Expose on FLG: Part 14 Falling for Trump

In part 14 of my expose on the evolution of Falun Gong from a benign meditation practice in China to a global right wing disinformation machine. This is part will cover why FLG went for broke on Trump and how it happened. I am a nearly thirty year long former practitioner of FLG who wants to safely share what I know anonymously. After Li Hongzhi realized that he got tricked by Xi Jinping into revealing the identities of overseas FLG disciples and their families in China, he decided that needed to find a new savior to take down the CCP. Around 2015-2016, FLG’s political leaders got in touch with Steve Bannon who was trying to gather support for Trump from many fringe often dissident groups that wanted US support for opposing governments in their home countries or opposing China. This included a plethora of South Vietnamese diehard refugees who wanted to overthrow the Vietnamese Communist Party, North Korean exiles, Taiwanese independence activists (and the DPP), Japanese right wingers, South Korean right wingers, many members of the Chinese overseas democracy movement, Guo Wengui (or Miles Kwok), Hong Kong Yellow movement, Chinese Christians, Tibetan and Uyghur exiles, and of course Falun Gong. Bannon was willing to work closely with these dissident groups that had little voice in American politics because they would have little reputation to lose which meant that they would be willing to promote outright disinformation for the Trump campaign. By tying themselves to the Trump campaign, these fringe voices got a chance to amplify their voice. Furthermore, Bannon promised them that Trump will pursue the foreign policy that these fringe groups wanted so it was a twofer for these groups. FLG and many of the other groups of Chinese origin wanted more or less the following from Trump: wage an unrelenting economic war to crash the Chinese economy in order to raise discontent in China while the various anti-CCP Chinese groups would generate propaganda (mostly disinformation) towards both overseas Chinese and Chinese in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan in order to spark uprisings in China. If the CCP still did not fall, they hoped that Trump would follow up with a full scale hot war against China. They believed that with American military might and a rebellion in China, the CCP will suffer a total defeat, scores can be settled, and a new government for China will arise with American help. Whether Trump ever agreed to do this for these Asian dissident groups is doubtful but Bannon convinced them that Trump would carry out these plans. Li Hongzhi and fellow FLG leaders believed Bannon’s promises and then went all in for Trump. FLG in the 2000s had cultivated some ties to fringe anti-China conservative groups but now Bannon have them full access to the American conservative mainstream and arguably the entire Western conservative mainstream, including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Overnight around 2016, FLG media switches from praising Xi Jinping to doing the same for Trump. All sorts of conspiracies that mainstream media would not report would be floated through the Epoch Times, NTDTV, and other FLG media first and from there it would proliferate through the American electorate. FLG media for the first time became almost mainstream in a non-Chinese population at least among conservative and certain alt-left voters. Many people who had no inkling of FLG, it’s history, and no interest in China got hooked on FLG media because it offered interesting alternative info on Trump. To be fair, given the MSM’s bias against Trump, FLG media also did broadcast legitimate information about Trump that MSM didn’t cover and this also helped FLG media’s popularity. One example is FLG media’s coverage of weakness in the Russia-gate argument. After Trump became president, FLG media’s building of a cult of personality around him grew. To Chinese audiences, FLG media portrayed him as a savior of the Chinese people who will free them from the evil CCP and Xi Jinping (fighting one cult of personality with another). To American audiences, FLG media portrayed Trump as a victim of a corrupt U.S. establishment that had sold out to the CCP. Needless to say, FLG media also played a big role in denigrating the CCP and China’s image in the US. Since FLG’s interests aligned with the US going to war against China, they tried to generate as much hatred for China and the CCP in American minds as possible. A curious specialty of FLG media was to claim that the Democratic Party was not only in bed with the CCP but a full blown communist party in disguise with plans to implement Stalinist-Maoist style communism in America if Trump falls. Ironically, FLG which loved to use front organizations accused the Democratic Party of being