Notes on Falun Gong

What is Falun Gong, and why do they believe "Trump was sent by heaven to destroy the communist party."?

This post collects a list of facts about Falun Gong, a new religious movement from 1992, China. Since 1999, the Chinese government has heavily suppressed it, and it has since then engaged in a fierce propaganda war with the Chinese government.

The Chinese government calls it an evil cult that caused many deaths of its members, and the Falun Gong (FG) members claim the government, as well as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is evil and will be destroyed in a coming apocalypse (more on the theology of FG later).

Disclaimer: This would read a lot like anti-Falun Gong propaganda that the Chinese government spins. That's a bit unfortunate, but I only quote from primary sources, academic secondary sources, and a few reputable news journals, like The Guardian and The New York Times. This post also overlaps with the RationalWiki's page on Falun Gong, which is more entertaining to read, but I think my post is better, because I keep my sources authoritative.

My attitude is that the nice, boring bits of Falun Gong (truth, kindness, tolerance) are good, the Chinese suppression is bad, and the religious doctrines and propaganda tactics of Falun Gong are bad. This post is purely on its bad religious doctrines and propaganda tactics.

China Uncensored - Disillusioned

Recently I had a great disillusionment with China Uncensored, a YouTube Channel that gives consistent criticism of the Chinese government. Since February 2020, it had started talking about some coronavirus conspiracy theories (Coronavirus Began in Chinese Lab? US Investigates), in a way that strongly suggests they are true without actually claiming they are true. It is a very devious technique, the one-sided reporting of third-party sources without directly supporting it.

More troublingly, it calls the coronavirus the "CCP Virus",

because it's the CCP's coverup that is what allowed it to spread back in December and January.

That is utter nonsense. Even if the Chinese government was fully transparent about the virus, it would still spread throughout the world, because of how infectious it is. A much more reasonable argument could be made, that the coverup delayed in understanding the virus's infectiousness by about 2 weeks, which contributed to slower responses by some foreign governments. However, America also has itself to blame, considering how its institutions managed to do precious little throughout February, despite being fully warned about this global health emergency by the WHO on January 31.

The Epoch Times

Turns out there's a reason. China Uncensored is closely aligned with The Epoch Times, the main propaganda media from Falun Gong. I quote from Trump, QAnon and an impending judgment day: Behind the Facebook-fueled rise of The Epoch Times

Behind the scenes, the media outlet’s ownership and operation is closely tied to Falun Gong, a Chinese spiritual community with the stated goal of taking down China’s government.

Former practitioners of Falun Gong told NBC News that believers think the world is headed toward a judgment day, where those labeled “communists” will be sent to a kind of hell, and those sympathetic to the spiritual community will be spared. Trump is viewed as a key ally in the anti-communist fight... 

In April [of 2019], at the height of its ad spending, videos from the Epoch Media Group, which includes The Epoch Times and digital video outlet New Tang Dynasty, or NTD, combined for around 3 billion views on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, ranking 11th among all video creators across platforms and outranking every other traditional news publisher.

Okay, so it is very pro-Trump, and has bought billions of views. What else?

Devout practitioners of Falun Gong “believe that Trump was sent by heaven to destroy the Communist Party.”

Um.

a powerful conduit for the internet’s fringier conspiracy theories, including anti-vaccination propaganda and QAnon

Uh oh.

“The worst was the Pulse shooting,” Klett said, referring to the 2016 mass shooting in which 50 people including the gunman were killed at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. “We weren’t allowed to cover stories involving homosexuality, but that bumps up against them wanting to cover Islamic terrorism. So I wrote four articles without using the word gay.” 

Homophobia is not merely an attempt to fully align with Trump, though. See below for how the doctrines of Falun Gong are homophobic!

The very annoying thing is that the Epoch Time pretends to be neutral, when it definitely isn't:

Falun Gong’s founder has referred to Epoch Media Group as “our media,” and the group’s practice heavily informs The Epoch Times’ coverage, according to former employees who spoke with NBC News.

Executives at The Epoch Times declined to be interviewed for this article, but the publisher, Stephen Gregory, wrote an editorial in response to a list of emailed questions from NBC News, calling it “highly inappropriate” and part of an effort to “discredit” the publication to ask about the company’s affiliation with Falun Gong and its stance on the Trump administration.

More evidence of the close ties between The Epoch Times, Falun Gong, and other medias, are from a Snopes article.

A new discovery is that the YouTube channel China Uncensored has username ChineUncensoredNTD, where NTD stands for "New Tang Dynasty", a propaganda media machine for the Falun Gong, detailed below.

The Epoch Times in Germany

The Epoch Times is a global newspaper, with many local branches. One big branch is the German branch, which is described in The Obscure Newspaper Fueling the Far-Right in Europe (2019)

The Times has built a global propaganda machine, similar to Russia’s Sputnik or RT, that pushes a mix of alternative facts and conspiracy theories that has won it far-right acolytes around the world. Unlike Russia’s state-run networks that cynically push disinformation to further Kremlin policy goals of undermining the West, the paper is delivering its own bespoke version of the truth—and has found an especially receptive audience for it in Germany. 

... the Times has been especially successful in Germany. There, the newspaper’s site regularly ranks in the top 10 most active news sites on social media, according to a German social media tracking site.

There was no conspiracy theory too strange for the staff of The Epoch Times Germany to believe, Albrecht found: chemtrail alarmism, Pizzagate, and discredited tales of children murdered by refugees all found a purchase on its pages. The paper wrote about Angela Merkel’s big migration plan to transform German society by introducing refugees, a version of the “great replacement” theory espoused in manifestos left by mass shooters.

More conspiracy theories

The Epoch Times isn't the only propaganda media of Falun Gong. There's also the New Tang Dynasty (NTP), which is similar to The Epoch Times, and some much wilder stuffs:

While The Epoch Times usually straddles the line between an ultraconservative news outlet and a conspiracy warehouse, some popular online shows created by Epoch Times employees and produced by NTD cross the line completely, and spread far and wide.

One such show is "Edge of Wonder," a verified YouTube channel that releases new NTD-produced videos twice every week and now has more than 33 million views. In addition to claims that alien abductions are real and the drug epidemic was engineered by the “deep state,” the channel pushes the QAnon conspiracy theory, which falsely posits that the same “Spygate” cabal is a front for a global pedophile ring being taken down by Trump. 

