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Falun Gong (法輪功 — literally Practice of the Wheel of Law) is a controversial Chinese spiritual movement which was started in 1992 by Li Hongzhi. Central to Falun Gong are five sets of exercises (four standing, and one sitting) that involve meditation and are claimed to help in the "purification" of mind and the body. Employing many routines reminiscent of qigong breathing exercises, and theoretical language containing elements of Buddhism and Taoism, it adds also New Age and apocalyptic beliefs. Also known as Falun Dafa, the practice has grown swiftly in popularity around the world.
The government of the People's Republic of China began a nation-wide suppression of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999. Concerns were triggered especially when 10,000 practitioners gathered at the Central Appeal Office at Foyou street, outside Zhongnanhai. According to government sources, this event paralyzed Beijing's traffic and demonstrated that practitioners could gather in large demonstrations. Additionally, there were reports that significant numbers of Chinese officials (including military and police personnel) were practicing.
After the persecution began, the number of Falun Gong practitioners in China was estimated by the government at 1-2 million or even less; however, according to a state-conducted survey in 1998, there were several tens of millions of practitioners in China. Falun Gong sources claim that there were 70-100 million practitioners - which would exceed the estimated membership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Some believe that after the July 1999 crackdown, the Chinese regime began spreading a much lower number in an apparent attempt to downplay Falun Gong's presence in Chinese society. The New York Times mentioned a figure of 70 million in at least two articles, both released 27th of April, 1999 - one of them written by Seth Faison and another by Joseph Kahn, who professed that "Beijing puts the tally of ... followers at 70 million". Renee Schoof, writing for the Associated Press (26th of April, 1999), mentioned a figure of "at least 70 million, according to the State Sports Administration". Indisputable numbers are hard to confirm, because there are no membership or rosters in Falun Gong practice.
The CCP has burned and destroyed books and other materials about Falun Gong, and blocked access to internet resources about the topic.
Treatment of Falun Gong members has been regarded in the West as a major international human rights issue affecting freedom of religion and freedom of speech. The Chinese government justifies its actions by denouncing the group as an "evil cult" that spreads superstition and discourages the use of medical treatment for serious illnesses. Falun Gong adherents point out the non-violent nature of the teachings, and that practitioners are free to enter or leave the group as they please, and that this distinguishes Falun Gong from many tightly controlled religious cults. However, Li Hongzhi uses overtly religious language to describe himself and his mission.
Origins and beliefs
Falun Gong (simplified Chinese: 法轮功; traditional Chinese: 法輪功; pinyin: Fǎlún Gōng; literally "Practice of the Wheel of Law") is also known as Falun Dafa (simplified Chinese: 法轮大法; traditional Chinese: 法輪大法; pinyin: Fǎlún dàfǎ; lit. "Great Law of the Wheel of Law"). It was introduced to the general public in 1992 by Li Hongzhi (now residing in Brooklyn, New York), and grew very swiftly in popularity not only in China but worldwide. At the time, it was one of a number of spiritual exercise movements popular in China. It was popularized widely under the CCP's supervision for seven years. An estimate of the CCP presented in 1998 on state-owned television in Shanghai mentioned that in mainland China alone the number of practitioners were approximately 70-100 million. The actual number of Falun Gong followers is a matter of dispute: Falun Gong itself claims to have over 100 million, including 70 million inside China; current official Chinese estimates put the number at about ten million, while, prior to the onset of the persecution, surveys pointed to about 70 million practitioners.
Beliefs
Falun Gong's founder professes a number of beliefs, some of which are derived from elements of Taoism, and especially using terminology found in Chinese Buddhism as well as tenets unique to Falun Gong, including seemingly New Age and apocalyptic beliefs.
The three basic moral principles of Falun Gong are: Zhen 真, Shan 善 and Ren 忍, which translate approximately as 'Truthfulness, Benevolence (or Compassion), and Forbearance (or Tolerance)'. It is through focusing on these qualities that Falun Gong practitioners say they develop what they call their xinxing (moral character) which then purportedly gives the potential to develop high levels of 功, gōng, which Falun Gong practitioners use to mean "high level energy" (this is an unconventional use of the word, which in Mandarin Chinese means "merit" or "achievement" and by extension is part of compound terms describing a disciplined regimen.) Falun Gong adherents make the claim that gōng possesses healing properties, and that 氣 qi (which denotes "breath" or "vital energy") has no ability heal illnesses whatsoever; it can only serve to "purify one's own body". See also: qigong, kung fu, traditional Chinese medicine.
