The Chemistry of a Conflict: The Chinese Government and the Falun Gong

Terrorism and Political Violence

Volumn 14, Issue 4, 2002, Pages 41-65

  Rahn, Patsy ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0037000860     PISSN: 09546553     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/714005633     Document Type: Article

References (86)

1. James Tong, 'Behind the Falungong Façade: Organizational Structure and Finance', unpublished article (Sept. 2000). The FLG tried to re-register with: the National Minority Affairs Commission as a nonreligious, academic organization; the China Buddhist Federation as a nonreligious, cultural organization for the study of Buddhism; and the United Front Department as a nonreligious, academic organization. p.4. I want to thank David Rapoport for requesting that I write this second paper on the issue, and for his continued encouragement, patience and support. I also thank Catherine Wessinger for over a year of email discussions on new religious movements and the FLG. Any errors or inadequacies in this article are solely my responsibility.
2. Randy Kluver, 'Political Culture and Political Conflict in China', in G.M. Chen and R. Ma (eds.), Chinese Conflict Management and Resolution (Westport: Greenwood 2001), received via attachment Feb. 2001.
3. Ibid. pp.25-6.
4. Robin Munro, 'Syncretic Sects and Secret Societies: Revival in the 1980s', Chinese Sociology and Anthropology 21/4 (Summer 1989) pp.10-11. Munro credits Harrell and Perry for describing Chinese 'secret societies' as 'syncretic religious sects'.
5. To address objections to the use of the word 'sect' I use the word 'sectarian' in the hope that it will not be taken as a derogatory term but as descriptive and historical. I use the word to refer to groups considered unorthodox or heterodox by the ruling power in China.
6. Daniel L. Overmyer, Religions of China: The World as a Living System (San Francisco: Harper & Row 1986) p.37.
7. David Ownby, 'Chinese Millenarian Traditions: The Formative Age', The American Historical Review 104/5 (Dec. 1999) pp.1-21, www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr.
8. Celestial Masters Daoism. Note: Daoism can also be spelled Taoism. I use Daoism except when quoting.
9. Frederick Wakeman, 'Rebellion and Revolution: The Study of Popular Movements in Chinese History', Journal of Asian Studies 36/2 (Feb. 1977) pp.201-36.
10. Ibid. pp.205-6.
11. Li Hongzhi, Zhuan Falun II, http://www.falundafa.org/book/eng/2f12.html, accessed 31 Aug. 1999, chapter entitled 'Mankind in the Ending Period of Catastrophe' pp.3/4, 4/4. 'The human morality is slipping down rapidly and mankind are facing an impending danger ⋯ Each time the catastrophe comes to the world, mankind have lost their morality. This is the manifestation of the Ending Period of Catastrophe'. Note: This book is not numbered sequentially, rather, each chapter begins with number 1. I therefore give the chapter title and the page number within the chapter. Also, this book used to be available for downloading in English from the Minghui website, which is how I obtained my copy in 1999. As of December 1999 it was removed from the list of English available books. It remains available in Chinese. This is one example of how some FLG material is available to Chinese readers but not to English readers.
12. Judith A. Berling, The Syncretic Religion of Lin Chao-en (New York: Columbia 1980) p.48.
13. Ibid. p.24.
14. David Ownby, Transnational China Project Commentary, 'Falungong as a Cultural Revitalization Movement: An Historian Looks at Contemporary China', talk given at Rice University 20 Oct. 2000. Text based on audio transcript, http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~tnchina/ commentary/ownby 1000.html.
15. Ownby (note 7) p. 12.
16. James W. Tong, Disorder Under Heaven: Collective Violence in the Ming Dynasty (Stanford: Stanford University Press 1991) p.59.
17. Thomas DuBois, The Sacred World of Cang County: Religious Belief, Organization, and Practice in Rural North China During the Late Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, PhD dissertation 2001, University of California Los Angeles. See ch.7, 'Yiguandao: Sectarian Recruitment, Wartime Collaboration, and Showdown with the Communist Government, 1930-1960'.
18. Munro (note 4) pp.102-3. In this 1985 Appendix titled 'Sects and Societies Recently or Currently Active in the PRC', 57 groups are listed including the Yi Guan Dao (Way of Unity).
