Li Hongzhi founded the Falun Gong group in 1992. Li was a minor provincial government official, born in 1952 in Northeast Chiria. In the 1980's, he served as a park policeman in Jilin province. During this period, popular interest in qigong grew tremendously. This popu1arity ultimately led to Li becoming a practitioner of qigong, which in turn resulted in the founding ofthe Falun Gong. Li created this offshoot of qigong by combining it with elements ftom the Chinese traditional beliefs of Buddhism and Daoism.(Benjamin Penny, The life and tirnes 0f Li Hongzhi: Falun Gong and Religious Biography. The China Quarterly. 175 (London: September 2003.): 643.)

Possibly as a result of China' s reputation for religious persecution, Falun Gong does not identify itself as a religion. However, it is clear that Falun Gong shares similarities with religions, such as salvation and other religious aspects like a set of metaphysical convictions that include supernatural beliefs and an afterlife. Falun Gong's similarities with religious societies further lie in its combinations of elements ftom a variety of sources, namely, Buddhism, Daoism, classical folk religion, and magic. Li's writing and lectures in fact are similar to historical Chinese sectarian religious' societies such as the White Lotus. Its followers can be viewed as ordinary  people involved in society. Within this mixture, Falun Gong also contains elements of modernity. Despite similarities with earlier sects, Li disclaims a belief in the main god of these earlier religious societies.

Historically, groups such as the Taiping rebels and the Boxers clashed with modernizing forces. Similarly, many Falun Gong beliefs c1ash with current modernizing forces such as science and political ideology.Falung Gong's beliefs and practices have many categories, including cosmology, gods, matter and life, humankind and the fall, previous civilizations, UFO's, moral law, karma, reincarnation, soul, predestination, parallel lives, law wheel cultivation, cultivation practice, physical transformation, whereby Li Hongzhi is seen  as divine. (Li Hongzhi, China Falun Gong (NY: Universe Pub NY Corp, 1998), 12-21.)

Li Hongzhi holds that the universe is govemed by certain moral principles because reason can be used to manipulate moral truths and those who do not have an understanding of the moral truths. Much ofthe morallaw that Li advocates is also accepted by most other religions and societies (do not kill, do not steal, etc.)

However Li's morallaw is claimed to be comprised of zhen, shan, and ren, which can be understood as truth, benevolence, and tolerance. Everything in the universe must abide by these laws in some way or form. With regard to humans, these laws determine the manner in which human society progresses, according to Li.

„Society develops independent of one's will. Nobody can determine its course...Life is benevolent... There is the characteristic of Zhen (truth, truthfullness)-Shan (benevolence, kindness, compassion)-Ren (endurance, forbearance, tolerance) in the tiny particles of air, rock, wood, characteristic of Zhen-Shan-Ren is the sole criterion for determining wbat is good or bad...As a human being, ifyou follow... Zhen Shan-Ren, you are a good person. One who goes against this cbaracteristic is genuinely a bad person. (Ibid. 349)

Li Hongzhi also appears to support what is commonly classified as alternative history theories.
And draws on this ideas about earlier civilizations. In his book Li states:

According to Darwin's theory of evolution, humans evolved from apes, and civilization is no more than ten thousBnd years old. Yet archaeological findings have revealed that in the caves of the European Alps there exist 200-thousandyear-old frescoes that exhibit a very high level of artistry--one rar beyond the abillties or modern people. In the museum or the National University of Peru, there is a large rock on which is an engraved figure who holds a telescope and is observing the stars. This figure is more than thirty thousand years old. As we know, Galileo invented a astronomical telescope in 1609, just over three hundred years ago. How could there have been a telescope thirty thousand years ago? There Is an iron pillar in India whose iron content is over ninety-nine percent. Even modern smelting technology cannot produce iron with such high purity; it had already surpassed the level ofmodern technology. Who created those civilizations? How could human beings-who would have been microorganisms in those times-have created these things? These discoveries bave caught the attention of seientists worldwide. They are eonsidered to be from prehistoric culture sinee they prove inexplicable. (Li Hongzhi, China Fa/un Gong (NY: Universe Pub NY Corp, 1998),4.)

In his cultivation Practice described in the same book, Li claims that human salvation can only take placeon an individual basis. This is done by each person undertaking the Falun Gong's cultivation practice. Only through cultivationpractice, Li states, can one's life be changed and the individual attain genuine freedom.

 It is thus believed that by practicing Falun Gong, one's negative karma will be abolished and with it, illnesses will be cured and good health ensured. More than that, the practice ofFalun Gong will eventually result in the practitioner's attainment of enlightenment, at which time he or she will be transfonned into a living god. (Ibid, 27.)