In 2002, Li claimed that after spreading Falun Gong for ten years, some of humanity's predestinations had been averted, including a "comet catastrophe" and "the third world war."
In some of his published lectures, Li states that aliens, gods and demons exist, humans have a "celestial eye" in their pineal gland (tianmu, also known as the "third eye"), that Earth has been influenced by extraterrestrials , and that remains of unknown prehistoric civilizations can still be found, for instance, in the bottom of the oceans. According to some sources, Li also explains that mixed-race people are instruments of an alien plot to destroy humanity's link to heaven. "By mixing the races of humans, the aliens make humans cast off gods," he said in a lecture in Switzerland. These same sources claim that he made a statement: "by embedding their technology and science in human bodies, aliens control their thoughts". However, this is one of the several instances where the alleged direct quotes cannot be traced back to Li. In his Switzerland lecture, Li stated: "The way alien beings get human beings to shake free of the gods is to mix the races, causing human beings to become rootless people, just like the plant hybrids people make nowadays." And further, "They have formed a layer of their body within the human body." According to Li, humans are not to be blamed for this: "There are other reasons why they dare to do this sort of thing. It has happened because the Fa of the universe has deviated and gods no longer look after things. So it has to do with high-level beings as well. If this situation is to be turned around, it has to begin from high levels."
Interviewed by Time magazine in May 1999 , Li declined to name his own teachers or to delineate the actual provenance of Falun Gong.
Purifying the body
Central to Falun Gong are five sets of exercises (including meditation, four standing, and one sitting) that are said to help in the purification of the mind and the body. Falun Gong practitioners believe that illnesses are the result of karma (similar to "black" or "bad" karma in other systems), and teach that the practice of these exercises will cleanse the body and eliminate the karma, thereby improving health. In Li Hongzhi's compilation of nine lectures that he originally gave throughout China, Zhuan Falun, he states that he can personally eliminate karma; however, he also repeatedly asserts that his purpose is not to cure diseases. All Falun Gong exercises are taught free of charge by practitioners and are detailed in Li's books, which may also be found free of charge on their websites (such as http://www.falundafa.org).
In Zhuan Falun, Li states that a Falun resides in the abdomen of all true practitioners of Falun Gong. Falun means "Wheel of Law" in the Chinese language, which appears similar to the Dharma wheel or Chakra; to Falun Gong practitioners, the Falun is specifically a wheel consisting of five srivatsas and four taijitu, as illustrated on the top right-hand corner of this page. The Falun is said to be a miniature of the universe, and once it is installed into the abdomen, it turns continuously. When the Falun turns clockwise, it absorbs energy from the universe into the body; when it turns counter-clockwise it eliminates waste from the body. Some of Falun Gong practitioners believe they can see this Falun rotating in their abdomens, provided their "celestial eye" (said to be associated with the pineal body) is open.
A health survey was conducted to 12,731 Beijing practitioners in 1998: "Our results show that Falun Gong's disease healing rate is 99.1% with a cure rate of 58.5%; Improvement rate is 80.3% in physical health and 96.5% in mental health. The survey indicates that Falun Gong has a significant effect in disease healing and health promotion." However, the results remain controversial and call for further research.
Morality
Li states that the five exercises and the Falun are not sufficient to ensure a person's physical, mental and spiritual well-being; only by living a morally upright life according to the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance" can a Falun Gong practitioner be said to experience increased vitality, health, and peace of mind, according to Li's theories. This principle is referred to as upgrading xinxing or "heart/mind nature".
Specifically, Falun Gong teaches a form of conservative morality. The practitioners call it emphasizing virtue (de), being a good person in all environments, and returning to one's original nature. As in many traditional practices, lust is thought of as something that hinders a person's progress in cultivation, and premarital sex is abjured. In addition, the act of homosexuality is regarded as a sin. "The disgusting homosexuality shows the dirty abnormal psychology of the gay who has lost his ability of reasoning at the present time" states Volume II of Li's Zhuan Falun. In Frankfurt (1998) he was asked about whether homosexuals can practice cultivation. Li said yes, provided that they give up their behavior. "You are wantonly indulging your thoughts. Your thoughts, like the ones I just mentioned, are not actually you. The mentality that makes you homosexual was driven by postnatally-formed bad things. But you yourself were numbed by them and went along with them and wallowed in the mud. You need to find yourself again and stop doing those filthy things. Gods view them as filthy."