 And of course, The Epoch Times denies being associated with Edge of Wonder.

Meanwhile The Epoch Times has promoted "Edge of Wonder" content in dozens of Facebook posts, still visible on its official Facebook page. That page is currently topped with a pinned ad for its Trump coverage that reads, “Where can you get real news that doesn't push any hidden agendas?”

America Uncovered - Uncovered!

Once I realized Falun Gong lurking behind China Uncensored, I started digging. The China Uncensored channel host has another channel, America Uncovered. Looking around, I did find what I expected: pro-Trump reports like Did Trump Botch the Coronavirus Response?.

What I did not expect is... doubting climate change! What a surprise! How Well Do Scientists Understand Global Warming? | Climate Change on America Uncovered

Not denial, but obfuscation, doubting the scientific consensus, claiming that the dissenting scientists are being ignored or denied funding, that there is a real controversy about whether humans are causing climate change, and heavily emphasizing about the uncertainty behind understanding of climate science. It hedges the bet somewhat by claiming that doing something about fossil fuel industry is still necessary, not because of uncertain climate change, but because of certain pollution.

Well, I've gone deep enough, might as well check all the videos...

• Sanders, Biden, Bloomberg Stumble on China at Democratic Debate - The three main participants in the Democratic Party debates (for the 2020 election) are very mistaken on China (unlike Trump).
• Bernie Sanders: Are the Primaries Rigged? - A definite maybe! ("Primaries" is the internal election for Democratic Party to choose its final presidential candidate.)
• Fauci Contradicts Trump Over “Chinese Lab” Claims—Wait, Is That True? - Technically no.
• Trump’s “Red Line” on Iran - It's okay for Trump to authorize an assassination on the Iranian general Soleimani because Iranian government is terrible at keeping promises, and Iranian people don't love him at all.
• The China Deal for Joe Biden’s Son | America Uncovered - Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden's business deals in China could make Biden unwilling to be tough enough on China.
• What’s Going on With the Paris Climate Agreement? - Trump quit America from the Paris Climate Agreement but that's okay because it would help the American economy and hurt China in the short run. Besides, other countries are going to let China lead the climate response because they are stupid (not because America is giving up global leadership).
• Is Meat Really Bad for Your Health? | America Uncovered - Meat might be okay. We just don't know.
• Can Billionaires Like George Soros Buy Our Elections? - Billionaires like Soros are influencing state-level votes in the United States.
• That Gillette Ad and Toxic Masculinity - Toxic masculinity is not a big issue.
• Measles Outbreak! Can the Government Force People to Vaccinate their Children? | America Uncovered - Vaccination should not be compulsory.
• Massive Migrant Caravan Heads for US Border | America Uncovered - There might be terrorists that are hiding among migrant caravans approaching the US-Mexico border, and Trump's desire to strengthen border control reflects the attitude of majority of Americans.

It's an eclectic mix, not fully pro-Trump, but definitely in that area. While it keeps to secondary reporting, the emphasis is mostly on reports and facts that are aligned with Trump's ideology.

The more critical part is what it does not uncover (despite calling itself America Uncovered) -- no mention of the indefensible parts of Trump, such as suggesting injecting bleach, claiming that there has been massive voter fraud and there will be massive voter fraud, a certain critic of him is a murderer, wind turbines cause cancer, etc.

Maybe Falun Gong is a cult?

Falun Gong in the media: What can we believe? (Kavan, 2008)

By his own account Li is the exclusive saviour of the world. He teaches that members are superior to ordinary people, and they must relinquish “affection for kinsfolk, love between a man and a woman, an affection for parents, feelings, [and] friendship” (Li, 2003b, lecture 4, para. 3). Also, Falun Gong activities take up large amounts of practitioners’ time each day. To be sure, practitioners are free to exit Falun Gong whenever they want, but this freedom is a physical reality, not a psychological one. As the Chinese members I met had no exposure to other spiritual paths, they believed the peace they experienced in meditation is only available through Falun Gong. Moreover, if they are left behind in the apocalypse they will suffer horribly (Li, 2000a). (The date of this event is uncertain because Li can use his mystical powers to delay it, but participants were expecting it within the next 25 years.)

Considering that Falun Gong does not have a rigid hierarchical structure, and quitting it is still easy enough, I don't think it's a cult. But it really is more similar to a cult than I thought. Time to dig deeper.

Dubious doctrines

Li has railed against what he called the wickedness of homosexuality, feminism and popular music while holding that he is a god-like figure who can levitate and walk through walls.

Li has also taught that sickness is a symptom of evil that can only be truly cured with meditation and devotion, and that aliens from undiscovered dimensions have invaded the minds and bodies of humans, bringing corruption and inventions such as computers and airplanes.

And of course, aliens... In an interview with Time magazine in 1999, Li Hongzhi stated that aliens are corrupting humans with science and technology, in order to replace them.

The aliens have introduced modern machinery like computers and airplanes. They started by teaching mankind about modern science, so people believe more and more science, and spiritually, they are controlled. Everyone thinks that scientists invent on their own when in fact their inspiration is manipulated by the aliens. In terms of culture and spirit, they already control man. Mankind cannot live without science.

The ultimate purpose is to replace humans. If cloning human beings succeeds, the aliens can officially replace humans. Why does a corpse lie dead, even though it is the same as a living body? The difference is the soul, which is the life of the body. If people reproduce a human person, the gods in heaven will not give its body a human soul. The aliens will take that opportunity to replace the human soul and by doing so they will enter earth and become earthlings.

When such people grow up, they will help replace humans with aliens. They will produce more and more clones. There will no longer be humans reproduced by humans. They will act like humans, but they will introduce legislation to stop human reproduction.

And even if the aliens are defeated, humans are still doomed.

If aliens are not to replace human beings, society will destroy itself on its own. Industry is creating invisible air pollution. The microparticles in the air harm human beings. The abnormality in the climate today is caused by that [pollution], and it cannot be remedied by humans alone. The drinking water is polluted. No matter how we try to purify it, it cannot return to its original purity. Modern science cannot determine the extent of the damage. The food we eat is the product of fertilized soil. The meat we eat is affected. I can foresee a future when human limbs become deformed, the body's joints won't move and internal organs will become dysfunctional. Modern science hasn't realized this yet.

