Real face of 'master' unmasked

LIES might deceive people for a while, but not forever, no matter how elegantly they are uttered.

Like those of Li Hongzhi and his Falun Gong.

Stealing some terminology from Buddhism and Taoism, preaching "truthfulness, benevolence and forbearance" and spreading a doomsday message, Li entrapped many people into his "Falun world," where he was the only ruler.

But as fragments of the truth were gathered, and the mask worn by Li was stripped, people now see the real face of the "master," and regret their naivety.

"The greatest Buddha" is not a God who looks down upon the wealth and fame of the secular world and who cherishes only the lofty mission of expiating people's "sins." Rather, he has a craze about money and power. His followers are nothing but his tools to achieve his personal ambitions.

Li accumulated quite a large sum of money within a short time. His luxurious houses in Changchun, in Northeast China's Jilin Province, have been shown on TV.

If Li's initial purpose was to accumulate wealth by resorting to cheating, his ambition swelled when he deceived and took control of many more people.

In fact, he was not satisfied to be the ruler of his "Falun world" only. When he spread the doomsday message and that no government could save the world but he could, his anti-government purpose was explicitly exposed.

Li said social problems emerge one after another, no government can solve them. No government can do anything to solve the contradictions between different nationalities and countries.

The unspoken words behind Li's theory were clear: Since the government was useless and only he, Li Hongzhi, had the ability to deal with all these, the government, therefore, should let Li take its place.

It is true our society is not perfect, there are some social problems and contradictions which cannot be solved today. But it is only a temporary situation.

The government and society have been improving and have become more mature in tackling new problems and meeting new challenges. With continuing efforts, problems will gradually be solved.

Li also challenged modern legal systems. He said "people are restrained like animals" by laws made by the government, they have "no way out."

Put aside the question of what kind of persons the laws "restrain," and the reason and purpose for the "restriction," people may wonder could they attain freedom in the "Falun world?"

Let the facts speak.

In the so-called "Falun world" fabricated by Li, practitioners were asked to be completely obedient to Li's authority, devoting all they have _ their spirits, their bodies and material possessions to the "Master Li."

Falun Gong practitioners were prohibited from taking part in any other organization, holding any other belief, or having private thoughts. They should follow Li's banner unconditionally.

People can live and work freely with the protection of laws, but once they entered Li's "Falun world," they could not have their own will and had to be ordered about by Li. The citizens were deprived of basic rights endowed by laws by Li's absolute control over practitioners.

After deceiving so many people through his fallacies, Li thought he was powerful enough to confront the government and society.

When scientists and scholars, having heard enough of Li's bragging, expressed their doubts and gave different opinions of the Falun Gong, Li was so infuriated he even forgot the proper manner of a "master," calling them "rogue scientists" and "rogue scholars."

Since 1998, Falun Gong staged more than 300 sieges of government departments, media and even the headquarters of the government and the Party. Li himself was the director of all these farces.

Last April, a local evening newspaper carried a story, which listed cases of Falun Gong practitioners' deaths through refusing to see a doctor or take medicine. The paper appealed to people to see the true face of Falun Gong. Li's followers, around 3,900, launched two sit-ins outside the newspaper.

While besieging a daily newspaper in Chongqing, Falun Gong leaders boasted that if the paper did not apologize, they would practise Qigong and inundate the paper's office building, destroying the Earth ahead of time.

They played Falun Gong music at the gates of the newspaper all day, and even rushed into the offices and pestered reporters and editors to write stories to praise Falun Gong.

Angry that the government did not cover the mouths of the media, scientists and scholars who condemned Li and his Falun Dafa, Li began to put pressure on the government.

On April 25, around 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered around Zhongnanhai, without registering with the security department.

On July 20, Hubei and Anhui provinces were declared flood emergency areas. In such a critical time when civilians and soldiers along the Yangtze River were pouring out all their efforts to fight against floods, when provincial officials were giving field guidance, thousands of Falun Gong practitioners besieged the Anhui provincial government building on July 21 for two consecutive days.

Falun Gong practitioners also laid similar sieges in Hunan, Hebei, Henan, Gansu, Guizhou, Liaoning, Guangzhou and Heilongjiang provinces.

Compared with Li's ambition in extending his "Falun world" and consolidating his rule, the lives and assets of millions of people along the Yangtze River are nothing.

These actions harmed the relations between the government and people and created upheavals in society.

To evade responsibility and whitewash himself, Li claimed that he knew nothing in advance about these sieges and demonstrations . The activities were initiated "voluntarily" by practitioners.

But the former heads of Falun Gong branches made bare Li's lies. The main activities, like the illegal gathering in Zhongnanhai, were all plotted directly by Li. Throughout the April 25 illegal gathering in Zhongnanhai, Li watched the situation closely and gave constant directions.

Li told core followeres that more practitioners should be drawn to Beijing. "The more, the better." He even roared that "blood-shedding will be much better."

This "benevolent" "master" was using the lives of practitioners as his stake in a political gamble. He was leading people to hell instead of the promised "higher" world.

Falun Gong had a tight organization, with Li at the top, and was not, as Li said, loosely organized. They owned advanced telecommunication facilities. Li's orders could be passed quickly from higher to lower levels.

According to Wang Huazhong, head of Falun Gong's branch in Miyun County of Beijing, he was ordered to convene the heads of the county's 30 Falun Gong practising sites on April 24, letting them inform each practitioner to go to Zhongnanhai to "do breathing exercises" the next day.

When practitioners from Shandong Province came to Beijing to take part in the illegal gathering at Zhongnanhai, a mobile phone was provided for each contingent so that orders from higher levels could be promptly passed on.

Li repeatedly asserted he had no interest in political activities. Judgment, however, is made by what a person does, not what passes his lips.

No matter how Li defended for himself _ illegal sit-ins and sieges were disguised to be "doing breathing exercises," or "practitioners volunteering to safeguard the Falun Dafa" _ these facts have thoroughly exposed his evil political ambition.

China Daily
08/20/1999