However, these criteria only apply to people who want to cultivate in Falun Dafa. In Frankfurt (1998) Li stated: "we don't bother with the affairs of everyday people. How the society of everyday people develops is everyday people's business. Here we're just teaching the Fa to cultivators."
Falun Gong also believes in the act of retribution, and all good and evil deeds will be paid in return in the due time. Because of this, they see the Chinese government crackdown as an act of "evil", and pro-Falun Gong groups have reported of a number of people dying or suffering spontaneously after their alleged involvement in the crackdown of Falun Gong.
The taking of any life is said to have negative consequences, and miscegenation seems to be discouraged. In his lectures, Li controversially suggests that different races bear the image of the gods that created them and that each race of people on earth have their own cosmic paradises, but that people of mixed race do not. According to an article by Andreas Landwehr, a journalist writing for Deutsche Presse Agentur and reproduced in the German Scientology News, Li has called people of mixed race "defective" and said, "Anybody who does not belong to his race will not be cared for. I do not just say that. It is really true. I am revealing the secret of heaven to you." However, these words as such haven't been found in any of his public lectures or interviews. It is possibly a misquote of what Li said in Sydney (1996), "I have already talked about such interracial children. I have only mentioned the phenomena in this Dharma-ending period. If you are an interracial child, it is, of course, neither your fault nor your parents' fault. Anyway, it is just such a chaotic situation brought about by mankind, in which such a phenomenon has appeared. 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. This is the truth, and it is not that I'm making up something here. What I am telling everyone are heavenly secrets. All interracial children were born in the Dharma-ending period. People are not to be blamed for it, because everyone is drifting in the tide, and nobody knows the truth. This is the way they have come through. If you want to practice cultivation, I can help. As for which paradise you will go to, we will need to look at your situation. I will assimilate more of whichever portion that is better preserved. Anyway, you should concentrate on your cultivation and should not concern yourself with these things." Some Falun Gong practitioners have stated that the world misunderstands Li's views on the issue, and elsewhere in Zhuan Falun it is stressed that all sinners and sentient beings should be treated with tolerance and compassion and that practitioners should not act in an extreme manner.
Government crackdown
For the first few years after introducing Falun Gong to the world, Li was granted several awards by Chinese governmental organizations to encourage him to continue promoting what was then considered by them to be a wholesome practice. At the Asian health expo of 1992 and 1993 in Beijing, Falun Gong was successively nominated as the "star qigong". From 1992 to 1994 Li lectured regularly all over the country in front of large audiences. The practice was popularized in mainland China for seven years, mainly by word of mouth and through the Internet.
At the end of May 1998, a Chinese physicist from the Chinese Academy of Science, He Zuoxiu, denounced Falun Gong in an interview on Beijing Television. The program, after showing a video of one of the practice sites, called it a "feudalistic superstition". Falun Gong practitioners have affimed that the people seen in the video were not actually practitioners. The TV station was swamped by protest letters from Falun Gong practitioners, and practitioners were also protesting in front of its offices.
On April 11, 1999, He Zuoxiu published an article in the Tianjin College of Education’s Youth Reader magazine entitled “I Do Not Agree with Youth Practicing Qigong .” From April 18 to April 24, Falun Gong practitioners went to the Tianjin College of Education, which published the magazine, and related governmental agencies to hold daily protests.
Some practitioners were arrested and were, according to reports , beaten by the police. Several days later, for 12 hours on April 25, about 10,000 people gathered at the Central Appeal Office at Foyou street, outside Zhongnanhai, the headquarters of Chinese Communist Government and lined up along a 2 km stretch. They held no signs and chanted no slogans. Premier Zhu Rongji met with some representatives of the practitioners and promised to resolve the situation within three days. The practitioners dispersed peacefully after they received word that Zhu had agreed to their requests. Nevertheless, it was widely reported by the Chinese media that Li's ability to organize a protest in the heart of the Chinese Communist Party alarmed many senior leaders, particularly Jiang Zemin. According to some estimates, at this time there were more than 100,000 Falun Gong practitioners in Beijing alone.