19. DuBois (note 17).
20. Li (note 11), chapter entitled 'All Ways Lead to the Origin', p.1/2.
21. Munro (note 4) ch. 15, pp.49-84.
22. Kluver (note 2) p.25.
23. Munro (note 4) p.84.
24. Zhu Xiaoyang and Benjamin Penny (eds.), Chinese Sociology and Anthropology: The Qigong Boom 27/1 (Fall 1995) p.35.
25. Ibid. p.5.
26. Ibid. p.35. The phrase 'Reading with the Ear' came to be synonymous with paranormal abilities.
27. Ibid. pp.37-8.
28. Ibid. p.42.
29. Benoit Vermandeer, 'The Law and the Wheel: The Sudden Emergence of the Falungong: Prophets of Spiritual Civilization', China Perspectives 24 (1999) p.19. 'A petition calling for better environmental protection, launched jointly by some Qigong groups from Sichuan and Heilongjian managed to gather several hundred thousand signatures'.
30. Zhu (note 24) p.46.
31. Elizabeth Perry mentions that, 'At the time of the 1989 demonstrations, the government set up hotlines in the major cities to encourage citizens to report any suspicious behavior by qigong masters'. From idem, 'Reinventing the Wheel? The Campaign against Falungong', Harvard China Review (Spring/Summer 2000) p.68.
32. Ownby (note 7) p.8.
33. Kluver (note 2) p.21.
34. Li (note 11), chapter entitled 'All the Ways Lead to the Origin', p.2/2.
35. Li Hongzhi, 'Deter Interference', 5 July 2000, http://www.falundafa.org/book/eng/ jw_16.htm. Note: Many of Li's articles are only available via the Falun Gong website Minghui (Clearwisdom). Because the website addresses for these articles change over time, if you cannot locate the article at the webpage cited, go to the Falun Gong homepage, http://www.clearwisdom.net, where Li's articles can be accessed by title and date.
36. Barend ter Haar, 'China's Inner Demons: The Political Impact of the Demonological Paradigm', China Information XI 2/3 (Autumn/Winter 1996-97) pp.54-88. Also see ter Haar's website on the Falun Gong, http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/bth/falun.htm.
37. Ibid. p.85. It does not, according to ter Haar, 'directly cause violent incidents, but functions in the setting of human targets, establishing a sense of legitimacy for actual violence and defining the general parameters for actual violence'.
38. Li's teachings have always expressed a strong dualism. See Patsy Rahn, 'The Falun Gong: Beyond the Headlines', Cultic Studies Journal 17 (2000) pp. 168-86. Since the ban, the dualism has increasingly been expressed via the demonological paradigm.
39. Li Hongzhi, 'Suffocate the Evil', 22 Oct. 2000, http://falun-ny.net/cgi-falun-ny/ index.pl?lan+english&id=outer_url&outer_url=http://www. falundafa⋯/jw20.ht; idem, 'Beyond the Limits of Forbearance', 1 Jan. 2001, http://www.clearwisdom.net/ eng/2001 /Jan/02/JingWen10201.html.
40. Li Hongzhi, 'Suffocate the Evil', 22 Oct. 2000, http://falun-ny.net/cgi-falun-ny/ index.pl?lan+english&id=outer_url&outer_url=http://www. falundafa⋯/jw20.ht; idem, 'Beyond the Limits of Forbearance', 1 Jan. 2001, http://www.clearwisdom.net/ eng/2001 /Jan/02/JingWen10201.html.
41. 'Asiaweek names Falun Gong founder most powerful communicator', Kyoto News Service 24 May 2001. 'The magazine said it redefined power this year as "those who can communicate - or control the message" because they are the ones who "wield the greatest influence" in today's information age'.
42. The government's campaign against the group intensified following the 23 Jan. 2001 self-immolations in Trananmen Square of four adults and one 12-year-old girl who were reported to be Falun Gong practitioners. The FLG deny that they were FLG practitioners and suggest that the event was staged by the government. However, the Hong Kong-based Information Center on Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China reports that '[a]ll but the 12-year-old Liu Siying had protested Beijing's actions against Falun Gong in Tiananmen Square previously', in Philip P.Pan, 'Human Fire Ignites Chinese Mystery', The Washington Post, 4 Feb. 2001.
43. 'CPC Central Committee Forbids Party Members to Practice Falun Gong', China Daily, 22 July 1999; 'People's Daily Article Calls for Strengthening Party Discipline', China Daily, 25 July 1999; 'Chinese Urged to Understand Nature of Struggle Against Falun Gong', China Daily, 29 July 1999.
