Order Code RS20333
Updated July 28, 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 guidelines. 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.”
2 According to Falun Dafa, examples of moral degeneration include rock music, drug addiction,
and homosexuality.
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, Master Li Hongzhi, belief in supernatural powers,
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 levels
of faith vary with the individual practitioner. 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 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 remained in
seclusion. He has reportedly made occasional, unannounced appearances at Falun Gong
gatherings, such as the ones in Washington, D.C., in July 2003 and Anaheim, California,
in February 2003.9 Some reports suggest that Li Hongzhi has directed his followers from
behind the scenes and that his public statements are interpreted as instructions by Falun
Gong practitioners.
The Demonstrations and PRC Government Responses. On April 25,
1999, an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 Falun Gong practitioners from around China
gathered peacefully in Beijing to protest the PRC government’s restrictions on their
activities.
Some adherents presented an open letter to the Party leadership at its
residential compound, Zhongnanhai, demanding official recognition and their
constitutional rights to free speech, press, and assembly.
Between May and June 1999,
Party leaders were reportedly split on whether to ban Falun Gong and conveyed
contradictory messages.10 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 affront 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. 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 official crackdown began on July 21, 1999, when Falun Gong was outlawed and
an arrest warrant was issued for Li Hongzhi.11 In Beijing alone, public security officers
closed 67 teaching stations and 1,627 practice sites.12 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 John Gittelsohn, “Falun Gong Founder Visits O.C.,” The Orange County Register, February 19,
2003.
10 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.
11 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.
12 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.13
Human rights organizations claim that over 700 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.14 However, the central government
soon began to penalize provincial governments for not preventing Falun Gong followers
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.15 Those who have refused to
renounce Falun Gong have received the harshest treatment.
Other Developments
PRC Television Broadcasts.
In 2002, Falun Gong members interrupted
television programming in several large Chinese cities and broadcast Falun Gong images,
possibly with the aid of sources outside China in some cases.16 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 May 19, 2003, U.S. citizen Charles Li
13 “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.
14 See John Pomfret, “China’s Steadfast Sect,” Washington Post, August 23, 2000.
15 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.
16 The satellite interference may have originated overseas. The Taiwanese government has
denied any involvement.

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was sentenced to 3 years in prison and ordered deported for “intending to sabotage”
Chinese television broadcasts. He has reportedly gone on hunger strikes while in prison.
Falun Gong in Hong Kong. On July 1, 2003, an estimated 500,000 people
demonstrated in the Hong Kong Special Autonomous Region (SAR) against the Hong
Kong government’s proposed anti-subversion bill (Article 23). After the massive protest
and others that followed, the Hong Kong government postponed indefinitely submitting
the bill to the Legislative Council. Although practicing Falun Gong, forming independent
labor unions, openly engaging in political debate, and other freedoms are legal in Hong
Kong (but denied on the mainland), many SAR residents fear that such a law against
subversion could be used by Beijing to stifle civil liberties in Hong Kong and curtail
human rights activities in China that are based in Hong Kong.
Falun Gong in the United States. On behalf of plaintiffs in China, Falun Gong
adherents in the United States have filed several class action lawsuits in federal courts
against PRC leaders for violations of the Torture Victim Protection Act, the Alien Tort
Claims Act, and other “crimes against humanity.”17 So far, three PRC officials have been
charged in U.S. District Courts for torturing Falun Gong prisoners. In October 2002,
advocates for Falun Gong practitioners in China filed a lawsuit in a U.S. District Court
(Chicago) charging former Chinese Communist leader, Jiang Zemin, with torture,
genocide, and other crimes. Some legal experts believe that the lawsuit against Jiang is
likely to be dismissed because national leaders are immune from prosecution.18
Falun Gong plaintiffs 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.19 Although no consular officials have been charged, three men have been
charged with battery against Falun Gong demonstrators in Chicago and New York. In
these and other cases, Falun Gong adherents have claimed numerous links between the
incidents of harassment and PRC consular offices or affiliated and sympathetic
organizations in the United States.
Implications for Chinese Politics
The Chinese government reportedly referred to Falun Gong as “the most serious
threat to stability in 50 years of [Chinese] communist history.” The practice’s popularity
in China’s northeast and other economically depressed areas was especially worrisome
to the Party because of the fear that “religious fever” combined with economic unrest
could spark widespread political protests. However, there has been little indication that
17 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.
18
See Frank J. Murray and Steve Sexton, “Falun Gong Case Gets Support,” The Washington
Times, June 12, 2003; Mark Powell, “Falun Gong Convenes at Capitol,” The Washington Times,
July 23, 2003. Department of Justice lawyers contend that a foreign head of state enjoys
sovereign immunity, which continues after he leaves office.
19 PRC consular officials deny these accusations and claim that they are entitled to diplomatic
immunity.

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the state’s persecution of Falun Gong has become a rallying cry for other disaffected
social groups. On the one hand, the crackdown and suppression of Falun Gong 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 the movement and its leader, Li Hongzhi, arguing that they exploited
vulnerable people and caused their suffering by falsely touting the healing powers Falun
Gong or by encouraging followers to resist the government as a means toward “higher
levels of existence.”20 The January-February 2001 self-immolations of six persons widely
believed to Falun Gong members and exploited by the official media further alienated
many PRC citizens.
U.S. Government Responses
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. 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. On March 12, 2003, 83 Members of Congress signed a
letter sponsored by Representative Anna Eshoo, which called upon the PRC government
to “do everything possible to ensure Charles Li’s safety and effect his immediate release.”
On March 19, 2003, the PRC government announced the release of Ms. Teng Chunyan,
a U.S. resident who was jailed in 2000 on charges of espionage.21
In June 2003, 39 Members of Congress filed an Amicus Curiae brief with a U.S.
District Court in Illinois urging the court to proceed with a lawsuit against former PRC
President Jiang Zemin. An opposing Department of Justice Amicus Curiae brief, filed
at the end of 2002, stated that the claims against Jiang should be dismissed, arguing that
such lawsuits may provoke retaliatory lawsuits against U.S. officials and jeopardize
diplomatic relations with potential allies in the war on terrorism, and that U.S. courts
should not get involved in legal claims that involve incidents that took place abroad. On
July 21, 2003, the office of Representative Henry Hyde held a briefing regarding the June
23 attack on Falun Gong practitioners in New York City allegedly by agents of the PRC
government. 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 four consecutive years (1999-2002). 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.
20 Li has reportedly lowered his emphasis on “forbearance.” 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.
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.

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