On June 10, 1999, the government established the "6-10" office, an extra-constitutional body, to facilitate the crackdown. Most political analysts believe that this was the direct result of events that occurred in April 1999.
In July 1999, the government declared the practice of Falun Gong illegal. The government had become especially concerned by reports that significant numbers of government officials, as well as military and police personnel, were practitioners. Another influence in the change in policy was the cultural memory of the 19th century Taiping Rebellion, when a religious cult had caused a civil war.
"By unleashing a Mao-style movement , Jiang is forcing senior cadres to pledge allegiance to his line," a Communist Party veteran later told CNN's Willy Lam. "This will boost Jiang's authority-and may give him enough momentum to enable him to dictate events at the pivotal 16th Communist Party congress next year."
The Falun Dafa Information Center, a website which "endeavors to compile, cross-check, organize and publish" reports about the government crackdown on Falun Gong, has confirmed that at least 2,792 (December 2005) Falun Gong practitioners have died while in police or government custody.
Falun Gong representatives and practitioners have said that about 70 million people practice it, which is more than there are members in the Chinese Communist Party (about 60 million people). Others claim that there were practitioners amongst high officials of the government and that several high ranking army officers had embraced the practice as well.
The CCP has issued reports stating that some believers hurt or kill themselves after reading Li's books, and that 1404 people died in China as result of practising Falun Gong, mostly by not seeking medicine for various illnesses . Some scientists in China claim that there is no scientific evidence to show Falun Gong is beneficial for health. A frequent argument made by Chinese scientists is that followers are encouraged to avoid, by practice, most conventional medicine.
He Zuoxiu has also accused some Falun Gong practitioners of harassment because of the articles he wrote, and published a book entitled How Falun Gong Harassed Me and My Family.
The media war
The People's Republic of China (PRC), led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), became concerned by the number of people practicing Falun Gong in all segments of the Chinese society, as well as the ability of practitioners to gather in large demonstrations almost instantaneously. On July 20, 1999, the government began a nation-wide suppression of Falun Gong, referring to the practice as an "evil cult" spreading superstition to deceive people. To be noted that at the time there were said to be 100,000 practitioners in Beijing alone. Jiang, the former leader of the CCP, condemned the group in the state-controlled media, stating a position the Chinese government promotes to this day. Li, has in the past denied that it is either a religion or a cult, despite its using some language similar to Chinese Buddhism and Taoism. In recent years, however, Li has been using increasingly religious language to describe himself and his mission as well as the spiritual significance of Falun Gong. He claims that his practice of "Fa-rectification" encompasses the entire universe, purporting to include and go beyond all aspects of the Christian, Buddhist and Taoist religions . In distinction to many tightly controlled religious cults, Falun Dafa practitioners are free to learn or leave as they please.
The CCP claims that the practice has deviated its focus from engaging in spiritual cultivation to engaging in politics, basing their opinions on the existence of numerous websites disparate from, yet in support of, Falun Gong (such as Friends of Falun Gong). Due to an implication derived from its core principles, the teachings of Falun Gong are said to forbid any political involvement, and practitioners claim to have little interest in power or politics, the large number of political protests leading to the crackdown notwithstanding. However, Falun Gong's supporters, such as The Epoch Times, tend to be conservative and anti-Communist. Kangang Xu, a Falun Gong speaker, is the Chairman of the paper's board.
In China, the CCP has blocked access to certain sites on the Internet (including this article, see History of Misplaced Pages), and burned Falun Gong's books and materials. In addition, some junk mail filters are targeting spams related to the Falun Gong spiritual movement and other dissidents.
On the other hand, there have been incidents in which China's state-owned television networks were jammed with reports on the persecution of Falun Gong. In addition, a syndicated Chinese language newspaper with worldwide circulation, The Epoch Times (English)(Chinese), is accused of having a pro-Falun Gong platform, mainly because it has been the mouthpiece of much of Falun Gong's claims of suppression and torture, but also partly because it has published articles suggesting a declining state in the CCP. These articles include Nine Commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party (jiuping), New Zealand to Celebrate 7 Million Renouncing Chinese Communist Party, and others .
