Does "Falun Gong" Advocate "Truthfulness, Benevolence
and Tolerance" or "Falsehood, Evil and Intolerance"?

By Xiao Guang

On the Duowei Website appeared an essay on the justification of "Falun Gong," originally published by Yan Jiaqi in the newspaper News Freedom. Entitled "Yan Jiaqi Justifies 'Falun Gong,'" the essay criticizes the Chinese government's crackdown on the heretical cult "Falun Gong," and highly praises "Falun Gong" for its advocacy of "truthfulness, benevolence and tolerance" and its promotion of this as the norm for people's behavior for the purpose of raising moral standards. Besides, the essay says, ``Falun Gong,'' which tens of millions of people are ready to learn, is an activity combining both ``health promotion" and the ``raising of people's morals."

Obviously, "scholar" Yan is talking nonsense. Does "Falun Gong," as he says, really advocate "truthfulness, benevolence and tolerance" as the norm for people's behavior for the purpose of raising moral standards? No, absolutely not. From what "Falun Gong" founder Li Hongzhi has done, we can see the real intention of the "Falun Gong" organization.

According to Li Hongzhi, "Falun Gong" practitioners, who embrace "truthfulness, benevolence and tolerance," tell the truth, do good deeds, and cherish tolerance. But what he has done is out-and-out "falsehood, evil and intolerance."

Li Hongzhi changed his birthday from July 7, 1952 to May 13, 1951 so as to have the same birthday as Sakyamuni, founder of Buddhism, and boasted that he was a "reincarnation of Sakymuni"; he had a photo taken of himself in a stage costume he bought from a store to give himself the "image of Buddha" sitting in meditation on a lotus flower so that he could be treated as a modern Buddha. He employed others to write Turning the Wheel of the Law and other books on his behalf, but gave himself credit for these books so that he could raise his social status and make profits. Are these acts of "truthfulness"? No, they are acts of falsehood.

During the initial period of his spreading of "Falun Gong," Li Hongzhi set up a "donation box" at his home. He gave each practitioner a hint to donate at least RMB 100 yuan. Afterwards, he gave lectures and sold his books to amass money rapidly. According to incomplete statistics, Li earned 428,200 RMB yuan from teaching "Falun Gong" exercises and book sales in Changchun City, Jilin Province, in 1993 and 1994. And he earned 789,000 RMB yuan from running training classes nationwide. These two incomes totaled 1,217,200 RMB yuan. According to statistics from Sichuan Province, during the past five years, Li Hongzhi has sold a large quantity of "Falun Gong" publicity materials in the province via "Falun Gong" instruction centers at various levels. He also swindled more than 3.5 million RMB yuan out of practitioners through the sale of cassette tapes, VCDs and books.

Other figures show that Li Hongzhi earned millions of US dollars from his public lectures and book sales. A person named Liu Guirong said that she had been Li's private accountant. At the beginning of 1997 she cleared the accounts for Li, whose income totaled more than 10 million RMB yuan (or to over 1,219,512 US dollars). In order to conceal his illegal profits and tax evasion, Li destroyed these accounts himself at his residence in the Fahua Temple in Beijing.

According to investigations, Li Hongzhi illegally earned more than 38.86 million RMB yuan (or about 4,614,269 US dollars) from the three specially big cases involving illegal publication and sale of books and the distribution of audio and video tapes on "Falun Gong," as well as clothes and other articles needed for the practice of "Falun Gong" in Wuhan City, Hubei Province and Jinan City, Shandong Province.

Meanwhile, among the "Falun Gong" practitioners deluded by his pseudoscience more than 1,400 died. How can swindling money and killing practitioners by these means be called "benevolence"? They are the most serious "evils"!

Besides, Li Hongzhi cannot bear the slightest criticism or antagonism. If anyone has a slight objection to "Falun Gong" or discloses its ins and outs, Li will incite his disciples to besiege and protest against him or her or create disturbances in the name of "protection of the 'Dafa.'"

After the Chinese government banned the "Falun Gong" organization, Li Hongzhi instigated his disciples to frequently create disturbances worldwide. They staged demonstrations at Chinese embassies and consulates abroad, canvassed US Congressmen, and spread slanders against the Chinese government. Li Hongzhi himself frequently accepted interviews from the foreign mass media, asked his disciples to write to important politicians to seek international support for his opposition to the Chinese government's ban, in an attempt to exert pressure on China by means of foreign forces. Therefore, Li Hongzhi and his "Falun Gong" organization completely have torn off their masks of Qigong and Buddhism, revealing their vicious political ambitions and their attempt to collude with foreign anti-China forces to oppose the Chinese government and the Chinese people. Can such peremptory and tyrannical acts be called "tolerance"? They are extreme "intolerance"!

Not trying to find out (nor is he willing to find out) whether "Falun Gong" advocates "truthfulness, benevolence and tolerance" or "falsehood, evil and intolerance," Yan Jiaqi groundlessly asserts that "Falun Gong" advocates "truthfulness, benevolence and tolerance" as the norm for people's behavior for the purpose of raising people's moral standards. Is that not deplorable?

(Compiled by New Star Publishers, Dec., 1999)