44. 'CPC Central Committee Forbids Party Members to Practice Falun Gong', China Daily, 22 July 1999; 'People's Daily Article Calls for Strengthening Party Discipline', China Daily, 25 July 1999; 'Chinese Urged to Understand Nature of Struggle Against Falun Gong', China Daily, 29 July 1999.
45. 'CPC Central Committee Forbids Party Members to Practice Falun Gong', China Daily, 22 July 1999; 'People's Daily Article Calls for Strengthening Party Discipline', China Daily, 25 July 1999; 'Chinese Urged to Understand Nature of Struggle Against Falun Gong', China Daily, 29 July 1999.
46. Randy Peerenboom, China's Long March Toward Rule of Law, unpublished manuscript (2001), see chapter entitled 'Post-Mao Reforms: Competing Conceptions of Rule of Law'. Peerenboom cites Chu (1999) for the 400,000 figure, 'One report claimed that the Party itself estimated the number of party members who believed in Falungong to be 400,000. "Three-Pronged purge" of Falungong Cited (1999)'.
47. Ibid. Peerenboom includes a discussion on legal issues regarding the ban.
48. 'People's Republic of China: Torture - A Growing Scourge in China', Amnesty International Online, ai-index ASA 17/004/2001 12/02/2001.
49. 'China Investigation Report 2000-2001: Studies of Contradictions Among The People Under New Conditions', in Erik Eckholm, 'China's Inner Circle Reveals Big Unrest', The New York Times, 3 June 2001.
50. See Mark R. Bell and Taylor C. Boas, 'Falun Gong and the Internet: Evangelism, Community, and Struggle for Survival', Nova Religio 5/2 (April 2002), copy received from Mark Bell in April 2001.
51. 'Resisting All Evil Forces in the Human World', 27 April 2001, http://www.clear wisdom.net/emh/articles/2201/4/27/9090.html. 'The words from the corrupt people are full of evil. We should resist them and should not repeat them in order to diminish their evil power. In addition we are practitioners and will be enlightened beings in the future. How can we say dirty words?'
52. 'Looking Within Myself During the Fa Rectification', 20 April 2001, http://www.clear wisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/4/20/6831.html.
53. 'Media Advisory - for Immediate Release', 26 April 2001, http://www.clearwisdom.net/ emh/articles/2001/4/27/9091.html. See also Li Hongzhi, 'Eliminate Evil', 2 Dec. 2000, http://www.clearwisdom.net/eng/2000/Dec/02/Editorials120200.html.
54. 'Media Advisory - for Immediate Release', 26 April 2001, http://www.clearwisdom.net/ emh/articles/2001/4/27/9091.html. See also Li Hongzhi, 'Eliminate Evil', 2 Dec. 2000, http://www.clearwisdom.net/eng/2000/Dec/02/Editorials120200.html.
55. Bell and Boas (note 47).
56. In 'Master Li Hongzhi's Lecture at the Great Lakes Conference in North America', 23 Dec. 2000, http://www.clearwisdom.net/eng/2000/Dec/23/JingWen122300.html, Li states: 'Some of our students outside of China wonder: "Being overseas, we don't suffer as much the students in China do. Does this mean that we won't be as good as the students in China when we reach Consummation?"' The answer Li gives is that they are all equal as particles of Dafa as long as they do what they can to step forward and defend the Fa.
57. This changed in Li's message 'Coercion Cannot Change People's Hearts', 6 March 2001, http://www.clearwisdom.net/eng/2001/Mar/06/JingWen030601.html, where he indicated that reformed practitioners could come back into the fold if they renounced their renunciation. However, they will need to 'make up for the losses they have caused Dafa because of their own misconduct' by 'doubling your efforts to make amends ...', 'Double Your Efforts to Make Amends, Catch up With the Fa-Rectification Process', 2 Jan. 2001, http://www.clearwisdom.net/eng/2001/Jan/02/VSF0102012.html.
58. This changed in Li's message 'Coercion Cannot Change People's Hearts', 6 March 2001, http://www.clearwisdom.net/eng/2001/Mar/06/JingWen030601.html, where he indicated that reformed practitioners could come back into the fold if they renounced their renunciation. However, they will need to 'make up for the losses they have caused Dafa because of their own misconduct' by 'doubling your efforts to make amends ...', 'Double Your Efforts to Make Amends, Catch up With the Fa-Rectification Process', 2 Jan. 2001, http://www.clearwisdom.net/eng/2001/Jan/02/VSF0102012.html.