According to WOIPFG reports, eight Falun Gong practitioners were arrested after one of the jamming incidents in Changchun city, including Liu Chengjun, who was allegedly tortured to death after 21 months incarceration in Jilin Prison.
The Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident
The campaign of government criticism begun in 1999 was considered by most observers to be largely ineffectual until January 2001, when persons whom the government claimed were Falun Gong practitioners, among them a 13-year-old child, doused themselves with gasoline and set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square. Videos of the incident were widely broadcast on Chinese state television, as were interviews with the 13-year-old, who was horribly burned and whose mother did not survive the incident.
Falun Gong practitioners strongly denied that the people who set themselves on fire could have been actual Falun Gong practitioners, since suicide is strictly forbidden by the movement's principles. Some have suggested that the incident was either a hoax or staged, pointing out several inconsistencies in the video footage broadcasted by State-run Xinhua News Agency. For example, one of the burn victims appears to be wearing protective clothing, has unburnt hair, and the green plastic bottle that supposedly carried the gasoline was not even burned. Independent, third-party investigations continue to be denied by the PRC government. Supporters of Falun Gong have created a video called "False Fire," which deconstructs the incident in slow motion.
Many observers believe that the incident helped turn public opinion in China against the group and has rallied support for the government crackdown.
Foreign views on Falun Gong
The persecution of Falun Gong practitioners has been regarded in the West as a major international human rights issue. In 2000, Ian Johnson of the Wall Street Journal investigated the reports of abuse, and published a series of investigative articles that won him the Pulitzer Prize the following year. According to the Falun Dafa Information Center (FDI), there are, as of December 13, 2005, 2,792 verified cases of Falun Gong practitioners dying in police and government custody mainland China, giving rise to allegations of torture and police brutality. The report also states that hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been detained, with more than 100,000 sentenced to forced-labor camps. Moreover, there are more than 30,000 documented cases of persecution. The CCP does not deny detaining Falun Gong practitioners, but insists that they died from hunger strikes and refusals to seek medical treatments.
As of December 2005, 61 lawsuits have been filed in about 30 countries charging Jiang and several other senior officials with genocide, torture, and crimes against humanity for their roles in the treatment of Falun Gong in mainland China. (See a discussion on universal jurisdiction.) In at least one case, in Belgium, the lawsuit did not proceed further. If such allegations are true, China is directly violating the United Nations Convention Against Torture (UNCAT), also ratified by China. Its second article states: "No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture", and "An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture."
Christian reactions to Falun Gong are mixed. Some churches have remained silent over the issue, partly because certain Christian groups are also declared illegal in China; indeed, the Roman Catholic Church in Hong Kong is openly sympathetic to Falun Gong. Other churches, however, have accused Falun Gong of being a New Age occult group, and of misrepresenting the teachings of Christianity.
Some exit counselors have recognized characteristics of cults in Falun Gong. For instance, Rick Ross, an independent and self-proclaimed cult expert, writes that "on its characterisation of Falun Gong as a cult that aims to destabilise the regime, I think Beijing is largely in the right. Falun Gong looks, acts and smells like a cult with grandiose earthly political ambition, not to mention the interplanetary stuff."
The practice of Falun Gong is currently present in more than 80 countries across the world; government reactions have ranged from open acceptance (United States) to tolerance (Australia) to suspicion (Japan and Singapore) to arrests (France). Arrests in France took place after pressure from Chinese diplomats during Hu Jintao's visit in 2004. The arrests were later criticized by politicians in France and across Europe.
Falun Dafa umbrella groups contend that the Chinese authorities spread disinformation in Western countries in order to portray Falun Gong in a negative light, and to get the help of their governments in fighting it.
French Falun Gong, Tibetan Buddhist groups, and other organisations regularly hold protests, sit-ins, distributions of leaflets, and other activities critical of the Chinese government. In 2004, the French Falun Gong association asked president Jacques Chirac to convey a message to the Chinese authorities asking them to stop the crackdown . Falun Gong practitioners have filed criminal charges in France against some officials of the Chinese police apparatus.