The apocalypse is a very important subject in Falun Gong.

The Apocalypse

A central doctrine of Falun Gong is that our world is going to end soon, the many evils of modern world are signs of this coming apocalypse. At the apocalypse, evil people will be destroyed (annihilationism), or maybe just go to hell forever, or go to hell for a while until they have paid for their sins, then they can go to heaven (it's unclear).

(Lewis 2016):

As early as December of 2000, Li posted a message to the FLG website: “When this test concludes, all bad people will be destroyed by gods. Those Dafa disciples who are able to come through the test will leave through Consummation. Those people who’ll be left behind will have to eradicate sins by paying with horrible suffering.” (Rahn 2003: 56).

 In particular, everyone in the CCP will be destroyed, unless they quit it. They have a helpful website called tuidang (退党, "quit party") where you can write a message formally renouncing your CCP membership, in return for the promise that you won't be destroyed when the end comes. The mainpage contains this statement:

广大的中国民众：共产党的末日就要到了。但是这个邪恶的党（魔教）在历史上却对众生、对神佛犯下了滔天大罪，神一定要清算这个恶魔。
如果有一天，神指使人类的谁对共产党清算时，也一定不会放过那些所谓坚定的邪恶党徒。我们郑重声明：所有参加过共产党与共产党其它组织的 (被邪恶打上兽的印记的)人，赶快退出，抹去邪恶的印记。一旦谁对这个魔教清算时，大纪元储存的记录可以为声明退出共产党和共产党其它组织的人作证。
天网恢恢，善恶分明；苦海有边，生死一念。曾被历史上最邪恶的魔教所欺骗的人，曾被邪恶打上兽的印记的人，请抓住这稍纵即逝的良机！

My translation:

To all Chinese people: The end of the Chinese Communist Party is coming. But this evil party (demonic religion) has historically committed heinous crimes against all beings and gods and Buddhas. The gods shall make this demon pay.
If one day, when the gods instruct mankind to make the Chinese Communist Party pay, they will certainly not let go of those "determined" evil party members. We implore that all those who have participated in the Chinese Communist Party and other Chinese Communist Party organizations (who have been imprinted by evil with The Mark of the Beast) to quit as soon as possible, to erase the mark of evil. If and when someone starts making this demonic religion pay, the records stored by The Epoch Times can testify for those who have declared their withdrawal from the Communist Party and other Communist Party organizations.
The sky net is magnificent, and the good and evil are clearly separated; the ocean of bitterness has a shore, and life and death are separated by a mere thought; Those who have been deceived by the most evil demons in history, and those who have been imprinted by evil with The Mark of the Beast, please seize this fleeting opportunity!

The Mark of the Beast... That really reminds me of the Christian version, "666", the code name for Nero, who suppressed the early Christians, just like the CCP suppressed the Falun Gong members.

And early Christianity was also an apocalyptic religion. Coincidence? I suppose.

Karma theory

The fundamental metaphysical belief of Falun Gong is the existence of vital energies that can be gained and lost through moral and immoral actions. There is the white, good energy (Qi), and there is the black, bad energy (Karma). The cultivation of qi and expulsion of karma is the main purpose of Falun Gong practice.

From Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Switzerland (September 4–5, 1998, Geneva): 

When gods created man they prescribed standards for human behavior and living. When human beings overstep those boundaries, they are no longer called human beings, though they still assume the outer appearance of a human. So gods can’t tolerate their existence and will destroy them. Do you know why wars, epidemics, and natural and man-made disasters happen in this world? They’re precisely because human beings have karma, and those events exist to remove it. No matter how wonderful a time period may be in the future, there will still be wars, epidemics, and natural and man-made disasters on earth. They are a way of eliminating karma for people. Some people who have sinned can have their karma eliminated through the death of the flesh body and suffering, and then they’ll be free of that karma when they reincarnate. Their lives don’t really die and they reincarnate again. But the karma that some people have accrued is too much, in which case the fundamental elements of their existence will be implicated and destroyed. 

Homophobia

Other than karma and the apocalypse, Li Hongzhi taught on many topics, which includes homophobia, sexism, and more.

From Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Switzerland (September 4–5, 1998, Geneva):

Heaven created man and woman. What was the purpose? To procreate future generations. A man being with a man, or a woman with a woman—it doesn’t take much thought to know whether that’s right or wrong. When minor things are done incorrectly, a person is said to be wrong. When major things are done incorrectly, it’s a case of people no longer having the moral code of human beings, and then they are unworthy of being human.

Let me tell you why today’s society has become how it is. It results from there not being an upright Fa to keep human beings in check. This Dafa is taught right in the most chaotic environment, at a time when no religion can save people, and where the circumstance is that no god takes interest in people anymore. The Fa is almighty. The best time periods wouldn’t require such a great Fa to be taught. Only in the worst time periods can the power of the Fa manifest. There are other reasons, too.

God hates gays! In fact, gods destroyed ancient Greek culture because they were too gay.

Let me tell you, if I weren’t teaching this Fa today, gods’ first target of annihilation would be homosexuals. It’s not me who would destroy them, but gods. You know that homosexuals have found legitimacy in that homosexuality was around back in the culture of ancient Greece. Yes, there was a similar phenomenon in ancient Greek culture. And do you know why ancient Greek culture is no more? Why are the ancient Greeks gone? Because they had degenerated to that extent, and so they were destroyed.

Gays are bad mainly because gay actions are are against human nature, and thus gays brings bad karma, which then brings disasters. And for those who have accumulated much bad karma, their deaths will be slow and painful.

Homosexuals not only violate the standards that gods set for mankind, but also damage human society’s moral code. In particular, the impression it gives children will turn future societies into something demonic. That’s the issue. That kind of destruction, however, isn’t just about disappearing after they’re annihilated. That person is annihilated layer after layer at a rate that seems pretty rapid to us, but in fact it’s extremely slow in that time field. Over and over again, one is annihilated in an extremely painful way. It’s terribly frightening.

