Order Code RS20333
Updated February 12, 2003
CRS Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
China and “Falun Gong”
Thomas Lum
Analyst in Asian Affairs
Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division
Summary
The “Falun Gong” movement led to the largest and most protracted public
demonstrations in China since the democracy movement of 1989. The People’s
Republic of China (PRC) government, fearful of a political challenge and the spread of
social unrest, outlawed the movement in July 1999. Despite a massive government
campaign against them and harsh punishments meted out to many followers, Falun
Gong adherents continued to stage demonstrations for over two years. In 2002, Falun
Gong practitioners interrupted television programming in several cities and broadcast
their own videos. On July 24, 2002, the House of Representatives unanimously agreed
to H.Con.Res.188, which calls upon the PRC government to cease persecution of Falun
Gong practitioners. Issues for Congress include human rights conditions in China,
detained U.S. residents and U.S. citizens in China, and alleged harassment of Falun
Gong practitioners in the United States.
Background and Major Events
What Is “Falun Gong”? “Falun Gong,”also known as “Falun Dafa,”1 combines
an exercise regimen with meditation and moral tenets. The practice and beliefs are
derived from qigong, a set of movements that stimulate the flow of qi – vital energies or
“life forces” – throughout the body, and Buddhist and Daoist concepts. Falun Gong
upholds three main virtues – truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance (zhen-shan-ren)
– and warns against materialism and “moral degeneration.”2 Practitioners claim that by
controlling the “wheel of dharma,” which revolves in the body, one can cure a wide range
of medical ailments and diseases. They believe that by practicing Falun Gong, they may
1 The literal meanings of “Falun Gong” and “Falun Dafa,” respectively, are “law wheel exercise”
and “great way of the wheel of dharma.” See Danny Schechter, Falun Gong’s Challenge to
China
(New York: Akashic Books, 2000).
2 Examples of moral degeneration include rock music, drugs, and sexual lust.
Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress

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achieve physical well-being, emotional tranquility, moral virtue, and an understanding of
the cosmos.3
Some observers argue that Falun Gong resembles a cult and refer to the
unquestioning support of its founder, Li Hongzhi, unscientific foundations, and
apocalyptic visions. The PRC government charges that Falun Dafa has contributed to the
deaths of nearly 2,000 persons by discouraging medical treatment and causing or
exacerbating mental disorders. Followers counter that the practice is voluntary and
compatible with mainstream science and culture, and helps produce healthy, moral, and
productive citizens. They also emphasize that Falun Gong is not a religion – there is no
worship of a deity, all-inclusive system of beliefs, church or temple, or formal hierarchy.
Organization. Adherents of Falun Gong often characterize their objectives as
personal and limited in scope, claiming that they have no political agenda beyond
protecting the constitutional rights of practitioners and that they receive little guidance
from Master Li.4 However, according to some analysts, the movement was well
organized before the crackdown. After the government banned Falun Gong, a more fluid,
underground network, aided by the Internet, pagers, and pay phones, carried on for over
two years.5
Membership. During the mid-1990s, Falun Gong acquired a large and diverse
following of varying levels of involvement, with estimates ranging from 3 to 70 million
persons, including several thousand practitioners in the United States.6 In China, Falun
Gong attracted many retired persons as well as factory workers, peasants, state enterprise
managers, entrepreneurs, intellectuals, and students. In addition, the spiritual discipline
was embraced by many retired and active Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and
government cadres and military officials and personnel. Then Vice-President Hu Jintao
stated that of 2.1 million known members of the Falun Gong group, one-third belonged
to the CCP.7

Falun Gong’s Spiritual Leader. Li Hongzhi (“Master Li”), a former Grain
Bureau clerk, developed Falun Gong in the late 1980s, when qigong began to gain
popularity in China. In 1992, Li explained his ideas in a book, Zhuan Falun. Falun Gong
was incorporated into an official organization, the Chinese Qigong Association, in 1993
3 See [http://www.falundafa.org] and [http://www.faluninfo.net] See also Li Hongzhi, Falun
Gong (Revised Edition)
(Gloucester, MA: Fair Winds Press, 2001).
4 Li was reportedly en route from Hong Kong to Australia when the April 1999 demonstrations
broke out and denies that he instigated them.