24-hour continuous protests
Falun Gong supporters in Vancouver, Canada continue to stage what they claim is the world's longest-running continuous protest against China's treatment of Falun Gong practitioners. The protest, which runs twenty-four hours a day, is located at the entrance to the Chinese Consulate on Granville Street. There are also similar protests being staged in front of the Chinese Embassy in London, New York, and other cities worldwide. They have been continuous since June 5, 2002. The government of Hong Kong allows nearly continuous demonstrations, albeit on a small scale, in tourist areas.
Falun Gong presence overseas
More recently, despite their stated disinterest in politics, Falun Gong practitioners have been seen on the streets in major metropolitan areas, directly informing the public of the alleged treatment their fellow practitioners in China (and worldwide according to some pamphlets) receive from the Chinese government. In many Western cities (particularly Manhattan, New York City) several elaborate streetside demonstrations can be seen that portray graphic scenes of alleged government brutality. Amidst these public displays are signs with simple slogans, such as "Falun Dafa is Good" and "Bring Jiang to Justice." Falun Gong practitioners are seen asking passerbys to sign petitions against the CCP, or simply to voice support for the movement and condemn the torture.
The Falun Gong mouthpiece in the West is the Epoch Times, distributed for free in metropolitan areas in the US, Canada, and Australia; however, the newspaper is intended for a wider audience, and not all of its employees are practitioners, although they share the anti-CCP agenda. Sound of Hope, a radio station broadcasting to China as well as Western countries, and a TV station named New Tang Dynasty are operated mostly by Falun Gong practitioners.
Practicing Falun Gong is becoming a legitimate method to gain immigration visas, so many would-be immigrants, both legal and illegal, have attached themselves to the movement in the hope of gaining permanent residency in Western nations such as Australia, Canada, and the U.S.
Other causes or groups that have supported or attached themselves to Falun Gong include environmentalists and anti-nuclear campaigners; anti-Communist movements; pro-Tibetan independence and pro-Taiwan independence movements, among others.
References
- Li Hongzhi, Zhuan Falun: The Complete Teachings of Falun Gong (Yih Chyun, Fair Winds Press edition 2001) ISBN 1931412537
- Li Hongzhi, Falun Gong (Law Wheel Qigong) (Yih Chyun, 1993)
- Li Hongzhi, Essentials for Further Advancement (Yih Chyun, 2000?)
- Danny Schechter, Falun Gong's Challenge to China (Akashic Books, 2000) hardback ISBN 1888451130, paperback ISBN 1888451270
- Barend ter Haar, Falun Gong - Evaluation and Further References (incl. extensive bibliography)
External links
- United States 9th Circuit Court of Appeals discision reversing the Board of Immigration Appeals order of removal of a woman who provided a Falun Gong member with newspaper articles critical of Chinese Government oppression
- Falun Dafa official website
- Falun Dafa Information Center
- Falun Gong - Evaluation and Further References (Prof. Barend ter Haar, Leiden Univ.) An introductory analysis of the Falun Gong movement in Chinese society and culture from the perspective of the scholar of traditional Chinese religious culture.
- Falun Gong
- On the Collusion of Jiang Zemin and the Chinese Communist Party to Persecute Falun Gong, by the Epoch Times, an anti-CCP newspaper
- Falun Gong practitioner's video about the Chinese govt. persecution
- In Memory Memorial website for practitioners deaths while under persecution, updated with their stories
- Global Mission to Rescue Persecuted Falun Dafa Practitioners Includes a database of Falun Gong persecution cases in China. Searchable by Location, Victim, Criminal, Date.
- World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG)
- About the arrest and imprisonment of U.S. Citizen Charles Lee in China
- Friends of Falun Gong
- Series of 2001 Pulitzer Prize winning articles on the persecution of Falun Gong in China By Ian Johnson, Wall Street Journal
- Time Asia's article on Falun Gong (May 10, 1999)
- Nine Commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party from The Epoch Times
- Falun Gong Info: The True Nature of the Falun Gong by Samuel Luo, a Falun Gong critic.
- A 2003 speech by Li, singled out for its controversiality.
- Critical exposé from cult watchdog group
- Tsinghua University practitioners' views on science. Part 1 and part 2.
- Controversial preliminary data and claims on Falun Gong's effect on the body: cardiac cells, neutrophil functions, gene expression, and immunity.
- Link to a story about controversial quotes from Li Hongzhi about FLG
- Critical view of Falungong by the Chinese government