The only way out is to eliminate gay thoughts and gay actions, so as to avoid accumulating bad karma.

Pseudomedicine

The karma theory also applies to diseases, which are claimed to be caused by too much karma. Diseases should be allowed to run their course "naturally" because that would allow a release of karma. Medicine is merely treating the symptoms, leaving the root cause of too much karma unchanged, and that would cause more problems later. 

There are competing accounts on whether members are in fact discouraged from seeking medical treatment. From (Kavan, 2008):

Members also said that Li does not discourage people from getting medical assistance. However, this claim does not tally with Li’s writings. He teaches that illnesses are caused by karma, and that by taking medicines or getting medical help one presses the karma back into the body. The sign of a true practitioner is to refuse medicine or medical care (Li, 1998b; 1998c; 1999; 2001a; 2003b). 

Li Hongzhi, being the supreme master of Qi, can cure diseases. From Falun Gong: Between Sectarianism and Universal Salvation (DA Palmer, 2001):

In a single training workshop, Li Hongzhi claims to eliminate the illnesses of 80 to 90% of the participants and to give them paranormal powers that a whole lifetime of spiritual practise would be unable to achieve.

For it is not the adept who cultivates himself through his practise, but the Dharma-Wheel planted by Li Hongzhi in the lower abdomen of each follower, which refines him and increases his psychic powers. The [wheel] never stops turning and releasing powers, even while the adept is not practising the Falun Gong exercises.

Further,

The true disciple of Li Hongzhi must not take medicines in case of illness. Therapeutic care only changes the outward form of illness, which actually grows out of a subtle body in a deep space which is untouched by treatment. Illness is a means of repaying one’s karmic debt: one must thus let it follow its natural course, unless Li Hongzhi intervenes personally to eradicate it. If common people may take medicines, the spiritual practitioner must abstain if he wishes to eliminate his bad karma.

It is also forbidden to give therapy to others with Falun Gong. This rule sets Falun Gong apart from other Qigong schools, which teach their adepts how to heal the sick by emitting subtle energies (Qi). According to Li Hongzhi, the practitioner who treats others by Qigong merely absorbs the morbid energies of the patient into his own body. Thus the bodies of those who attempt to heal others are possessed.

Pseudoscience 

Other than the talk of aliens, Li Hongzhi also forays into pseudoscience by rejecting evolution. From Lecture in Sydney (1996):

Some people claim, "Our human race evolved from apes." In fact, let me tell you that man did not evolve from apes at all. Darwin proposed a theory, which says, "Man has evolved from apes." When he made public this theory at that time, he brought it out with great trepidation. His theory is full of loopholes and is incomplete, and yet, it has been accepted by people to this day... In fact, man did not evolve from apes at all in our view, only that there are different species existing in each time period.

Keep this rejection of evolution in mind: it would pop up again later in the Shen Yun dancing trope.

And there's also some ancient civilization stuff that reads like Atlantis. From (DA Palmer, 2001):

Hundreds of thousands and even millions of years ago, civilizations existed which had reached extremely high levels of material, technological and artistic progress. It is these civilizations that built the moon and the pyramids, which had nothing to do with Egypt. But they had abandoned their morals, and so the Awakened Ones exterminated them. “In fact, these prehistoric civilizations sunk to the bottom of the sea. Later, many changes occured on Earth, and (the pyramids) rose back to the surface.”. During the apocalypse, all science and technology disappears, and the handful of survivors has to start again at the Stone Age. Earth has already undergone 81 such mass exterminations

I wouldn't be surprised if he also proposed that some of the meteor craters on earth are remains of ancient nuclear wars...

Encouraging martyrdom

(Kavan, 2008):

At the same time, practitioners did not perceive themselves as victims, and were adamant that they did not want to be portrayed this way. I understood this more fully when one day a practitioner looked at me with pity and exclaimed that she felt sorry for me because I worked so hard at doing the exercises but had never experienced the persecution. She then began quoting from one of Li’s speeches on ‘stepping forward’. Stepping forward means activism and refers to a series of tests members have to pass to gain entry into Li’s heaven. These tests have arisen because Li has only planned enlightenment for a limited number of Falun Gong members, but with increasing numbers and the imminent end of the world, he has to quickly weed people out (Li, 2000a; 2001c). By defending the fa and being imprisoned and tortured, practitioners’ karma is burnt off, thus assuring them a place in Li’s paradise.

Sucking the 'De'out of me: How an esoteric theory of persecution and martyrdom fuels Falun Gong's assault on intellectual freedom (JR Lewis, N Ruskell, 2016):

Li says that ‘When one throws punches at someone else, he also throws out his white substance [that is de or virtue] to the other person, and the vacated area in his body will be filled with the black substance [that is karma]’. This is important as it goes some way to explaining why Falun Gong practitioners have been apparently so willing to go to public places in China and do things that will get themselves arrested and, as they claim, brutalised. If a policeman were to beat you up, he is actually passing on his de to you and that space in him is taken up by karma! You win—he loses.

This esoteric view of the karmic process motivates practitioners to actively seek oppression: at the unseen spiritual level, what is actually happening is that practitioners are attacking policemen—not vice versa.

At a gathering in Montreal some years later that was attended by Susan Palmer, Li Hongzhi, congratulated the martyrs of Tiananmen Square who have “consummated their own majestic positions” and presumably earned a posthumous enlightenment, or a crown of martyrdom: “Whether they are imprisoned or lose their human lives for persevering in Dafa cultivation, they achieve Consummation.” (Palmer 2003: 356).

At this point, I'm quite ready to believe that the self-immolations from Falun Gong members were not a Chinese government fabrication, but actually true.

Demand racial purity (anti-miscegenation)

Li taught that each human race has their homelands, their gods, and heavens. It is against the will of the gods to mix races. The natural barriers separating the east and the west, for example, are supposed to keep the races separate and pure, but with modern transport, these lines are being crossed, and this mixing of races is another symptom of our age of decay.

