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Falun Gong, and Why It Matters 4 6 8 10 Issue 1 FREE 2012 SPECIAL EDITION Falun Gong, and Why it Matters Making Sense of Today’s China Also Inside sk a China watcher thing will be missing from Making the Deal what the five most criti- the analysis. Something 4 In China, be careful whose hand you shake Acal factors to understand- 100-million-people big. ing China are and you will Something that, once under- Newfound Health hear a range of responses. stood, can fundamentally 6 Millions are discovering a path to wellness Economic growth. Ram- change how we think about pant corruption. The gap China and, as importantly, Sorting out the Facts between rich and poor. how we engage with it. 8 How misinformation was used to breed hatred Communist Party infight- That something is Falun ing. And so on. Gong. Cultural Renewal But in most cases, some- Continued on page 2 10Through Falun Gong, ancient ways come to life 2 politics Making Sense of Today’s China Why Falun Continued from front page Few outside China have much knowledge of it. Those who do, Gong is the have a vague sense that it’s old news. But if you truly grasp this Missing issue, insight is shed on some of the most intractable paradoxes of Piece to the present day China: • Why does China still produce Puzzle so many tainted products despite never-ending campaigns against corruption? • Why is the Communist Party investing billions in internet censorship, surveillance cameras, and labor camps while schools and hospitals go without desper- ately needed resources? • Why are China’s leaders so reti- cent to loosen their grip over the judiciary and media, even at the cost of their credibility in the pub- lic’s eyes? NOT JUST LATTÉS AND IPHONES: To truly know today’s China, one has to look beyond the Starbucks and Apple The answer to this puzzle begins stores to a brutal campaign that has turned right and wrong upside down. in 1992, exactly 20 years ago, in a humble schoolhouse in northeast the moral fabric of Chinese society. tality—as they pertained to Falun China. That day, Mr. Li Hongzhi, Imagine As the words Truthfulness, Com- Gong, and beyond. Did You Know? the latest in a lineage of spiritual passion, and Tolerance became Homemade leaflets were made, masters dating back thousands of taboo, upholding these values DVDs were burned, banners were • By 1999, 100 million people an effort to in China were practicing years, gave his first public teach- became difficult and dangerous— hung, tools to circumvent internet Falun Gong, slowly stabiliz- ing of Falun Gong. eradicate a Falun Gong practitioner or not— censorship were developed. (See ing society amidst a ferocious atmosphere of “Unlikely Heroes,” page 15.) • The persecution unleashed A force for good practice followed lies, torture, and discrimination. Today, after over a decade of against them that year Falun Gong was different from Officials who actively participated oppression, some 20 to 40 million reversed this trend, spawn- other qigong practices being by 1 in every 12 in the torture and killing of Falun Falun Gong practitioners actively ing corruption, torture, and taught. While it did include slow- Gong adherents were promoted. circulate information in China a host of intractable prob- lems that will remain unre- moving energy exercises, it also citizens. Family members were forced to turn or send it abroad. In turn, invest- solved until the campaign involved something more— against each other. Members of the ment in surveillance cameras and ends teachings that guided students on public were offered cash rewards for tracking equipment is skyrocket- • The Falun Gong story offers a path of moral self-improvement turning in their neighbors. ing in China as the Party redou- critical insight into events in and discovery in their daily lives. Meanwhile, those who bles its efforts to detain them. China, including the recent At the core of these teachings refused to collaborate or stood Meanwhile, distorted promo- infighting in the Commu- were three principles and the eradicate Falun Gong from the up against the campaign were tion criteria breed lawlessness nist Party’s top ranks desire to align one’s self with face of China. fired, abducted, imprisoned, and and corruption throughout soci- them in thought and action— Jiang was jealous and fearful sometimes killed. Even attorneys ety, from the food sector to the Truthfulness, Compassion, and of how something outside the and honest government officials medical industry. Tolerance (Zhen 真 Shan 善 Ren 忍 ). Party’s control could inspire tens weren’t spared. At a time when Chinese citi- The practice spread quickly by of millions of people, even if it was Hundreds of thousands of hard- zens are protesting daily for more word of mouth, as people saw the for the good of society. Experts at working, upright people from accountability