5 Ian Johnson, “Brother Li Love: In China, the Survival of Falun Dafa Rests on Beepers and
Faith,” Wall Street Journal, August 25, 2000.
6 One estimate put the number of adherents in China at “several million” members. See Craig
S. Smith, “Sect Clings to the Web in the Face of Beijing’s Ban,” New York Times, July 5, 2001.
7 The practice reportedly enjoyed a strong following among soldiers and officers in some
northeastern cities while the PRC Navy published copies of Zhuan Falun. According to one
source, there were 4,000-5,000 Falun Gong “sympathizers” in the PLA air force. See David
Murphy, “Losing Battle,” Far Eastern Economic Review, February 15, 2001. See also John
Pomfret,”China Takes Measured Steps Against Sect,” Washington Post, August 6, 1999.

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but was separated from it by 1996.8 Li reportedly left China around the time of the split.
Since 1999, Li, who lives with his family outside New York City, has made few public
appearances. Some reports suggest that Li Hongzhi has directed the movement from
behind the scenes and that his public statements have profound moral influence upon his
followers.
The Demonstrations and PRC Government Responses. On April 25,
1999, an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered in Beijing.
Provincial representatives arrived in the capital before dawn and joined local followers
in front of Zhongnanhai, the Chinese leadership compound. Clutching Master Li’s
writings, the demonstrators sat silently or meditated. Concerned that the government was
starting a campaign to discredit them, some adherents presented an open letter to the Party
leadership demanding official recognition and their constitutional rights to free speech,
press, and assembly. Though peaceful, the demonstration was considered by some to be
an unprecedented affront to the Communist Party.
Between May and June 1999, Party leaders were reportedly split on whether to ban
Falun Gong and conveyed contradictory messages.9 Premier Zhu Rongji met with a
delegation of practitioners and told them that they would not be punished. By contrast,
President Jiang Zemin was said to be shocked by the apparent challenge to Party authority
and ordered the crackdown. Jiang was also angered by the apparent ease with which U.S.
officials had granted Li Hongzhi a visa and feared U.S. involvement in the movement.
The government produced circulars forbidding Party members from practicing Falun
Gong. State television and newspapers portrayed the following as a dangerous religious
cult. Security forces collected the names of instructors, infiltrated exercise classes, and
closed book stalls selling Falun Dafa literature. Tensions escalated as followers engaged
in 18 major demonstrations, including occupying a government building in the city of
Nanchang and demonstrating in front of China Central Television Station in Beijing.
The crackdown began on July 21, 1999, when Falun Gong was officially outlawed
and an arrest warrant was issued for Li Hongzhi.10 In Beijing alone, public security
officers closed 67 teaching stations and 1,627 practice sites.11 CCP leaders ordered 1,200
Party and government officials who had practiced Falun Gong to sever their own ties to
the movement. The state detained and questioned over 30,000 participants nation-wide,
releasing the vast majority of them after they promised to quit or identified group
8 Reports differ on which group, Falun Gong or the Qigong Association, initiated the split.
9 Chan, Vivien Pik-Kwan, “Sect Ban Rumour Not True — Beijing,” South China Morning Post,
June 15, 1999; John Pomfret, “Jiang Caught in Middle on Standoff,” Washington Post, April 8,
2001.
10 However, in November 1999, Ye Xiaowen, director of the State Bureau of Religious Affairs,
stated that police would not interfere with people who practiced alone in their own homes. Matt
Forney, “Beijing Says Changes in Economy Helped Spur Falun Dafa’s Growth,” Wall Street
Journal
, November 5, 1999.
11 Before the crackdown, there were approximately 39 “teaching centers,” 1,900 “instruction
centers” and 28,000 practice sites nationwide. See John Pomfret and Michael Laris, “China
Expands Sect Crackdown,” Washington Post, July 25, 1999 and John Wong and William T. Liu,
The Mystery of Falun Gong (Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co. and Singapore
University Press, 1999).

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organizers. The state also attempted to block Falun Gong Internet sites and close the e-
mail accounts of Falun Gong practitioners.