Li's Lecture in Sydney (1996):

Why is there no Buddhism in the world of the white people, and no Christianity in the world of the oriental people? ... The races in the world are not allowed to be mixed up. Now, the races are mixed up and it has brought about an extraordinarily serious problem. Once races are mixed up, one does not have a corresponding relationship with the higher levels, and he has lost the root. Mixed races have lost their roots, as if nobody in the paradise will take care of them. They belong to nowhere, and no places would accept them. Therefore, you find the place where the continents of Europe and Asia meet a desert in the past and a depopulated zone. When the transportation means were not advanced, it was difficult to pass through it. With the progress of modern means, all these are broken through. Thus, races have become increasingly mixed up, which can lead to serious consequences. Of course, I will not go into details. I'm just saying that the higher levels do not recognize such a human race.

Moreover, the yellow race is better:

The white people at higher levels constitute a small portion, a very small portion of the universe in this world and in this universe. That is their paradise of heaven. However, there is an extraordinarily large number of yellow people and Buddhas' paradises as well as Taoist paradises.

People of mixed race don't have a place to go to when they die, because there is one heaven for each race, and people of impure race don't fit in any of these.

The yellow people, the white people, and the black people have the corresponding races in heaven. Then, if one is not from his race or does not belong to his people, he will not take care of him.

In fact, different races live in different physical environments, such that some "magics" can only be used by white people:

It is well known that oriental people believe in the so-called "nine". They like the sound of it, which implies everlasting. "Eight" is pronounced as "fa", implying making a fortune. These kinds of things can indeed have a little bit of effect in the East, such as geomantic omen telling or landscape analysis, etc. But when applied in the West, they appear to be ineffective and do not work. They do not work with the white people. Then again, the so-called astrology or some phenomena believed by the white people do not work with the oriental people either. Some people think that they work. That is because you think they work. In fact, they don’t. Why is it then? It is because the white people's biosphere has its special physical matter formed in its own dimension while the oriental people's biosphere has the special matter made up with their life. Such things run through the makeup of one's life. Thus, the two sides are not the same.

 (Lewis, 2016):

Li Hongzhu is not exactly racist in the way in which that term is usually used. Rather, on this topic, his aversion is not to other races but to race-mixing, which he sees as a symptom of degeneration as well as one of the causes of the imminent catastrophe; e.g., “as humankind’s morality decays, all matter is rotting. In other words, it has become tainted. At present, the cultures of humankind are in a muddle—they are messy combinations of all sorts, and human races are becoming more and more mixed. These have indeed driven humankind to slide to a very dangerous stage—this is certain. As I said, catastrophes happen because humankind is depraved” (Li Hongzhi 1998).

Rigid sexual norms

From Teaching the Fa at the Eastern U.S. Fa Conference (New York, March 27–28, 1999):

... if you’re a woman, you must act like one, and be kind and gentle. Only then can you gain respect and love from men. If you aren’t kind and gentle, men will be afraid of you when they see you, (laughter) and you won’t be able to have the love or even the family affection that you’re supposed to have. Conversely, let’s not just talk about women—we men, likewise, should behave like men. But all societies on the earth have become bad nowadays, so I can only ask my disciples to behave this way—it is not achievable by the society.

... When everyone behaves this way the wonderful relationships among humans are lost. Of course, I can only say these things to my disciples, to you, and tell you that these aren’t right. There’s no cure for mankind anymore and it would be impossible to turn everything around.

Again it's blamed on the general corruption of our age, and cannot be helped. They are a symptom, a sign of the coming apocalypse.

Religious intolerance

From (Palmer, 2001):

“It is forbidden to mix even the slightest thought of another Qigong method” to Falun Gong practise. To think of another method could lead to deforming the rotating [wheel] planted by Li Hongzhi in the adept’s lower abdomen, which could have dangerous consequences84. One should not read, nor even glance at the books of other Qigong masters, for they are filled with the spirits of snakes, foxes and weasels... Li Hongzhi even suggests to burn such books, which prevent his Dharma bodies from protecting his disciples... Likewise, it is “absolutely forbidden” to read religious and medical classics such as the Taoist Canon, the Inner Book of the Yellow Emperor, the Book of Mountains and Seas, the Book of Changes or Buddhist sutras.

Megalomania of the leader

This isn't a big concern, but I'll put it here because it's funny. From (Kavan, 2008):

At conventions he claims not just to be a God, but the best God, superior to Buddha and Jesus whom he dismisses as merely teaching 16 carat gold paths compared with his 24 carat gold path (Li, 1998c, 2003a). He also encourages veneration, telling disciples that his spiritual body is so large that, if he appeared in it, disciples would be looking upward from under his big toe (Li, 1999).

Demagoguery

(Kavan, 2008):

Like Mao, Li has activated millions of people with his rhetoric. His ideology is similarly characterised by moral superiority, defining others as absolute evil, dehumanising enemies by labelling them snake spirits and possessed by ghosts, extolling the virtues of selflessness and sacrifice, emphasising the necessity of enduring physical hardship, harassing critics, and denigrating science in favour of his purportedly infallible truths.

This is kind of a common problem among all popular movements... but why do I still want to be popular?

How seriously to take these doctrines?

In every religion, some doctrines are never taken seriously, while others extremely so. It seems the racist, sexist, and homophobic doctrines has been pretty much ignored, while the karma doctrine and the apocalyptic doctrines are very much alive, serving as the main motivations behind the propaganda war of Falun Gong, and the endless protests from Falun Gong members.

As such, it's best to ignore the doctrines about race, sex, homosexuality, and aliens, but take the doctrines on the karma and the apocalypse very seriously. Although as noted below in the section on Shen Yun, the homophobia is still maintained as official doctrine.

Suspiciously positive media reporting

Effective propaganda strategies.

A possible tactics playbook of Falun Gong

(Kavan, 2017) identified a book by Robert Helvey that seem to correspond exactly with Falun Gong's propaganda efforts. After explaining how Robert Helvey is associated with Falun Gong, Kavan continues:

On Strategic Nonviolent Conflict reads like a checklist of Falun Gong tactics. Here are several suggestions from it, to which I have added examples of Falun Gong activities in parentheses: 

(1) black propaganda (publishing a purported announcement from official Meng Weizai that he was resigning from the Communist Party);

(2) declaring a victory before one has fully got it (Tuidang announcements that over 200 million Chinese have quit the Communist Party); 

(3) airing exposure through congressional hearings (the 2012 United States Congressional Executive Commission on China); 

(4) circulating propaganda that attempts to appear authoritative (the reports of the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong); 

(5) provoking opponents to negatively react for the purpose of igniting outrage at their reaction (inviting political leaders to the Shen Yun Performing Arts Show seemingly to goad China); 

(6) blaming the opponent for all the facts (attributing practitioner misbehavior to Party culture [Li, 2016]), and 

(7) attacking a multi-national corporation that supports the regime whose headquarters are based in another country (Falun Gong’s lawsuit against Cisco). 