According to Li, performing Falun Gong exercises will improve one's moral quality, mind, and nature. However, Li also claims that the exercises alone are not sufficient. Practitioners of Falun Gong must also understand the psychological dimension in which the true facts about the universe can be learned. (Ibid., 82.)

Thus in many ways, Falun Gong was initially viewed as similar to other schools of qigong and was not particularly controversial at the onset. (James R. Lewis and Jcspcr Aagaard Pctcrscn, Controversial New Religions (USA: Oxford Univcrsity Press, 2004), 208.)

In 1992 and 1993, Falun Gong received special mention at the Beijing Oriental Health Expo, where its founder, was credited with perfoming miracle cures in public. By 1996, some Chinese authorites were condemning Falun Gong as 'superstition and false science' (largely because of claims Master Li made about himself) and calling for it to be banned. On public television in Shanghai in 1998, government officials credited it with having between 70 and 100 million followers, without showing undue concern.

However, trouble really began for Falun Gong in 1999, when a group of practitioners were arrested and beaten by police in Tianjin , a coastal city about 150 kilometres southeast of Beijing. It is possible that Li claiming Falun Gong's supremacy over all other schools of qigong  partly contributed to the controversy. Li claimed even  that Falun Gong is superior to qigong by doing exactly what he portrays western science as doing, operating within a framework. By asserting Falun Gong's superiority over other forms of qigong, Li makes the assumption that the ideals within the framework of the Buddhist school's qigong are superior to that of others without providing a valid explanation as to why he perceives this to be so.

On 25 April, 1999, a massive silent protest involving over 10,000 Falun Gong was organised in Beijing. The protesters sat in total silence for twenty-four hours surrounding the government enclave of Zhongnanhai on Tiananmen Square. They sent representatives to meet with the authorities, and requested the release of the Tianjin prisoners. At the end of the demonstration they picked up their litter and quietly dispersed.

On 22 July, 1999, Falun Gong was declared an ‘evil cult’ by the Beijing authorities, and totally banned, meriting 'a serious ideological and political struggle that would have a bearing on the future of the Communist Party and the State'. Since then, the Chinese state has waged a war of merciless persecution against Falun Gong and its adherents. According to Amnesty International, the use of torture, imprisonment without trial, and 're-education-through-labour camps', or laogai has increased significantly in the last four years of the anti-Falun Gong campaign.

Historical Interaction however between the Chinese Communist Party and the Falun Gung Sect in fact go further back, namely to September 1976, the head ofthe CCP, Mao Zedong, died. In 1978, Deng Xiaoping carne to power and put into effect modernization reforms. (Wang Ke-wen, Modern China: An Encyclopedia o[ History, Culture, and Nationalism (New Y ork: 1998), 202.)

This resulted in the temporary lifting ofthe ban on voluntary organizations. (Maria Hsia Chang, Falun Gong: The End 0f Days (Yale University Press, 2004), 3.) As a result, qigong organizations as well as other social groups began to form throughout China. However, the revival of such organizations was contingent because they required permission from the government for their existence. Nevertheless, this relaxing of state control over voluntary organizations resulted in an explosion .of popular interest in qigong in the 1980's in China. In 1989 then a pro-democraey movement was held in Tiananmen square as a result of various faetors such as inflation, whieh resulted in dissatisfaction with the Communist govemment. According to the 1982 Chinese constitution, such protests were permitted. Despite this, CCP as is widely known, responded to this protest by opening fire on the protesters. Following this violent suppression ofthe pro-democracy movement, the Chinese Communist Party created  stricter policies on all social groups. (Wang Ke-wen, Modern China: An Encyclopedia 0f History, Cu/ture. and Nationalism (New York:1998), p. 177.)

One example of these policies can be seen in a system put into effect by the CCP which mandated voluntary organizations to register with a centralized structure. This requirement was done to make sure that the CCP had control of all such groups and also enabled the Chinese govemment to prevent the creation or ban groups the authorities saw as potential problems.Furthennore, each approved organization must be reviewed every year. In October of 1998 new regulations were introduced so that the CCP could have a tighter grip on the registration process. Despite such regulations, China's politicalleaders showed support for qigong at first; because the leaders experienced difficulties in providing adequate healthcare to Chinese citizens, qigong seemed to bea.solution. According to a Department of Civil Affairs official, qigong groups could "save each person 1,000 Yuan in annual medicaJ fees.“ (Bay Fang. An Opiate ofthe Masses? V.S. News & World Report (February 22. 1999).

Also, an official from the National Sports Commission was quoted in an article in U.S. News and World Report stating that if 100 million people were practicing Falun Gong, "billions of Yuan can be saved per year in health costs. Some Chinese leaders became, to various extents, practitioners of qigong. In 1992, a member of a qigong group called Zhong Gong was invited by president and CCP Chief Jiang Zemin to treat the president for arthritis and neck pains. (Maria Hsia Chang. Falun Gong: The End of Days (Yale University Press. 2004). 4.)

