Falun Gong in China: Review and Update

This report reexamines the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. In the early 1990s, the Chinese Government and the Communist Party welcomed the contributions of the Falun Gong spiritual movement: Its exercises and meditation had health benefits; its core teachings of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance promoted morality in a society increasingly aware of a spiritual vacuum. All that changed, however, in 1999, when several thousand Falun Gong practitioners peaceably assembled at Zhangnanhai Leadership Compound in Beijing. Chinese leaders were astonished that Falun Gong had grown so large and prominent outside of the Party's control; so large that Falun Gong practitioners might outnumber the Communist Party's 60 million members. In the year afterward, the Chinese Government and the Communist Party began the campaign of persecution against Falun Gong that now has lasted more than 13 years. The campaign has been severe, brutal, ugly, and vicious. Many tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been detained and arrested. In this year's 2012 Annual Report, the Commission urged the Chinese Government to permit Falun Gong practitioners to freely practice inside of China, to freely allow Chinese lawyers to represent citizens who challenge the legality of laws, regulations, rulings, or actions by officials, police, prosecutors, and courts that relate to religion; to eliminate criminal and administrative penalties that target religions and spiritual movements and have been used to punish Chinese citizens for exercising their right to freedom of religion. Originally published Dec. 18, 2012.