"Li Hongzhi Made a Fortune out of Falun Gong"

The Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi made a fortune out of spreading his fallacies, ex- practitioners have said.

Northeast China's Jilin Province has recently unearthed three cases concerning illegal Falun Gong publications, two of which involved 180,000 published volumes and 6,000 volumes, respectively.

The books earned Li and his followers approximately 900,000 yuan due to low costs and high prices, said Cheng Zhifang, an official at the provincial press and publishing bureau.

Zhong Ying, a woman who used to be a practitioner in Chongzhou City in southwest China's Sichuan Province, who was urged to see doctors by her family because of her worsening health, burned her books on Falun Gong upon learning that Li himself took medicine and had a luxurious house. "What a liar!" she said angrily.

Chen Shukui, who used to head a Falun Gong training center in Wuhan, the capital of central China's Hubei Province, broke a bronze statue of Li Hongzhi, which he had bought for 2,500 yuan. " I paid for his lectures and books, and this statue, but he accumulated fortunes out of us."

Li and his disciples went to Guanxian County in east China's Shandong Province in 1992, and organized a 140-member training class, for which each practitioner paid 40 yuan. Half of the money went into Li's pocket, according to an agreement, said Zhang Dailing, the former head of the county training center.

"But when the training class was over, Li broke his promise, demanding 70 percent of each tuition fee and another 180 yuan from each participant to buy clothes," Zhang recalled.

China daily 1999/08/11