In 1992 Li Hongzhi then devised bis own variant of qigong known as Falun Gong, obtained official permission and registered bis organization with the Qigong Research Association ofChina (QRAC). The QRAC is a govenunental body that supervises such organizations and practices.The CCP claimed that the Falun Gong sect had approximately. two million followers whereas Li Hongzhi claimed that by 1999 Falun Gong had grown to acquire about one hundred million followers. Li Cheng China in 1999: Seeking Common Ground at a Time of Tension and Conflict. Asian Survey 40.1 A Survey of Asia in /999 (January-February 2000), 124.)

Followers of Falun Gong included those of various age groups particularly the middle-aged and elderly, with followers from all social classes. What may have been alarming to the govemment was the fact that soldiers, CCP cadrest diplomats posted in foreign countries, and other government officials were also members of the Falun Gong sect.

Including , family members and spouses of some of China's top govemment officials, including cabinet members, were reported among the followers of Falun Gong. These family members were related to officials ofthe state council as weIl as President Jiang and Premier Zhu. What is also very likely to have given rise to worry was the fact that among the five Falun Gong representatives chosen to negotiate with Premier Zhu Rongji, three were high-ranking officials, including one who bad been a major general working with military intelligence. (Li Cheng China in 1999: Seeking Common Ground at a Time of Tension and Conflict. Asian Survey 40.1 A Survey of Asia in 1999 (January-Febroary 2000), 124.)

By 1996, one of Li Hongzhi's books „Rotating:'the Law Wheel,“ sold aImost one million copies. Its popularity brought great concern to the Chinese govemment about the strength of qigong groups in general and that of the Falun Gong in particular. Thus on July 24,1996, the state Press and Publications Administration banned the sale of Falun Gong publications. Because of the tension between Li' s organization and the govemment, he withdrew his group from the QRAC. (Danny Schechter, Falun Gong's challenge to China: Spiritual Practice or Evil Cult (Akashic Books, 2001),37.)

In October of 1996, the Chinese government developed strict policies toward all qigong organizations. Qigong organizations that were registered with the QRAC would be intensely monitored, and supervised groups that were not registered would be suppressed. Furthermore, large-scale practicing of qigong in public must have the permission ofthe authorities. Violation ofthis rule would lead to punishment. The official Qigong Science institute removed Li from its membership in Novemberof 1996. Sensing that his organization was not favored by the Chinese government, Li immigrated to the United States in 1998. He received permission for permanent U.S. residence.Even though Li no longer lived in China, the Chinese govemment still feared the organization's popularity and its potential to politicize. As a result, propaganda against the organization in media outlets such as television referred to Falun Gong with terms such as evil sect, cutt, and religion. Followers of Falun Gong reacted by surrounding the television station in protest. Also, communist party members, govemment officials, and  military retirees who were followers of Falun Gong petitioned Jiang Zemin to legalize Falun Gong. However, they were unsuccessful.In April of 1999, the Chinese government increased the force of its campaign against qigong groups with the help of a Chinese Science Academy physicist named He Zuoxiu, who wrote an article which cautioned people against qigong. (Danny Schechter, Falun Gong's challenge to China: Spiritual Practice or Evil Cult (Akashic Books, 2001),38.) In the article Falun Gong was singled out for special criticism. Falun Gong followers reacted with letters of protest to the editor demanding a written apology. When the publication refused to apologize, 6000 Falun Gong devotees protested outside the editorial office. This protest was unsuccessful. The protesters then took their complaints before the municipal government. This demonstration was also unsuccessful for many were allegedly beaten by the police and ten protesters were arrested. This incident led to a massive demonstration of over 10,000 Falun Gong members outside Zhongnanhai (the central Chinese government compound) in Beijin on April 25, 1999.Li Hongzhi insists that "I want to teach people to be good, not to be involved in politics." Yet bistorically, secret societies and spiritual masters have challenged, and even toppled, Chinese dynasties, and President Jiang Zemin has stressed a need to "suppress cults and the use oe religion to engage in illegal activities."( David Van Biema, The Man with the Qi. Time Magazine, May 10, 1999).

