The manipulator doomed

AS skeletons tumble out of his dark closet, the once widely believed Li Hongzhi and his Falun Gong cult have been thoroughly debunked in China.

A weeks-long massive media offensive against Falun Gong has deprived Li of his last ideological strongholds and put a naked Li and his cult under unprecedented public scrutiny.

Li's manipulative practices have bared his true face as a liar, thanks to tireless digging by the media.

Compared with his claims of supernatural powers to foresee the future and determine the fate of our planet, his promise to escort believers into a higher world, and his aim to build Falun Gong into "super-science," Li's lie of antedating his birth is trivial.

One does not even need to read between the lines of Li's works to get a taste of his aptitude for lying.

To distance himself from the farce, Li lied repeatedly about his presence in Beijing on the eve of the April 25 besieging of Zhongnanhai, headquarters of China's central authorities, by Falun Gong practitioners. When the lie failed, Li took one step back and lied about his activities in Beijing.

And his habit of lying continues as he assembles new fabrications to patch up the broken ones.

To feign innocence before an overseas audience, Li Hongzhi put aside his teachings at home that Falun Gong is different in nature from traditional qigong or taijiquan. He instead claims sameness with the same things he tried hard to discredit. There is only one reason behind Li's expeditious enthusiasm for this new identity; he covets public sanctions to justify that Falun Gong is harmless.

The harmfulness and danger of the cult is evident and far from limited to the 700-plus deaths that resulted from its teaching to shun medication. Li cultivates animosity toward the real world so as to consolidate his manipulation of people's minds. The anti-social, anti-science, anti-government and anti-humanity psychology and behaviour of Falun Gong cult members threaten people's lives, public order and social stability.

With more of Li's devout backers and ordinary practitioners dumping him, Falun Gong's gargantuan cult empire is falling apart quickly at home.

But Li Hongzhi has not come to terms with his defeat; neither have some of his foreign patrons.

In spite of the extensive exposure of Li's lies and plots at home, he is portrayed by some as a hero.

While they blame the Chinese Government and media for denying Falun Gong the right to expression, some of our Western counterparts have evidently neglected the latitude of freedom Falun Gong assumed prior to the official ban.

Dozens of media organizations and government establishments were harassed by Falun Gong practitioners, before the cult finally chose Zhongnanhai as the venue to demonstrate its strength. No media organization that said "no" to the cult and refused to dance to its tune was let go.

The cult's attempts to censor the media and unnerve the government have gone far beyond the limits of law.

The Chinese Government has the right and obligation to impose the ban. It is a logical outcome of its commitment to public good and to protect people.

China Daily
1999/08/23