Curiously, given the disputed self-immolations, Helvey also discusses the tactic of self-immolation accompanied by invitations to “international news agencies to cover and to photograph the event” (2004, p. 35).

Pretending to not be a religion

(Kavan, 2008):

The Western media do not usually describe Falun Gong as a cult, because of pressure from Falun Gong, and members tell the media they are just an exercise group. However, as Wong and Liu (1999) observe, Falun Gong seems unusually proselytising for an exercise group. Also, on newcomers’ second or third visits they are given scriptures showing Li’s rejection of those who just do the exercises every day (usually Zhuan Falun, but see also Li, 1997; 1998b).

Innocent Victims of Chinese Oppression, Or Media Bullies? Falun Gong's In-Your-Face Media Strategies (JR Lewis, N Ruskell, 2016):

[The leader of Falun Gong] instructs them to present FLG as an innocent spiritual movement being persecuted by the People’s Republic of China (PRC); e.g.:

… you must not talk about high-level things. What you know are things that Gods should know. Those things are what I taught to you, not to worldly people. So you shouldn’t tell those things to ordinary people. …only talk about our being persecuted, about our real situation, about our being good people and being wrongly persecuted, about our freedom of belief being violated, about our human rights being violated. They can accept all those things, and they will immediately support you and express to you their sympathy. … Knowing those facts, the people of the world will say that Falun Gong is being persecuted and that the persecutors are so evil. They’ll say those things, and isn’t that enough?

Sanitizing English translations

This is NOT a bad thing, but still, it's a trap for historians who want to know exactly what Li Hongzhi taught to his disciples. From (Kavan, 2008):

As practitioners do not teach Falun Gong beliefs, I found more information from Li’s books and speeches. Copies are available on the Internet, but they are not necessarily the same as the originals. For example, disciples removed a chapter of Li’s improbable autobiographical claims of supernatural exploits from Zhuan Falun, as well as from the Internet (see Penny, 2003 for a discussion on the content). They also removed English translations of Zhuan Falun 11, a book in which Li makes several scientific slip-ups (such as mistaking a light year for a measurement of time) and offends potential supporters by condemning homosexuality and Buddhism...

Further, as Deng and Fang (2000) observe, English translations of Li’s speeches have a less strident tone, they sometimes differ from the original Chinese in critical parts, and the most anti-gay, racist and anti-human scriptures have never been translated into English. Also, Li has instructed followers to destroy any unauthorised versions of his speeches (1998b). 

Media control

Falun Gong members attempt to silence all criticisms, ever since the early days.

(JR Lewis, N Ruskell, 2016):

Between 1996 and mid-1999, practitioners initiated over 300 protests against negative media reports, forcing dismissals of reporters and receiving public apologies (Zhao, 2003). In China the media are free only as far as they facilitate social stability (Chan, 2002), so when Falun Gong threatened civil unrest, media managers were quick to capitulate to their demands. For example, when 2,000 protestors surrounded Beijing Television after the station broadcast a segment about a doctoral candidate who became psychotic while practising Falun Gong, the station fired the reporter, aired an immediate sympathetic portrayal, and – to show extra goodwill – handed out 2,000 boxed lunches to the protestors.

One favorite technique is suing (and threatening) any publication that airs criticism:

Thus, for instance, in 2001, the Canadian La Presse Chinoise (Chinese Press) published a critical piece based around the testimony of a former practitioner. In that case, the newspaper was sued for libel. Four years later, Quebec’s Supreme Court decided against the plaintiff. The ruling included a statement that, “Falun Gong is a controversial movement which does not accept criticism.” Similarly, in response to a condemnatory statement published in the Chinese Daily newspaper in Australia, Falun Gong filed a defamation lawsuit in 2004. Two years later, the New South Wales’ Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Chinese Daily.

An early paper, Falun Gong, Identity, and the Struggle over Meaning Inside and Outside China (Zhao, 2003) notes:

Falun Gong demanded more than the right to reply to media criticism: It demanded the censorship of opponents’ views in the first place... Indeed, the movement actually urged the Chinese government to use its powers of censorship to muzzle the opponents of Falun Gong... though Falun Gong is unquestionably symptomatic of the malaise of Chinese modernity, and though it won the hearts and minds of many followers, its ideological closure and single-mindedness are fundamentally incompatible with any notion of democratic discourse.

Academic control

In Friendly Fire: How Falun Gong Mistook Me For an Enemy (Kavan, 2017), Kavan recounts how they were harassed heavily by Falun Gong members after the publication of (Kavan, 2008):

Practitioners read my articles and emailed me. One of the first messages was from the Falun Dafa Association. The author apologised for members harassing me and said he thought my paper was “well-researched.” However, most emails from practitioners were not as kindhearted, and the authors seemed unable to resist inserting slurs, for example: “Your saddest folly,” “Darwin and Newton deceived you,” “You have played right into the hands of the Communist Party.” I replied amiably to the thoughtful emails and ignored the others.

And in the postscript of (Kavan, 2008):

When the research was finished, I was quoted in a press release on new religious movements, in which I said that the FBI’s definition of a potentially violent religion was so broad that several groups in New Zealand would fall into it, and cited Falun Gong as one of several examples. Falun Gong members monitor the media daily, and discovered the press release even before I did. They were offended that they were classified with other religions that they perceived to be “totally evil”, and I received a phone call warning me that I would be deluged by a hundred callers from a Falun Gong email list. Several emotionally–charged phone calls followed, in which the callers demanded the press release be removed from the Internet. A member contacted me at home and relayed accusations that I was being paid large amounts of money by the Chinese government, and repeatedly said that the situation was “extremely dangerous”. Each time I asked exactly what the danger was, she did not explain.

