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1 (February 4, 2005)

handle is hein.crs/crsmthaaztx0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Order Code RS20333 Updated February 4, 2005 CRS Report for Congress Received through the CRS Web China and Falun Gong Thomas Lum Specialist in Asian Affairs Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division Summary The Falun Gong movement has produced 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. Falun Gong supporters have also interrupted television programming in several PRC cities and broadcast their own images. In the last few years, the movement has been largely suppressed in China while it has thrived in overseas Chinese communities. On October 4, 2004, the House of Representatives agreed to H.Con.Res. 304, which called upon the PRC government to cease persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China and stop harassment of Falun Gong members in the United States. Basic Descriptions and Major Events What Is Falun Gong? Falun Gong,also known as Falun Dafa,1 combines an exercise regimen with meditation and mystical tenets. 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 1 The literal meanings of Falun Gong and Falun Dafa, respectively, are law wheel exercise and great way of the law wheel. 2 According to Falun Dafa, examples of moral degeneration include rock music, drug addiction, and homosexuality. Congressional Research Service **o The Library of Congress