History of Falun Gong

Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice that combines the practice of meditation with the moral philosophy articulated by its founder, Li Hongzhi. It emerged on the public radar in the Spring of 1992 in the northeastern Chinese city of Changchun, and was classified as a system of qigong identifying with the Buddhist tradition. Falun Gong initially enjoyed official sanction and support from Chinese government agencies, and the practice grew quickly on account of the simplicity of its exercise movements, impact on health, the absence of fees or formal membership, and moral and philosophical teachings.

In the mid-1990s, however, Falun Gong became estranged from the state-run qigong associations in 1996, leading to a gradual escalation of tensions with Communist Party authorities that culminated in the Spring of 1999. Following a protest of 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners near the Zhongnanhai government compound on 25 April 1999 to request official recognition, then-Communist Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin ordered Falun Gong be crushed. A campaign of propaganda, large-scale extrajudicial imprisonment, torture and coercive reeducation ensued.

Falun Gong practitioners have responded to the campaign with protests on Tiananmen Square, the creation of their own media companies overseas, international lawsuits targeting Chinese officials, and the establishment of a network of underground publishing sites to produce literature on the practice within China. Falun Gong has emerged as a prominent voice for an end to one-party rule in China.

Falun Gong has been classified variously as a form of spiritual cultivation practice in the tradition of Chinese antiquity, as a qigong discipline, or as a religion or new religious movement. Qigong refers to a broad set of exercises, meditation and breathing methods that have long been part of the spiritual practices of select Buddhist sects, of Daoist alchemists, martial artists, and some Confucian scholars.

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