PRC prosecutors have charged Falun Gong leaders with various crimes, including
“leaking state secrets to foreigners,” “organizing superstitious sects,” disrupting public
order, obstructing justice, engaging in unlawful assembly and publication, tax evasion,
and manslaughter. Between 150 and 450 group leaders and other members have been
tried and sentenced to prison terms of up to 18-20 years. Estimates of those who have
spent time in detention or “labor reeducation” range from 10,000 to100,000 persons.12
Human rights organizations claim that over 500 adherents have died in custody, mostly
from torture. Many other followers have been suspended or expelled from school or
demoted or dismissed from their jobs.
It took the PRC government over two years to subdue the Falun Gong organization
and quell large public demonstrations, although many followers are believed to be still
practicing in their homes or meeting secretly. Between July 1999 and October 2000,
Falun Gong adherents continued to travel to Beijing and staged several large
demonstrations (several hundred to over a thousand persons) – many were sent home
repeatedly or evaded the police. At first, the enforcement of government decrees, such
as those requiring universities, employers, and neighborhood committees to extract signed
repudiations of Falun Gong, was often lax. Many local public security bureaus lacked the
capacity or will to detain, let alone reform, adherents.13 However, the central government
soon began to penalize provincial governments for not preventing Falun Gong
demonstrators from their jurisdictions from making public appeals in Beijing. The
provincial governments in turn shifted the responsibility of containing the movement to
local authorities, often leading to brutal methods of suppression.14 Those who have
refused to renounce Falun Gong have received the harshest treatment.
Other Developments
Since January 2002, Falun Gong members have interrupted television programming
in several large Chinese cities, mostly in the northeast, as well as in remote areas. These
efforts include momentarily replacing regular cable broadcasts with their own Falun Gong
programs in Chongqing in January and June 2002, in Changchun in March and June 2002,
in Anshan and Harbin in June 2002, and in Baoding in August 2002. In addition, in June
and September 2002, satellite signals beaming World Cup finals and other regular
programs were jammed and replaced by Falun Gong images, possibly with the aid of
12 “Labor re-education” is a form of “administrative punishment” for non-criminal acts (such as
“disrupting public order”) that lasts between one and three years and does not require a trial. See
also Craig S. Smith, “Sect Clings to the Web in the Face of Beijing’s Ban,” New York Times, July
5, 2001and Mary Beth Sheridan, “Falun Gong Protests on the Mall,” Washington Post, July 20,
2001.
13 See John Pomfret, “China’s Steadfast Sect,” Washington Post, August 23, 2000.
14 Ian Johnson, “Death Trap: How One Chinese City Resorted to Atrocities to Control Falun
Dafa,”Wall Street Journal, December 26, 2000; Charles Hutzler, “Falun Gong Feels Effect of
China’s Tighter Grip,” Asian Wall Street Journal, April 26, 2001; John Pomfret and Philip Pan,
“Torture is Breaking Falun Gong,” Washington Post, August 5, 2001.

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sources outside China.15 In September and December of 2002, Chinese courts sentenced
27 practitioners to prison terms of 4 to 20 years for carrying out broadcast disruptions.
On behalf of plaintiffs in China, Falun Gong adherents in the United States have
filed numerous civil complaints in U.S. federal courts against PRC leaders for violations
of the Torture Victim Protection Act, the Alien Tort Claims Act, and other “crimes
against humanity.”16 They have also filed several lawsuits in U.S. District Courts,
claiming that the PRC Embassy and consulates have been responsible for dozens of
isolated incidents of physical and verbal harassment, eavesdropping, and destruction of
property.17 In November 2002, the Circuit Court of Cook County charged a PRC
immigrant with battery for physically assaulting a Falun Gong hunger striker in front of
the Chinese Consulate in Chicago in September 2001. In this and other cases, Falun
Gong adherents have claimed numerous links between the incidents of harassment and
PRC offices or affiliated organizations in the United States.
Implications for Chinese Politics
Social Stability. The Chinese government has reportedly referred to Falun Gong
as “the most serious threat to stability in 50 years of [Chinese] communist history.” The
movement’s size, organizational effectiveness, high level of commitment, moral
uprightness, and attraction to segments of the PRC government and military have posed
uniquely difficult political challenges to the CCP, both real and imagined. Although the
following had grown increasingly diverse by the late 1990s, the most fervent adherents
of Falun Gong have been found in regions of the country, such as the northeast, where
adaptation to central government economic policies has been the most difficult.18 In these
areas in particular, Falun Gong has tapped into and exacerbated existing social and
political tensions.