Evil Cult or Persecuted Minority? Conspiracy Theories Surrounding Falun Gong and the Government of the People’s Republic of China (Farley, 2018) recounts how the author was harassed by a Falun Gong member after they published a paper that remains unconvinced by the theory about the self-immolation, that it's staged by the government.

Very soon afterwards I was contacted by current colleagues from the university at which I work and from former colleagues at the university where I used to work. The story was always the same; they had been contacted by the same Falun Gong practitioner, claiming that I was an instrument of the Chinese government and that the purpose of my research was to discredit Falun Gong. In one instance, a woman who was not known to me, collapsed in my office doorway, saying that she feared for my life after receiving an email from the same Falun Gong practitioner. It took me some time to calm her down. The university lawyer contacted me to say that the Vice Chancellor and many other senior people at the university had been contacted and that the very same Falun Gong practitioner had called for my immediate dismissal from my role. I was investigated for Academic Misconduct and was found not to have a case to answer. The Falun Gong practitioner continued to contact people even further removed from my immediate circles: editors of journals in which I had published, people on the editorial boards of those journals, co-authors of papers I had written (often not even about Falun Gong!) Without exception, the people contacted did get in touch with me and offered their unconditional support.

On 21 May, 2016, an article written by the Falun Gong practitioner about me was published in the right-leaning News Weekly. Titled, “Honorary Fellow Means to Dishonourable End,” the article rolled out the same claims about me: that I was a tool of the Chinese government, that I had made unsubstantiated claims about Falun Gong, and that I misrepresented Falun Gong’s teachings. The practitioner published another article about me on a web page called China in Perspective. This article is certainly a lot more inflammatory than anything that he had published in English, probably because an article like this would not be published in the West due to the risk of litigation. The author probably thought that this article would remain undiscovered as it is written in Chinese. He probably did not count on Google Translate being so effective.

Oh Google Translate, so very useful.

David Ownby, the professor who is considered an expert on Falun Gong, and who wrote Falun Gong and the Future of China, noted in In Search of Charisma: The Falun Gong Diaspora (Ownby, 2008) that,

I stopped doing systematic fieldwork among Falun Gong practitioners in late 2002, in large measure because of the increasing pressure placed on me by practitioners to play a role in their struggle against the Chinese state. As Falun Gong multiplied its websites and media outlets—New Tang Dynasty Television and The Epoch Times newspaper being the most important—it was to be expected that they seek out the opinions of academic authorities to try to make their case. At the same time, despite my sympathy for the plight of Falun Gong practitioners, it became impossible to deliver any sort of nuanced message through Falun Gong media, or even to have meaningful conversations with many Falun Gong practitioners whose worldview had become increasingly dualistic. Many practitioners also became insistent and almost paranoid, adopting an “us against them” mentality which makes interaction with them unpleasant and unproductive, and which, unfortunately, confirms the suspicions of those who all along saw them as a cult. This was rarely the case when I was doing fieldwork between 1999 and 2002. Unwilling to become the Falun Gong pet expert, or to joust with practitioners as adversaries, as do most journalists, I simply decided to distance myself from them.

This paper is worth reading in full for understanding how calm and determined most Falun Gong practitioners were, before 2002, and how that contrasts greatly with the ferocity of its propaganda campaigns since then.

Wikipedia control

Wikipedia aspires to be a neutral source, and it often is, which makes manipulation select entries of Wikipedia a very effective strategy for propaganda, much as it would be to manipulate Encyclopedia Britannica, or the Oxford dictionaries. Journalists consult these sources for background information credulously.

Exerting control over a few entries of Wikipedia is not difficult for determined Falun Gong members, because of how Wikipedia works: they just have to keep editing and wear out the patience of enemy editors in an attrition warfare.

In 2011, it "went to court", where the two sides went to Arbitration. Both sides claim neutrality and accuse the other side of being biased. It was a huge mess, and I'll just take one paragraph:

I could not help it but revisit this and give you administrators some suggestions. I was involved with the article sometime in 2007 and again in 2009-10. I stopped editing all Falun Gong related articles in early 2010, much like user OhConfucius, because I could no longer stand the SPAs, edit wars, personal attacks, and lengthy sessions of ideological battles veiled as "policy" or "content" discussions. Many other editors report the same experiences.

In 2012 some editors were finally done. Noting that they were fighting an asymmetric war:

It takes much more energy combating POV-pushing edits than it takes to create it, and it's energy that neither of us have. I'm glad I will be seeing you around other articles, and hope to continue our working relationship in content unrelated to Falun Gong.

the desperate acts in the struggle for survival of activists was just too much for this meek soul to bear. 

Also note the attack on Kavan (which I quoted lots):

Heather Kavan is a professor of communications (specialty is speechwriting) with no peer-reviewed publications on Falun Gong, who has had no discernible impact on the discourse in serious literature, but whose conference paper is heavily promoted on a Chinese government website.

Wikipedia user Colipon has been embroiled in these edit wars and had this to say in 2014:

On balance and over time, it is only inevitable that the 'side' with much heavier personal investment in the subject area would prevail in crafting the articles to the way they want it to be... Last week, I took some time to read the Falun Gong articles to see how they have turned out since Falun Gong 2. It is sad that the articles have become even more strongly reflective of the Falun Gong worldview. They essentially read like glossy pamphlets for the practice much like those you get from walking down the streets of New York; they are totally sanitized ('censored', you could say) of criticism, controversy, or anything that could be seen or even remotely perceived to be prejudicial to the movement in any way, shape, or form. 

In essence, the Falun Gong activists have 'won'. They have succeeded in driving away and frustrating all the users who are 'in their way.'

Publicity at all costs

Falun Gong members go on protests a lot, even in places completely irrelevant, such as... a Christmas parade in Auckland. And when they were denied, they sued. From (JR Lewis, N Ruskell, 2016):

Falun Gong (FLG) actually did file suit against the Auckland Children’s Christmas Parade Trust (and lost). Michael Barnett, chairman of the Trust, was compelled to hire private security after FLG picketed his office and harassed him. More broadly, I should note that FLG regularly tries to participate in Chinese cultural parades and festivals all over the world. Their applications to join in these events are often rejected on the basis of the strong political message they insist on delivering.