and freedom, Party lives of those around them chang- the time said the move was Jiang’s every profession and of every leaders dare not loosen their grip. ing. Sickly grandmothers trans- personal decision, even obsession. age were sent to labor camps for To do so, they fear, would lead to formed into the epitome of health. In going after Falun Gong, Jiang “re-education.” It was a domestic their crimes against Falun Gong Couples nearing divorce saved launched an assault on a core con- brain drain—and moral crisis—of being revealed and their best their marriage. Within seven tingent of mainstream society. staggering proportions. weapons—imprisonment, propa- years, an estimated 100 million Imagine what was entailed by an ganda, and censorship—neutered. people had taken up Falun Gong. effort to eradicate a practice fol- Here to stay For those outside China, these The impact extended beyond lowed by 1 in every 12 citizens. Despite all of Jiang’s efforts, Falun dynamics present a dilemma. Do the family circle. Policemen who Jiang needed massive propa- Gong would not disappear. The we engage with the Communist learned Falun Gong would stop ganda campaigns to demonize ideas it espoused and the benefits Party powers that be in order to taking bribes, and workers would Falun Gong. New labor camps and it offered were too compelling protect short-term interests and a cease stealing from their factory. makeshift detention centers to to be erased—even under the superficial appearance of stability? Though the country was still hold the huge influx of detainees. relentless brutality of a well-oiled Or, do we resist the Party’s co- under the Communist Party’s An extralegal police task force to authoritarian machine. optation tactics and do our utmost thumb, this critical mass was implement the plan. And an inter- Falun Gong practitioners per- to preserve a force that offers the beginning to truly stabilize Chi- net censorship apparatus to stop sisted in their faith, with many prospects of long-term hope, sta- nese society. people from learning the truth resuming the practice after bility, and prosperity for China? UNEXPECTED MESSAGE: Resi- about what was happening. release from custody. At this critical moment in his- dents of Jiamusi in northeast China A fateful decision More than that, practitioners tory, China’s future may seem awoke in July 2011 to find this ban- This trajectory dramatically Repressing virtue, responded with a massive, inno- unpredictable. But one thing is cer- ner reminding them: “Truthfulness, reversed in July 1999, when then- rewarding vice vative and nonviolent movement tain: one can’t go wrong by stand- Compassion, Tolerance is good. Fa- Communist Party chief Jiang Besides the human and financial to encourage other Chinese to see ing up for the cause of Truthful- lun Dafa is good.” Zemin launched a campaign to cost of the campaign, it also tore at through the Party’s lies and bru- ness, Compassion, and Tolerance. politics 3 China Today The Story Behind the Headlines Blood on Bo Xilai’s Hands n February 6, 2012, Wang of conscience and selling them at Lijun, the former police Map of China high prices to rich patients. (see What is Falun Gong Asking for? chief for the megacity page 9) OChongqing, walked into a U.S. More recently in Chongqing, at Since the Chinese Commu- Consulate in southwest China to least 300 Falun Gong practitioners nist Party first launched the seek political asylum, setting off Liaoning were detained and sent to special persecution, Falun Gong one of the biggest scandals in Chi- province brainwashing centers in a Bo and practitioners have been urging that the following nese politics in decades. Wang-led “strike hard” campaign. three steps be taken to end Beijing About 24 hours later, Wang left All of these details are critical to it. As circumstances change, the building, walked into the understanding the current scan- Chinese officials may try to hands of Beijing police, and was dal and party infighting. Yet, they negotiate to escape liability. immediately taken away to an have been almost entirely absent But, to do justice to the victims and ensure such undisclosed location. from mainstream news coverage. horrors do not repeat, the Chongqing In the fallout from the incident, The media would seem to have a world needs to resist their Bo Xilai, head of the Communist blind spot when it comes to Falun attempts and insist on the Party in Chongqing, was removed Gong. Consider these following: from his post and more impor- points: Release all Falun Gong tantly, from the party’s Politburo. prisoners of conscience Bo’s hopes of being chosen for the • First, in light of At this moment, hundreds all-powerful Standing Committee the blood already of thousands of Falun Gong that rules China were promptly on his hands, Bo’s practitioners are still wrong- dashed.
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