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![handle is hein.crs/crsmthaaztw0001 and id is 1 raw text is:
Order Code RS20333
Updated January 23, 2004
CRS Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
China and Falun Gong
Thomas Lum
Analyst in Asian Affairs
Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division
Summary
The Falun Gong movement led to the largest and most protracted public
demonstrations in China since the democracy movement of 1989. The People's
Republic of China (PRC) government, fearful of a political challenge and the spread of
social unrest, outlawed Falun Gong in July 1999. Despite a massive government
campaign against them and harsh punishments meted out to many followers, Falun
Gong members continued to stage demonstrations for over two years. In 2002 and 2003,
Falun Gong adherents reportedly interrupted television programming in several PRC
cities and broadcast their own images. On October 16, 2003, H.Con.Res. 304 was
introduced, calling upon the PRC government to cease human rights violations against
Falun Gong practitioners in China and stop its harassment of Falun Gong members in
the United States.
Background and Major Events
What Is Falun Gong? Falun Gong,also known as Falun Dafa, combines
an exercise regimen with meditation and moral guidelines. The practice and beliefs are
derived from qigong, a set of movements that stimulate the flow of qi - vital energies
or life forces - throughout the body, and Buddhist and Daoist concepts. Falun Gong
upholds three main virtues - truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance (zhen-shan-ren)
and warns against materialism and moral degeneration.2 Practitioners claim that by
controlling the wheel of dharma, which revolves in the body, one can cure a wide range
of medical ailments and diseases. They believe that by practicing Falun Gong, they may
achieve physical well-being, emotional tranquility, moral virtue, and an understanding of
the cosmos.'
1 The literal meanings of Falun Gong and Falun Dafa, respectively, are law wheel exercise
and great way of the wheel of dharma.
2 According to Falun Dafa, examples of moral degeneration include rock music, drug addiction,
and homosexuality.
3 See [http://www.falundafa.org] and [http://www.faluninfo.net] See also Li Hongzhi, Falun
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