At the time that Falun Gong became headline news in April 1999, Master Li claimed to have some 100 million followers, 70 million in China , and 30 million abroad, mainly among the Chinese emigrant communities. The Chinese Communist Party officially has a mere 60 million members, so the sheer mass of Falun Gong devotees was seen as a cause for alarm. To make matters worse, a large number of the Falun Gong in China were considered intellectuals, members of the security services and the military, not to mention Party officials and even members of the innermost government circles (including, it was rumored, Jiang Zemin's wife). The April mass demonstration in Tiananmen Square could not have been organised without the knowledge, and even collusion, of the security forces. The fact that 10,000 people could be so efficiently organised into such an orderly group without the knowledge and permission of the Public Security Bureau officials came as a major shock to President Jiang Zemin. The subsequent persecution of Falun Gong had his personal imprimatur. 100 million people believing in something other than socialist material consumerism was not to be tolerated, not without permission. It also threw into stark relief the incredible organizing power of the internet, which was very new to China in 1999. By 2005 some 6,900 websites where  listed in connection with Falun Gong, both for and against the practice.

The popularity of Falun Gong is a particularly Chinese phenomenon. The collapse of the Chinese communist dream in the wake of the Cultural Revolution, 1966 - 1976, and the failure of Chairman Mao Zedong's socialist utopia left China deeply demoralised. Idealists of all sorts had been relentlessly purged throughout the Party's history. However, the final nail in the coffin of Marxist-Leninist-Maoist idealism was the accession of Deng Xiaoping (whom Mao had banished as a 'capitalist roader' during the Cultural Revolution) who turned fifty years of sacrifice and struggle on their heads by declaring that 'to get rich is glorious.' Since then, China 's sole remaining ideal is 'free-market capitalism with socialist characteristics' underscored by chauvinistic nationalism. The resultant spiritual vacuum has seen a widespread embracing not only of traditional religions, such as Buddhism and Christianity, but also new versions of Taoist traditional practices such as Qi Gong.

Into this vacuum stepped Master Li Hongzhi, offering self-improvement, meditation, and, good health. More importantly, Falun Gong was offered free, to the annoyance of other Qi Gong schools, which complained. Li subsequently withdrew from the Chinese Qi Gong Federation. Falun Gong was perfectly suited to the many millions of older, semi-retired and unemployed Chinese, whose health benefits and pensions disappeared with the economic 'rationalisations' of the new free-market economy. The old 'iron rice bowl' of Chairman Mao, which had guaranteed employment, housing, food and health-care to all citizens for life was a fading memory. Li offered health, rejuvenation and supernormal powers to the conscientious cultivator of Falun Gong.

The issue of health is one which the Chinese authorities have used as a main line of attack against Falun Gong, claiming that over 1600 people have died because, as practitioners, they did not seek appropriate medical help when it was needed. For his part, Master Li, in his books promises:

'We are here not to eliminate your diseases or to build up your health or to give you some message to heal your diseases. We do not do these things. Your diseases will be eliminated directly by me. Those who practise in the practising spot will be cured by my Law bodies. Those who learn Falun Dafa through self-study by reading the book will also be cured by my Law bodies.'

Fashen, or Law Bodies, are reminiscent of the three 'Manifestation Bodies of the Buddha', the trikaya of Buddhism. However, Li describes fashen as a 'white body' made of 'fa' and 'gong', which grow with the practice. The formation of fashen is also influenced by the accumulation of de, a white substance which developes through merit and virtuous behaviour. Karma, however, is seen as a negative energy, a black substance, which erodes de. Master Li claims to have innumerable, separate, independent fashen bodies controlled by his thoughts, which carry out his will, performing functions such as the installation of the falun wheel in the practitioners' abdomens.

Since the Chinese government's decision to persecute practitioners of Falun Gong so harshly, international human rights groups estimated by 2005 that some 10,000 Falun Gong followers were sent to prison, labor camps, or mental hospitals. The acts on the part of the CCP to curb Falun Gong were continuously met with defiance in the form of civil disobedience across China. In January of 2001, People's Daily called the sect a tool of anti­ China forces in the West. According to People's Daily, the West was using Falun Gong to attack China's communist ideology. An article in the February 6, 2001 issue of Legal Daily called seet members "running dogs of foreign anti-Chinese forces" sparing no effort to engage in ideologieal infiltration to achieve their goal of overturning our socialist system and subverting our state. This claim was supported by Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). The CPPCC is an advisory body tothe parliäment. A physicist representing"the science panel ofthe CPPCC claimed that the U.S. Congress had given several tens of millions of dollars to Falun Gong out of ulterior motives. In January of 2001, Xu Seminar member ofthe CPPCC, stated that Falun Gong was neither qigong or a religious entity, but was instead a political organization.

But like we stated at the beginning the fact is simple that Chinese security officials did not expect the sudden appearance of the Falun Gong, whose members surrounded government offices in Beijing, though the organization had operated as a legal entity registered under Chinese regulations. The legal structure, and even the system of monitoring, is not an ironclad guarantee that trans-provincial movements or actions will not take place.