59. See David C. Rapoport, 'Messianic Sanctions For Terror', Comparative Politics (Jan. 1988) p.205.
60. Ian Johnson, 'The Burden of Belief', The Wall Street Journal, 27 March 2000.
61. Li Hongzhi, 'Fa-Rectification Period Dafa Disciples', 15 August 2001, http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/8/16/12965.html; 'Lecture on the Fa at the Washington D.C. International Conference', http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/ 2001/7/30/12636,html.
62. Li Hongzhi, 'Fa-Rectification Period Dafa Disciples', 15 August 2001, http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/8/16/12965.html; 'Lecture on the Fa at the Washington D.C. International Conference', http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/ 2001/7/30/12636,html.
63. The period of Fa-rectification is identified with the persecution that the practitioners experience in China. The persecution is described as a 'test' of practitioners and referred to as the 'time of tribulations'. It is implied that the Fa-rectification process will be completed and the Fa-rectification (as an end result) arrive, when the period of persecution of the Falun Gong has ended. This also implies that the practitioner's moment of Consummation cannot arrive until the ban in China is lifted. There are hints that there is not much time left before the Fa-rectification is complete. The exact ending time for the Fa-rectification and the time of Consummation to arrive, is kept vague, and Li tells practitioners not to think about it or they may become 'attached' to it. A 'common resident' in China is quoted in a Minghui article as saying: 'They said the Fa would be rectified very soon. I am looking forward to the coming of that day'. In 'Despite the Blanket of Terror, Changshun Falun Dafa Practitioners Remain Determined and People Are Awakening', 28 March 2002.
64. 'What Shanshan Saw in Other Dimensions - Part I', 28 April 2001, http://www.clear wisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/4/28/9140.html, and 'Part II', 2 May 2001, http://www.clear wisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/5/2/9205.html;
65. 'What Shanshan Saw in Other Dimensions - Part I', 28 April 2001, http://www.clear wisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/4/28/9140.html, and 'Part II', 2 May 2001, http://www.clear wisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/5/2/9205.html; 'With Teacher at the helm, the Fa saves all beings - Part I', 5 May 2001, http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/ 2001/5/4/9259.html; 'One Wink in the Boundless Dafa - Part III', 5 May 2001, http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/5/5/9287.html.
66. 'One Wink in the Boundless Dafa - Part III', 5 May 2001, http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/5/5/9287.html.
67. See Two Examples of Sudden Death for Unlawful Officers', 17 Sept. 2001, http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2001/9/9/16276.html. Other examples include the explosion of a barge and the death of six on board, and various cases of food poisoning in wine, rice, vegetable oil 'and even poisonous moon cakes appeared one after another', http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2001/10/30/18838.html.
68. Li Hongzhi, 'The Foretelling' (updated), posted 15 February 2002, http:// www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/2/15/18801.html. In this poem Li states: 'What humans don't believe in, all now comes forth/ The sky cracks open and the earth burns/ The evil tries to hide the wicked ones to flee/ As gong surges forth, evil spirits wail and scream/ The Dafa disciples, ascend into the highest heavens/ In control of Heaven and Earth, rectifying the human realm'.
69. Li Hongzhi, 'Eliminate Evil', 2 Dec. 2000, http://www.clearwisdom.net/ eng/2000/Dec/02/Editorials120200.html; 'Lecture at the Great Lakes Conference in North America' (note 58); 'Persons in Charge of the European Fa Conference and All Attendees', 19 March 2001, http://www.clearwisdom.net/eng/2001/Mar/20/JingWen032001.html.
70. 'Lecture at the Great Lakes Conference in North America' (note 58);
71. 'Persons in Charge of the European Fa Conference and All Attendees', 19 March 2001, http://www.clearwisdom.net/eng/2001/Mar/20/JingWen032001.html.
72. See Ian Reader, Religious Violence in Contemporary Japan: The Case of Aum Shinrikyo (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press) 2000. Also, see Catherine Wessinger, How the Millennium Comes Violently: From Jonestown to Heaven's Gate (New York: Seven Bridges Press) 2000.
73. See Ian Reader, Religious Violence in Contemporary Japan: The Case of Aum Shinrikyo (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press) 2000. Also, see Catherine Wessinger, How the Millennium Comes Violently: From Jonestown to Heaven's Gate (New York: Seven Bridges Press) 2000.
