In part 5 of this expose series on the meditation practice of Falun Gong, I examine the period from 1996 to 1999 when conflicts arose around FLG which eventually led to the CCP cracking down, the FLG leaders fleeing to the U.S., and FLG transforming from a meditation practice into a political and media organization. A former practitioner of nearly three decades, I am using Blind to expose FLG in order to keep myself safe from both the CCP and FLG. In 1993, FLG was registered with the Qigong Research Association which made it a legal organization under state authority in China. However by 1996, the Chinese government pressured Li Hongzhi to establish CCP committees in his group and Li Hongzhi refused. As a result, FLG left the Qigong Research Association which meant that technically it could be classified as an illegal group at any time if the government wished. Though at the time, FLG was still safe in China with lots of positive media coverage. Li Hongzhi however had always had plans to immigrate (common among successful Chinese back then) and in 1996 he got himself a visa to invest in the U.S. which would lead to his getting a green card quickly. At this point he was rich and no longer needed his Thai brother-in-law Sun Senlun who had been supporting his extended family in Thailand since 1991. Not everyone in China looked favorably upon Qigong however. Qigong was notorious for scams and arguably faith healing is by definition a scam. More scientifically minded Chinese criticized various forms of Qigong in public venues stating in the early 1990s and by the mid-1990s some turned their criticism to FLG as well. Li Hongzhi could not take any criticism of his practice. From 1996 onwards, he began issuing teachings that essentially encouraged his practitioners to protest against anyone who criticized FLG. His teachings told practitioners that standing up for FLG offered them a shortcut to Enlightenment. FLG practitioners were mostly drawn initially to the practice by its health promises but once they felt some health improvements they trusted Li Hongzhi enough to believe in his more wild claims and seek Enligtenment. It didn’t help that the Chinese government in 1996-1998 began becoming increasingly skeptical of FLG. It rejected FLG’s application to register with the Sports Bureau thus leaving the group in legal limbo. The CCP also began limiting publication of new FLG books. Starting around 1997, the CCP even began sending people to monitor and infiltrate FLG practice circles in order to keep tabs on them. Li Hongzhi who lived in New York at this point knew that the CCP was keeping a close eye on his practice and he became increasingly concerned. Unfortunately, Li Hongzhi’s concern manifested itself in manipulating his practitioners to engage in large scale protests. To do this, he began preaching millenarian sermons on the upcoming end of the world as we know it. He portrayed this as a great opportunity for practitioners to attain Enlightenment. He called for practitioners to “clarify the truth” to anyone who publicly criticized FLG. This led to over 300 protests at Chinese news bureaus and TV stations from 1998-1999. Even though much of Chinese media coverage of FLG was still positive at this time, whenever there was negative coverage or even nuanced coverage, FLG practitioners in their hundreds or thousands would surround the offending media office and demand that the media company retract their coverage. In nearly every case, the media company complied by retracting their negative report, issuing a public apology, and firing the reporter who made the original negative report. This happened in China because news agencies are very afraid that if these protests got out of hand the government would hold them partially responsible. Things got to an impasse in April 1999 when Tianjin University Press refused to retract an academic sociology paper that had negative findings about FLG. Rather than cave to the thousands of practitioners who surrounded the campus press office, the employees called the police who then evicted the practitioners from the campus and arrested ten practitioners. Incensed at the outcome, Li Hongzhi then issued a dire teaching warning practitioners to drop all fears and protect FLG as this was the ultimate test to attain Enlightenment. Behind the scenes, Li Hongzhi worked secretly with his top lieutanents in China to organize a massive protest at Zhongnanhai, the Chinese equivalent of the White House. Sensing that the end of the world was near and the chance to become a Buddha was upon them, 10,000 FLG practitioners descended on Zhongnanhai on April 25, 1999 to demand that the CCP release the ten practitioners arrested for trespassing and illegal assembly in Tianjin a few days earlier and restore FLG to full legal recognition. Stunned by the sudden protest, the CCP released the ten practitioners arrested in Tianjin and promised to look into FLG’s demand for full legal status but behind the scenes Chinese president Jiang Zemin got busy convincing his colleagues of the need for a crackdown. Li Hongzhi briefly visited China just before the April 25th protest to make final preparations with his top lieutenants but left the country just before the protest itself. He would later deny to a reporter that he had anything to do with the protest and that he was in China at all around the time but airline tickets from Northwest Airlines and testimonies from the people that he coordinated with disproved his denials. Meanwhile Li Hongzhi knew that he was a big shot and no longer needed to rely on his brother in law Sun Senlun in Thailand. In 1998, he had his entire extended family return to China and separate from Sun Senlun who had just lost nearly all of his wealth in the Asian Financial Crisis. Unbeknownst to Sun Senlun at the time, Li Hongzhi planned to dump this one-time benefactor for good. Sun Senlun was tricked into divorcing Li Hongzhi’s sister and giving up custody of their two sons. Sun Senlun would never see his sons again because Li Hongzhi would use them as his heir apparent in his global Falun Gong empire . Next installment in this series will talk about the start of the crackdown on FLG and the brutal CCP campaign against it from 1999-2002.
Just curious are you a fan of Shen Yun? Or a Dafa practitioner?
Where are the previous 4 parts? Link would be helpful. Thanks. Also, how did you learn about this? I only vaguely know of FLG events though I’m still not 100% clear on the story so this is quite good Edit: nevermind I found it via search
I practiced FLG ever since 1995 and took part in many FLG activities. From 2000 onwards, I have worked closely with the FLG inner circle in New York including Master Li Hongzhi. The info that I’m sharing comes from my own experience, conversations with other FLG practitioners, and internal information circulating among the practitioners in Dragon Springs (FLG headquarters in New York). The info in the first five parts here so far is relatively tame. In upcoming parts I will start revealing some of the darker elements of both FLG and the CCP that I either seen or had corroborating evidence for. FLG is in a major internal crisis this year and a small number of longtime practitioners are speaking out. I’m not brave enough to go on YouTube and make videos on this, but I do want this information to be known. The reason for my fear will be apparent in upcoming parts of this series.
Thanks 🙏 I look forward to reading the rest
Tl;dr b****!
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Cool story