Falun Gong is Not a “Cult”
I hope this email finds you well. I am writing in regard to your recent article titled “The History of Propaganda”, in which you referred to Falun Gong as a “religious cult.”
To be clear, the “cult” label was coined by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) specifically to vilify Falun Gong and drive forward the violent persecution of millions.
Using this term to refer to Falun Gong is comparable to using racial slurs against Black or Jewish people. These terms are employed with the sole purpose of dehumanizing a group of people, and in so doing, facilitating horrific atrocities.
Yes, it’s that serious.
It has been well documented by human rights organizations, United Nations, and U.S. State Department that Falun Gong has been brutally persecuted in China on a large scale. Millions of Falun Gong practitioners have been detained, imprisoned, or tortured over the past two decades. The number of documented Falun Gong deaths due to persecution has surpassed 5,000. Another untold number of Falun Gong practitioners, likely hundreds of thousands, have been killed through forced organ harvesting, according to the China Tribunal’s testimony to the United Nations.
Falun Gong is not a “cult”
Falun Gong is a traditional Buddhist-based meditation practice whose core principles are truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. According to the Chinese government’s own estimate, 70-100 million people practiced Falun Gong in China in 1999. Perceiving Falun Gong’s popularity and independence as a threat to its power, the CCP launched a brutal campaign to “eradicate” the group in July 1999.
But even the Chinese government has never truly considered Falun Gong a “cult”, though they have branded it this way to justify the persecution. In fact, Falun Gong was initially supported by the Chinese government for its moral teaching and health benefits.
A 2017 Freedom House report titled “The Battle for China’s Spirit” reads (p. 110), “Throughout the early and mid-1990s, Falun Gong, its practitioners, and founder Li Hongzhi enjoyed substantial government support and positive coverage in state media. Some state media reports from that period laud the health benefits of Falun Gong practice and show adherents receiving “healthy citizen awards.” In an event that would be unimaginable today, Mr. Li gave a lecture at the Chinese embassy in Paris in 1995, at the government’s invitation.”
As elaborated in the same Freedom House report (p.112), the “cult” label only appeared in party discourse in October 1999, 3 months after the crackdown against Falun Gong. The report continues: “this suggests that the term was applied retroactively to justify a violent campaign that was provoking international and domestic criticism.”
There is a clear scholarly consensus that Falun Gong is not a cult. Ian Johnson, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, also a former journalist for the NY Times and WSJ who won the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on Falun Gong, wrote in his book “Wild Grass”: “The group [Falun Gong] didn’t meet many common definitions of a cult: its members marry outside the group, have outside friends, hold normal jobs, do not live isolated from society, do not believe that the world’s end is imminent and do not give significant amounts of money to the organization. Most importantly, suicide is not accepted, nor is physical violence….[Falun Gong] is at heart an apolitical, inward-oriented discipline, one aimed at cleansing oneself spiritually and improving one’s health.”
Moreover, practicing Falun Gong doesn’t involve worship; learning Falun Gong is completely free, as all books and videos are free downloadable on the Internet; and soliciting donations is prohibited within the Falun Gong community. With no binding membership, everyone feels free to come and go. Today, Falun Gong is practiced by tens of millions of people in roughly 100 countries around the world.
Prof. David Ownby, a scholar on Chinese religions, notes in the preface of his book “Falun Gong and the Future of China” (Oxford Univ Press, 2008):
“The entire issue of the supposed cultic nature of Falun Gong was a red herring from the beginning, cleverly exploited by the Chinese state to blunt the appeal of Falun Gong and the effectiveness of the group’s activities outside China.”
For other misconceptions regarding Falun Gong, please visit
https://faluninfo.net/misconceptions/
I understand that it might not be your intention to hurt anyone, but your statement of calling Falun Gong a cult incites hatred and discrimination towards tens of millions of people who practice it and adds fuel to the terrible persecution in China, as the CCP often translates and promotes Western media reports to justify its own propaganda to Chinese people.
I sincerely hope you can replace the word “cult” by a more accurate descriptor of Falun Gong, such as spiritual/religious group/movement.
Larry Liu, Ph.D.
Deputy Director of Government and Advocacy
Falun Dafa Information Center
New York, NY
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