10 Things to Know About Falun Gong on the 26th Anniversary of Beijing’s Persecution
As Falun Gong practitioners and supporters gather this week in Washington D.C. and around the world to commemorate 26 years since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched a violent persecution against the group on July 20, 1999, the Falun Dafa Information Center has published a list of 10 key facts related to Falun Gong that any concerned citizen, policymaker, or journalist should know.
“To some, the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong may seem like an old story. But for practitioners in China and around the world, the regime’s abuses are a lived and tragic reality that it is still playing out every day,” says Levi Browde, executive director of the Falun Dafa Information Center. “The CCP’s fateful decision to eliminate Falun Gong in the summer of 1999 has had devastating consequences for tens of millions of ordinary Chinese families. Moreover, in recent years, Beijing has been manipulating overseas institutions—including some U.S. media outlets and the legal system—to export its repression of Falun Gong to the West.”
“The Falun Gong issue is no longer just about stopping terrible human rights abuses in China. It is also a test case for how Western democracies can maintain their sovereignty and national security in the face of the CCP’s relentless and increasingly sophisticated transnational repression,” says Browde. “Now, more than ever, we need to understand the Falun Gong issue. Therefore, we have put together this list of 10 things anyone should know.”
- Falun Gong is a meditation and spiritual practice founded on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. Falun Gong has no clergy or formal membership and is always offered free of charge. Tens of millions of people practice it in over 100 countries around the world. Read More.
- Falun Gong was widely popular in China during the 1990s with state-run media and government officials heaping praise upon the practice. However, after a government survey found there to be far more people practicing Falun Gong than there were members of the communist party, the CCP banned the practice in July 1999 and launched a brutal campaign to destroy it. Read more.
- The CCP has not crushed Falun Gong in China. Falun Gong survives and remains a priority target for the CCP and its security forces inside China and abroad, as evident from Chinese official speeches and local government websites. Moreover, the targeting of Falun Gong believers in China and globally has escalated since 2022. Read more.
- The Chinese regime routinely engages in mass arrests of practitioners in China and imposes long prison terms without due process, including on those detained for the first time. Read more.
- The regime’s persecution of Falun Gong practitioners is deadly. Those in police custody or prison are at constant risk of losing their lives due to torture, denial of medical treatment, and forced organ harvesting. Read more.
- Surveillance tactics—both low and high tech—are central to how Chinese security forces are able to detect, track, detain and imprison Falun Gong practitioners. Read more.
- Despite the brutality of the persecution, ordinary citizens across China persist not only in their faith in Falun Gong, but also in grassroots activism to counter the CCP’s false propaganda, rescue imprisoned practitioners, and chart a future course for China based on kindness and non-violence. Learn more.
- The CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong is not limited to China. The regime’s transnational repression and smear campaigns span the globe. Since 2022, at Xi Jinping’s direction, the regime has been engaging in a more aggressive and sophisticated campaign to intimidate, threaten, and silence Falun Gong and entities like Shen Yun Performing Arts, especially in the United States. Well-documented incidents include an attempt to bribe U.S. officials to turn against Shen Yun, manipulating the U.S. legal system, over 100 anonymous bomb threats, and social media manipulation campaigns. Read more.
- Falun Gong’s founder and those who practice have received vocal support from elected officials, celebrities, Chinese dissidents, and ordinary citizens around the world. By one tally, Falun Gong has been recognized in over 13,000 proclamations, letters of support, and resolutions issued by government officials globally over the past 26 years of persecution. Read more.
- Falun Gong remains a quintessential issue for understanding modern China as well as the CCP’s influence abroad. As was the case in 1999, when the CCP launched its campaign to wipe out Falun Gong, those who wish to truly comprehend today’s China, must also understand the lived reality of Falun Gong and its millions of believers in China and around the world. And to understand the CCP’s ability to press its agenda on foreign countries, look no further than the multi-faceted and increasingly sophisticated strategy to sabotage and silence Falun Gong abroad. Read more.
