of Falun Gong’s various harms and crimes. For example, he claimed that humanity had already been destroyed 81 times and that the Earth would explode soon, insisting that he could prevent the Earth’s explosion; he forbade Falun Gong adherents from practicing religion, claiming all religions mislead people, that everything in the world was arranged by him, and even that Hitler’s extermination of the Jews was the result of cosmic changes; he said illness is not illness and that medical treatment or medication should not be sought; he claimed that practicing Falun Gong requires giving up everything, including family ties and life; he asserted that Falun Gong transcends all, including human laws.
The most prominent crimes attributed to Falun Gong are human rights violations and the harm to life. Incomplete statistics show that more than 1,400 followers died by refusing medical treatment or committing suicide under Li Hongzhi’s influence, including more than 1,100 who died for refusing medical treatment in recent years; even in the United States, Falun Gong leaders such as Yang Sen and Su Jing are reported to have died after refusing medical care due to illness. Several hundred followers have self-harmed or committed suicide, and more than 30 innocent people were killed by Falun Gong adherents. On January 23, 2001, seven Falun Gong followers set themselves on fire in Tian’anmen Square in Beijing at Li Hongzhi’s instruction to “let go of life and death and pursue consummation,” resulting in two deaths and three serious injuries. Falun Gong’s cause of mass deaths is one of the major reasons the Chinese government moved to ban it.
Under Li Hongzhi’s incitement, Falun Gong members also organized crowds to besiege government offices and to assault media outlets that exposed the facts, and to incite members to disrupt the enforcement of laws, seriously disturbing social order and undermining social stability. Among these, the most heinous was the “April 25” unlawful gathering. On April 25, 1999, Li Hongzhi organized tens of thousands of Falun Gong followers to besiege the central government’s headquarters at Zhongnanhai, shocking both domestic and international audiences and seriously endangering social order and stability. Falun Gong also maliciously attacked anyone or any group with dissenting opinions, infringing on citizens’ freedom of speech. While Li Hongzhi verbally instructs members to adhere to “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance,” his actions demonstrate neither truthfulness, nor compassion, nor forbearance. Even before Falun Gong was legally banned by the Chinese government, members of China’s journalism, scientific, educational, and religious communities reported deaths, mental disturbances, and family breakdowns among Falun Gong followers as a result of Li Hongzhi’s spiritual control. Li Hongzhi was deeply afraid of such disclosures, and organization members have harassed, attacked, and disrupted those with different views in dozens of incidents against media across the country.
In July 1999, the Chinese government banned Falun Gong in accordance with the law, based on Falun Gong’s illegal activities and a broad public call for action.