74. Li Hongzhi, 'Teaching the Fa at the 2001 Canada Falun Dafa Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference', 19 May 2001, http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/ 2001/5/22/10271.html.
75. Rapoport (note 54) p.208.
76. Scott Lowe, 'Western Millennial Ideology Goes East: The Taiping Revolution and Mao's Great Leap Forward', in Catherine Wessinger (ed.), Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence: Historical Cases (Syracuse: Syracuse Press 2000) p.23.
77. The FLG internal-campaign against Jiang Zemin became intense during his trip abroad in April 2002, when practitioners were to Send Forth Righteous Thoughts every hour to eliminate this 'chief wretch'. See 'Fa-rectification During Jiang's Trip to Germany-1', 21 April 2002, http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2002/4/17/28616.html.
78. 'What Pengpeng Saw in Other Dimensions on the Morning of May 27, Beijing Time', 29 May 2001, http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/5/29/10543.html; 'What Shanshan Saw in Other Dimensions (VII). Events that Took Place in Other Dimensions During the Fa-Rectification', 30 May 2001, http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/ 2001/5/30/10591.html. These testimonies by children about events taking place in the 'other dimensions' came in series and were referred to in other postings.
79. 'What Pengpeng Saw in Other Dimensions on the Morning of May 27, Beijing Time', 29 May 2001, http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/5/29/10543.html; 'What Shanshan Saw in Other Dimensions (VII). Events that Took Place in Other Dimensions During the Fa-Rectification', 30 May 2001, http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/ 2001/5/30/10591.html. These testimonies by children about events taking place in the 'other dimensions' came in series and were referred to in other postings.
80. Philip P. Pan. 'Falun Gong Seized City's State-Run TV to Broadcast Message', Washington Post Foreign Service, Friday 8 March 2002, p.A20.
81. 'Excerpt from the Discussion about "Sending Forth Righteous Thoughts, Eradicating the Evil"', 3 June 2001, http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2001/6/1/11708.html.
82. According to Reader (note 62) the loss of the political election and the harsh ridicule had a major influence on Aum. After this, the group's leader Asahara, changed his teachings from striving towards the enlightenment of all beings to the salvation of his followers as the elect few, finally leading to the belief that the outside world was evil, intent on destroying Aum, and deserving of retribution.
83. http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2001/10/30/18838.html.
84. 'With appeal for data, Falungong promises to deploy US justice against China', AFP, 5 Sept 2001. 'The group has already slapped US civil lawsuits on several top Chinese officials during visits to the United States under legislation that extends US jurisdiction over foreign cases of torture'. Also, see Barry Schweid, 'Expelled Protesters Rally in D.C', 19 Feb 2002, '94 House members sent Bush a letter last weekend asking him to express concern over what the Falun Gong calls a campaign of terror. In a separate letter, five US senators expressed concern about restrictions on the sect and treatment of its adherents'.
85. 'With appeal for data, Falungong promises to deploy US justice against China', AFP, 5 Sept 2001. 'The group has already slapped US civil lawsuits on several top Chinese officials during visits to the United States under legislation that extends US jurisdiction over foreign cases of torture'. Also, see Barry Schweid, 'Expelled Protesters Rally in D.C', 19 Feb 2002, '94 House members sent Bush a letter last weekend asking him to express concern over what the Falun Gong calls a campaign of terror. In a separate letter, five US senators expressed concern about restrictions on the sect and treatment of its adherents'.
86. Li Hongzhi, 'Towards Consummation', 16 June 2000, http://www.minghui.ca/eng/ 2000/Jun/17/JingWen061700.html. Li says that 'Disciples are waiting to reach Consummation, and I can wait no more'. This theme of not wanting to wait anymore is reflected in statements and testimonials by practitioners. It may be an indication that practitioners are motivated in part by a sense of imminence. If so, this could fit into a pattern of conditions necessary for religious messianism to turn violent. Rapoport states that two conditions are necessary for this to occur: 'Believers must think that the day of deliverance is near or imminent, and they must also think that their actions can or must consummate the process' (note 54) p. 197. As of June 2001 comments have begun to appear on the FLG website warning practitioners not to become 'attached' to reaching Consummation, possibly a message to calm down the sense of imminence for those who 'can't wait'.