Shen Yun

Which brings me to Shen Yun (神韵), a travelling dancing trope operated by Falun Gong, which, surprise(!), is also used as propaganda. It's certainly a very unusual method of generating publicity, but I suppose desperate times call for desperate measures?

It is in fact very successful, with performances all over the world, and is heavily promoted by advertisement campaigns. A Guardian report The traditional Chinese dance troupe China doesn’t want you to see describes one important segment of the performance: the triumph of Falun Gong over communist suppression

The curtain rose on a group of young students sitting in peace, meditating and reading oversized yellow Falun Gong books. The dancers performed elaborately pantomimed good deeds – helping an old woman with a cane, chasing down a woman who had dropped her purse. But when one unveiled a Falun Gong banner, suddenly a trio of men wearing black tunics emblazoned with a red hammer-and-sickle entered. The communist thugs began beating people up, clubbing and kicking innocent Falun Gong followers. 

In the melee, one of the attackers twisted his ankle and fell to the ground. A Falun Gong practitioner tried to help his injured foe, lifting him up and carrying him on his back while the villain continued raining punches on him. In the piece’s climax, the communist lifted his fist for the final blow. He let it hover in the air, trembling, and then... slowly dropped it, too moved by the young man’s compassion to continue.

The young Falun Gong practitioners gave him their book. The reformed thug pirouetted around the stage. Everyone sat and meditated together, and suddenly the backdrop exploded into a kaleidoscope of colourful animations – monks descending from heaven, women in dresses swirling around, enacting a kind of orgy of celestial joy, presumably meant to mirror the inner ecstasy of spiritual enlightenment. Suddenly, the former communist’s leg was healed. He ran, he leapt, and then the cast pointed to the screen, and to the final image of a man, meditating and beatific, at peace with the universe. 

That miraculous cure is exactly as described! Falun Gong is supposed to cure all diseases, as we noted above.

Stepping Into the Uncanny, Unsettling World of Shen Yun from New Yorker (2019) describes another performance. There's the anti-science, anti-modernity stuff...

A man came onstage to sing a song in Chinese, which was translated on the screen behind him. “We follow Dafa, the Great Way,” he began, singing about a Creator who saved mankind and made the world anew. “Atheism and evolution are deadly ideas. Modern trends destroy what makes us human,” he sang.

Homophobia...

In the final dance number, a group of Falun Dafa followers, who wore blue and yellow and clutched books of religious teachings, battled for space in a public square with corrupt youth. (Their corruption was evident because they were wearing black, looking at their cell phones, and, in the case of two men, holding hands.)

And a communist tsunami...?

Chairman Mao appeared, and the sky turned black; the city in the digital backdrop was obliterated by an earthquake, then finished off by a Communist tsunami. A red hammer and sickle glowed in the center of the wave. Dazed, I rubbed my eyes and saw a huge, bearded face [of Karl Marx] disappearing in the water. 

A very poetic representation of the Falun Gong doctrine that communism is an evil that is on the world-ending level.

I don't think this performance is a problem, since most people are unlikely to take their worldviews from a dancing troupe, and I'm only mentioning it because of how absurdly funny this is. It truly deserves the memes.

50̥̜ͨͥ0̘̩͋͐0 ̿Y͓ͦEAͯ͐͆R̥ͪS̫͕̒̃ O͌F ͙̙̈ͧCͦIṾ̮ͪ̐I͈̊L̘̟͓Ï̔Z̹̊A̞̜̥̿̇ͨT̩͔̀ͩIO̮ͪN̞͍̥͐ͣ̆ ̳̾R͉̟E͔͉B́̆ͬO̳̳̯ͥ̈́͋R̯̰̠N̳̑

My reaction

After seeing all of these, I feel greatly confused and angered, and almost ready to believe that Falun Gong vastly exaggerated their sufferings under the CCP. Maybe the CCP didn't target Falun Gong particularly for their organs, but targeted all death row inmates equally.

The seemingly independent sources on prosecution might not be so independent after all, but propaganda twice-removed. 

From (Kavan, 2008):

The press often quote Amnesty International, but Amnesty’s reports are not independently verified, and mainly come from Falun Gong sources (for example, Amnesty, 2000). The Hong Kong Centre for Human Rights is the only independent source of information, although the Centre is actually not an organisation, but one man – Lu Si Qing. However, statistics of arrests from both Amnesty and the Hong Kong Centre are often much higher than those reported by Western journalists who were present in China when the arrests were made (Rahn, 2000), which suggests that other information may be similarly exaggerated.

And even the famous organ harvesting claims might not be trusted. Harry Wu in particular claimed that it was mostly propaganda:

A prominent Chinese human rights activist in the US has challenged Falun Gong claims that mainland hospitals have harvested organs from thousands of its members.

Mr Wu, who has spent 15 years gathering evidence on the harvesting of organs from executed Chinese prisoners, said the information was based on the testimony of two witnesses, neither of whom had first-hand information. He believed the reports were fabricated.

Finally, on account of the severely undemocratic tactics and doctrines of Falun Gong, I find this speculation (JR Lewis, N Ruskell 2016) more believable:

Reflecting back to my own situation fifteen years ago, I can see that I had been locked into my ‘Western human rights’ frame of reference, feeling righteous indignation, and providing a forum for practitioners. However, the practitioners had an entirely different frame of reference. Instead of standing up for religious freedom, they were primarily focused on building up their xinxing ["spiritual energy"] by spreading a one-sided message about their victimage at the hands of security officials—officials who, they had been taught, were “‘evil beings’ devoid of ‘human nature’” (Palmer 2003: 357)...

So there had been a dramatic cosmic struggle against demonic beings unfolding right before my eyes—to which I had been totally blind. To repeat my earlier statement: I realized I had been deceived, and my categorization of the conflict as a human rights issue had caused me to completely miss the practitioners’ thoroughly religious understanding of their struggle. 

In other words, for those Falun Gong activists, the struggle for human rights is a means to an apocalyptic end, and its struggle to bring down the Chinese government is not for democracy, but for salvation. This would immediately explain why publications like The Epoch Times support the Trump regime despite its highly undemocratic methods.