Today marks the first anniversary of China's ban on the Falun Gong cult. On July 22 last year, the Ministry of Civil Affairs declared that the Research Society of Falun Dafa and the Falun Gong organization under its control were illegal, and were therefore banned under the law.

A decisive victory in the fight against the Falun Gong cult has been won this year. A small number of criminals involved in the cult have been punished under the law, but the majority of Falun Gong cult members have realized that it is an evil organization and have renounced it.

The ban has not only helped China's social stability, but has helped to uphold justice throughout the world. It has won wide support both from the people of China and from those with insight in other countries.

China's all-out war against the cult has encouraged other nations to take bolder steps against their own heretical organizations.

Falun Gong is in no way like what the misleading Western media have described it. It is not a peaceful meditation qigong group. Like Japan's Aum Shinrikyo and Uganda's Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God cult, Falun Gong bears every feature of a cult. It spreads lies and cheats people, and it has resulted in more than 1,500 deaths in China.

As more and more people have begun to see through the Falun Gong, the cult has become increasingly unpopular internationally.

However, Li Hongzhi, the cult's leader, and his unrepentant followers have refused to take their defeat gracefully. They have not ceased to encourage people to confront the Chinese Government.

In an attempt to rekindle the cult's dying embers, Li has ganged up with other anti-China forces, in the hope that foreign support would frustrate the efforts of the Chinese Government. The support of China-haters in the West has somehow encouraged Li to continue his evil deeds.

However, evil will never triumph over virtue. Throughout China's history, those who have thrown in their lot with foreign forces have never come to a good end. Li and his followers are doomed to fail.

(China daily 2000/07/22)