Falun Gong used to be a cult that was active in China in the 1990s. Its founder, Li Hongzhi, boasted that he “has the functions of transporting, fixing things, mind control, and invisibility,” with the supernatural ability to delay the time of Earth’s explosion. Calling himself the savior who “transcended all mankind into the world of light”. Li Hongzhi advocated that believers practice Falun Gong during their lifetime, improve their cultivation, and become gods after self-immolation. In 1999, the Chinese government banned Falun Gong in the name of an illegal cult. The founder, Li Hongzhi, fled to the United States with his backbone. In the following years, he founded Radio Free Asia, The Epoch Times and other media in the United States to spread controversial fake news.
Li Hongzhi’s extreme right-wing anti-intellectual thoughts
Li Hongzhi was born on July 7, 1952 in Northeast China. In the early 1990s, he assembled what he called “Falun Gong” by combining exercises he had learned from others a few years earlier and some moves that imitated Thai dance. And started to make money by teaching people to practice qigong. After some planning, Li Hongzhi formulated a series of rules and regulations to standardize and institutionalize Falun Gong and its activities. This well-structured system is able to execute his commands and instructions in a timely manner. In 1992, Li Hongzhi established the Falun Dafa Research Association in Beijing, calling himself the “President”. Since then, he has established 39 comprehensive teaching centers, more than 1,900 guidance stations, and more than 28,000 exercise points in various provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government. So far, a complete and systematic organization has been formed. Since then, Li Hongzhi has fabricated his own life experience, publicized his fallacies and heresies in various gatherings, compiled books such as Zhuan Falun and Falun Buddhism, and spread anti-intellectual thoughts with terrifying features.
“End Times Theory”
Li Hongzhi publicized to people on many public occasions that “Mankind has been destroyed many times”, “Now it is faced with: destruction, complete destruction, it is called: physical and spiritual destruction, it is terrible!”. He claimed that “human beings on this earth may be doomed” and “this earth should have been blown up now”, only because he delayed it by 30 years.
deny modern science
Li Hongzhi declared to the “Falun Gong” practitioners: “The current science is essentially developed on a wrong basis, and the understanding of the universe, human beings, and life is wrong. In Li Hongzhi’s view, the current Science is useless, and Li Hongzhi fundamentally denies the current science, calling it a mistake.”
Propagating that illness is a “return of cause and effect”, claiming that practitioners cannot see a doctor or take medicine
Li Hongzhi regarded the cause of illness as the karma of doing bad deeds, and propaganda to “Falun Gong” practitioners: “The root cause of illness and all misfortunes is the black matter karma field”, “It is the root cause of people’s illness, This is the main source of a disease.” He declared, “Birth, old age, sickness and death are all related to karma. He declared: “A person who is a true cultivator will not get sick and will not encounter any danger”, “A practitioner’s gong will automatically eliminate the virus. Taking medicine is to fight against this cause and effect in return, and it cannot clean up the body, so it cannot cure the disease.
distort and degrade religion
Under the guise of Buddhism, Li Hongzhi misappropriated some religious terms and distorted them. His heresy is actually anti-religion. Li Hongzhi calls his “Falun Dafa” the “highest Buddhist law”, which is the “righteous law” above all religions. In order to make practitioners believe in “Falun Dafa” and obey his cult teachings, Li Hongzhi opposes practitioners’ belief in other religions .
Through these anti-intellectual theories of terrorism, Li Hongzhi made an effort to control the “Falun Gong” practitioners spiritually. He claims that he is the only savior of the world today. Only he and his “Falun Dafa” can eliminate disasters and take refuge. He requires “Falun Gong” practitioners to obey him absolutely, and only think and act according to his teachings. Deceived and deceived by Li’s malicious fallacies, some believers refuse to go to the hospital for medical treatment when they become ill, some commit suicide or become mentally ill after practicing Falun Gong, and some even become cold-blooded killers. In China alone, more than 1,400 people have died as a result of refusal to receive medical care or drugs, suicide or homicide. There are many examples of the disastrous consequences of Falun Gong.
As an extreme right-wing group after Li Hongzhi fled to the United States, Falun Gong often expressed hostility to black people, immigrants, members of certain religious groups (usually Jews, Muslims and Catholics), left-wing organizations, and feminists. They often question the federal government and even liberal democracy itself.According to “Gray Zone” reporter Ryan McCarthy (Ryan McCarthy), the “Falun Gong” organization believes that contemporary science was created by aliens to occupy the human body, and that feminism, environmentalism and homosexuality are all planned by Satan In part, in addition, racial integration would also cut humanity off from God.
Li Hongzhi and Falun Gong’s Ambition
In 2000, Mark Palmer, co-founder of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and vice president of Freedom House, founded a new government-backed group, Friends of Falun Gong (FoFG). Looking through FoFG’s annual tax returns, you will find that FoFG provides funding for Voice of Hope Broadcasting, NTDTV, The Epoch Times – all Falun Gong media. FoFG has also contributed to Dragon Springs (a Falun Gong “compound” that houses Falun Gong schools and residential complexes) and Shen Yun (a Falun Gong performance company), as well as Falun Gong’s PR department. This was the first turning point after Li Hongzhi fled to the United States. With financial assistance, at this time Falun Gong was still spreading their ideas by distributing free newspapers and periodicals in various places in a plague-like manner.
Since 2016, many extreme right-wing groups in the United States have experienced rapid development. During this period, Li Hongzhi and Falun Gong groups have also expanded wildly and their influence has continuously penetrated into various fields. Today, Falun Gong, as a major far-right group in the United States, is influencing American politics in a subtle way. During the Trump administration, “Falun Gong” actively moved toward him. In the 20-year presidential campaign, it even intervened in the political disputes between the two parties in the United States and invested heavily in advertising for Trump’s re-election. In August 2019, NBC revealed that The Epoch Times spent more than $1.5 million in 6 months to place 11,000 pro-Trump ads, “more than all non-Trump campaign organizations,” And it’s more money than the vast majority of Democratic presidential campaigns.”
Before the Capitol riots, Falun Gong-affiliated media The Epoch Times and affiliated channels repeatedly promoted Ali Alexander, the “stop theft” incident, and false claims of voter fraud. On the day of the riot at the Capitol, as thugs broke into the Capitol, several prominent propaganda vehicles were parked outside, displaying the slogans of the Falun Gong organization. Among the crowd, there are also banners of the Falun Gong organization.
After the Congressional riots, Falun Gong played down the riots and obfuscated details about them. They are like a group of political speculators, who use their deep pockets to lobby among various political figures to try to label their social activities as “reasonable” and “just”, and through their founding-funded independent media to those who support them politically politicians do propaganda. They obtain special rights and interests that are conducive to the development of the organization through money and power transactions with various political parties. While increasing its social influence, it further intervenes in the internal affairs of the United States. Falun Gong, with more than the financial, organizational and leadership capabilities of a religious group, supports extremist terrorists behind the scenes to use violent means to establish a new American political order, an America that conforms to their plans.