Public Opinion. For the vast majority of non-practitioners, however, Falun Gong
has not aroused a significant degree of political passion. On the one hand, the crackdown
and suppression of Falun Gong has deepened anti-government sentiment among not only
adherents but also non-adherents, including many intellectuals. On the other hand, many
Chinese have remained indifferent or even critical toward Falun Gong. Some Chinese
have blamed Li Hongzhi, arguing that he exploited vulnerable people and caused their
suffering by suggesting that medical treatment was unnecessary or by encouraging them
to resist the government as a means toward “higher levels of existence” or
15 The satellite interference may have originated overseas. The Taiwanese government has
denied any involvement.
16 Under U.S. law, foreigners accused of crimes against humanity or violations of international
law can be sued in federal court by U.S. citizens or aliens in the United States. The accused
individual must be served a civil complaint in the United States.
17 PRC consular officials deny these accusations and claim that they are entitled to diplomatic
immunity.
18 Nearly two-thirds of Falun Gong adherents reported to have died in prison came from China’s
“rust belt” – the northeastern provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Heibei, and Shandong.

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“consummation.”19 The January-February 2001 self-immolations of six persons widely
believed to Falun Gong members further alienated many PRC citizens. In 2002, some
local residents reportedly expressed being offended by the sight of foreign Falun Gong
adherents demonstrating in Beijing against the PRC government.20
U.S. Government Responses
China’s crackdown on Falun Gong has presented the United States government with
several policy challenges. One, the repression of Falun Gong has violated international
human rights standards which the United States promotes. Two, practitioners from the
United States and their family members who practice Falun Gong have been detained in
China. In December 2000, Teng Chunyan, a Falun Gong adherent and U.S. resident, was
tried in a Beijing court and sentenced to three years in prison on charges of espionage.21
In January 2003, PRC authorities detained Charles Li, a Falun Gong adherent and U.S.
citizen from Menlo Park, California. He was held for allegedly sabotaging television
broadcast systems in Yangzhou, China. Three, China’s crackdown has allegedly
expanded to include incidents abroad. Some U.S. practitioners charge that they have been
harassed by anti-Falun Gong agents backed by PRC missions in the United States.
Furthermore, PRC consular officials sent letters to 300 U.S. mayors exhorting them not
to give public recognition to Falun Gong.22
On July 24, 2002, the House of Representatives of the 107th Congress unanimously
passed H.Con.Res.188, which called upon the PRC to cease persecution of Falun Gong
practitioners, and referred it to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. In January
2003, ten Members of Congress wrote a letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell asking
the U.S. State Department to appeal to the PRC government for the release of 37 detained
Falun Gong practitioners in China who have family members in the United States. The
U.S. Department of State has designated China as a “country of particular concern” for
“particularly severe violations of religious freedom,” including its persecution of Falun
Gong, for three consecutive years (1999-2001) and is expected to re-designate China for
2002.23 A ban on the export of crime control and detection instruments and equipment
to China satisfies the requirements of P.L.105-292, the Freedom from Religious
Persecution Act of 1998,
which authorizes the President to impose sanctions upon
countries that violate religious freedom.
19 Li has reportedly lowered his emphasis on “forebearance.” See “Master Li Hongzhi’s Lecture
at the Great Lakes Conference in North America, December 9, 2000.” See also John Pomfret,
“A Foe Rattles Beijing from Abroad,” Washington Post, March 9, 2001and Ian Johnson, “As
Crackdown Grows, Falun Gong’s Faithful Face a New Pressure,” Wall Street Journal, March 27,
2001.
20 Erik Eckholm, “China Expels 53 Foreign Falun Gong Followers,” The New York Times,
February 16, 2002.
21 Ms. Teng had allegedly brought foreign journalists to a Chinese psychiatric hospital where
Falun Gong adherents were being kept. See also H.Res. 160 (passed on June 25, 2001), which
calls upon the PRC to release detained U.S. citizens and U.S. residents of Chinese ancestry.
22 Steve Park, “Officials Ask U.S. Cities to Snub Sect,” Washington Times, April 8, 2002.
23 See U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, “ International
Religious Freedom Report 2002 – China.”