Ever since FaLun Gong staged a large demonstration in 1999 and was banned and repressed by the Chinese government, it has attracted international attention.  The Chinese say that FaLun Gong is an evil, dangerous cult, but many people outside consider the repression to be a serious violation of freedom of speech, assembly, and religion.  It is possible that both sides are correct.  To understand FaLun Gong and its repression, some background is need.

FaLun Gong popped out of China’s rapidly changing society of the past decade.  In the last few years China has made giant leaps in converting its socialist system to a market system.   China has become much more free in almost every way ­- buying, selling, owning, changing jobs, domestic migration, art, press, religion, and other forms.  These economic freedoms have fueled an extraordinary economic growth.  For people who support economic improvement, freedom, and human rights, the recent improvements are stunning.  These same changes have also brought serious problems.   Some people have gotten rich, and others have not or have even gotten poorer.   Rural areas have not benefited nearly as much as urban areas, and even in urban areas, economic change has brought unemployment.  Older people are far less able to take advantage of new opportunities than young people.  For some old people, the new poverty, new institutions, and new culture are disorienting.  This general process is common in other countries, but perhaps the speed and scale of change has been greater in China in the past decade then in many other countries.

There are signs of personal and social stress.  In early March, a man was angry at his wife and her family.  He blew up five apartment buildings, killing 108 people.   Earlier in the week, a man was arrested for killing thirteen people and attempting to kill twenty-four more with poison over three years; apparently “voices” in a dream told him he had to kill others to recover from some illness.

It is typical that societies in such a transition often have new religious movements, and this certainly is the case in China.  I recently spent a day with a Christian community, nondenominational because its leaders haven't yet learned of the various schisms and reformation movements in the West.  Muslims are travelling to Mecca, and Buddhist temples are filled.

There are also cults.  We need only recall our own Jim Jones, David Koresh, and the Heavenly Gate group, as well as the cult suicide/murder in Uganda last year (with 924 people dead), to know that cults are part of a part of social change and stress.

The Chinese government has branded FaLun Gong as an evil cult.  I have no special ability to pinpoint the line between a new religion and a cult, so I won’t try to.  I do find it disturbing that FaLun Gong’s leader claims power of levitation and resists modern medicine in favor of prayer, but I know that belief in miracles and other paranormal phenomena and in faith healing show up in many religions.  FaLun Gong has also use physical methods to prevent discussion of some of their ideas.  Their members held a magazine publisher’s office at siege when it published a critique. The recent public immolations are linked to Chinese press reports of at least 136 suicides of FaLun Gong members, obsessed with “doomsday,” “being raised to heaven,” and “consummation.”

The Chinese government believes it has an obligation to protect its citizens from doomsday cultists by repressing FaLun Gong.  I think that most Americans, myself included, believe that rights to privacy, assembly, religion, and speech should preclude government repression even of cultists.  We would expect the state to use police power in situations of kidnapping, harm to children, illegal arms, or other criminal violations.  However, if there were no clear criminal actions, we would prefer private agencies to use their persuasive powers to have cult members withdraw.  So even if the Chinese government’s analysis is correct, we may feel its methods of dealing with the sitution are wrong, and we can not be happy with its repressive actions.

Is this is a violation of human rights?  It depends on whether you are so confident about your own values that you want to impose them on other societies.  Alternatively, you might acknowledge that in other countries with different political cultures, government might have a more proactive perspective on such matters.

The truth is that the repression of  FaLun Gong is more related to politics than to cults.  Despite its claim to be “non-political,” FaLun Gong has organized as a unique political force in China and internationally.  It uses cell phones, email, and websites, in a way that permits broadly based and rapid mobilization.  It shocked the communist leaders when it organized ten thousand demonstrators in front of the residential quarters of China’s rulers.  It has pioneered an organizational strategy that could be used by students and workers, which even more frightens China’s Communist Party leaders.   Abroad, FaLun Gong organizes mayors, congressional representatives and others in the United States and is now seeking support to get its leader nominated for a Noble Peace Prize.  FaLun Gong's claim to be "non-political" is a gross misreprentation of his activities; it is highly political and sophisticated at it..

These patterns are especially sensitive in China for several reasons.  In the past, many violent political movements have come packaged as religious-exercise-health-exercise movements.  The Kingdom of Heavenly Peace movement of the 1850s, whose leader claimed to be God's second son, younger brother to Jesus Christ,  led a civil war with loss of life in the 30 million range.  The Boxer Rebellion, with roots in Chinese martial arts,  in 1898 helped terminate early efforts at reform.

 China’s leaders know that this phase of expanding freedoms, along with economic and cultural changes, is inherently de-stabilizing.   They see Russia’s experience as a warning about the dangers of premature political freedom.  Thus the one freedom China vigorously resists is the freedom of autonomous organization for religions, students, workers, and, of course, for political activists.  FaLun Gong is precisely the type of poliltical organizing that the Chinese leaders want to stop.  It can not be allowed to stand as a tolerable form of mobilization.

The result has been a very sad repression campaign against FaLun Gong members.  The arrests and imprisonment or forced “re-education through labor” against people for their beliefs and associations disturb me and many Chinese people.

We in the United States are very fortunate to be in a society where FaLun Gong can have its meetings and distribute its publications in great freedom.  However, the repression in China doesn’t make FaLun Gong into heroes.  It doesn’t make its exercises any better than the myriad traditional exercises which go on unimpeded in China’s parks every morning.  It doesn't make its leader into Nobel Prize material.  It doesn’t exempt FaLun Gong from criticism of its dangerous aspects.

Temple University should protect individual rights and provide opportunities to study and analyze phenomena such as FaLun Gong.  Student organizations certainly have rights to organize programs of their choice.  Institutionally, however, we should make sure the university doesn’t get swept into supporting organizations, values, and activities just because they are repressed.