one massive front for communism. In doing so, not only did FLG media seek to drive up American fear and hatred towards the CCP/China but also towards America’s own Democratic Party, liberals, progressives, and leftists in general. Of course, FLG threw in its own twist which was to accuse anyone who criticized FLG regardless of their position on the political spectrum of being a CCP agent and communist. To FLG disciples, Li Hongzhi increasingly preached pro-Trump teachings going as far as asking practitioners directly (through rumors spread by coordinators) to vote as a block for Trump. This finally went too far for a significant number of disciples. Many Western practitioners or second generation overseas Chinese practitioners who had schooling in the West felt that this was clearly counter-democratic behavior because it violated the separation of religion and politics. It also gravely violated Li Hongzhi’s own explicit teachings from the 1990s and early 2000s against getting political or supporting any party or politician. Some practitioners left the practice while some began to even speak out publicly online or to the media. Very few in the US spoke out however because of Li Hongzhi’s mind control and also because many feared that Li Hongzhi could report them to the U.S. government as a CCP spy. During the Trump years the US government did make many arrests of Chinese Americans and Chinese citizens in America on various charges that turned out to be false but which ruined the suspect’s careers, lives, or more. FLG’s practice of purging it’s own dissidents by labeling them CCP agents and then using the American legal system and even the much murkier intelligence system against them amounted to a Cultural Revolution style witch-hunt/persecution that continues to this day outside of China. Speaking out for FLG in China was dangerous but speaking out against FLG outside of China was dangerous too unless you had the protection of a powerful group that had a vested interest against FLG. Gradually as the American political establishment realized what FLG was doing in American politics for Trump, elements of America MSM would turn against FLG. Despite being the cheerleader for anti-China and anti-CCP propaganda, FLG leaders, Li Hongzhi himself, and many disciples truly believed that they were Chinese patriots. They saw themselves as truly helping China and Chinese people rise to great heights which they felt was constrained by the CCP. Li Hongzhi for example honestly feels that China and Chinese are superior to other countries and peoples. For example, Li Hongzhi demands that Chinese versions of the Epoch Times refer to the Japanese emperor as a king rather than emperor because the title of emperor should only be reserved for monarch of China. He and the FLG leadership publicly hold up historical Chinese rebel leaders like Li Zicheng and Hong Xiuquan and emperors like Qin Shihuang as heroes. Li Hongzhi also believes fervently that Chinese culture is the best in the world and once the CCP falls, a truly great Chinese culture will transcend humanity. This Chinese culture will be with Falun Gong characteristics of course. Fundamentally, this end goal of Li Hongzhi conflicts with Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again message but Li Hongzhi wants to use Trump as a stepping stone to his grander dreams. When Trump launched his trade war and began turning the American body politic decisively again at China, Li Hongzhi was elated because he saw this as Trump making good on Bannon’s promise to FLG that Trump would take down the CCP. Later with the outbreak of the COVID pandemic, FLG seized upon the chance to bring down the CCP for good. Many disciples and Li Hongzhi believed that a rebellion in China was just around the corner. But as Trump’s first term drew to a close in 2020, it was clear that he was not going far enough to take down the CCP. Internal rebellion in China was not happening despite the near-insurrection in Hong Kong, the energetic rejection of China in Taiwan among the young, and the many bogus claims that FLG media made (eg Three Gorges Dam collapse, impending famine, fake stories of coups and assassinations among the top Chinese leadership). Li Hongzhi and FLG leaders believed that Trump would launch a total war against China next but this would have to wait until he got a second term because other problems were on Trump’s plate in 2020. But to do that, Trump needed to win the 2020 election. Many of the Chinese anti-CCP dissident groups that backed Trump saw this as a once in a lifetime chance to overthrow the CCP that they hated and they were ready to do anything to ensure that Trump stayed in office even if it violated America’s own democracy. Among these dissident groups, FLG would go the farthest in ensuring that he would remain president.