Q: Cults are the world's public plague. Various
countries in the world, including China and Japan, have suffered
from cults. On what basis does the Chinese Government list Falun
Gong as a cult? In dealing with Falun Gong, is it possible to avoid
taking measures of cracking down on its followers?
A: Present China is a country that is devoted to establishing
and perfecting the rule of law. The Chinese Government treats
present-day Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Catholicism and Islam
with equality and carries out the policy of respecting freedom of
religious beliefs. However, the government's outlawing of Falun
Gong on July 22, 1999 shows that it is not at all a religious
organization, but a cult to achieve antihuman, antisocial,
anti-science and antigovernment goals with extremely nefarious and
devastating means. There are four major foundations of Falun
Gong.
First, Falun Gong destroys the religious order and freedom of
religious belief with the camouflage of "doing missionary work,"
especially hurting the sentiments of true religious believers by
classifying itself under the name of religion in order to establish
the status of Li Hongzhi as the so-called world's highest
hierarchy.
Second, Falun Gong endangers people's physical and mental health
as well as their property. Incomplete estimates show that in the
entire country, there are more than 1,500 people who died because
of following Falun Gong. Falun Gong is not at all a deep breathing
exercise that helps maintain good health, but full of heresy.
Third, Falun Gong is strongly antisocial. In our world, all
religions and religious organizations protected by law must
consciously respect and maintain the basic moral and legal order of
society. For example, organizations such as Taoism, Islam and
Christianity obey the laws detailing the requirements of a society.
But Falun Gong and its organization are different. It isn't
established according to law and stirs up troubles everywhere, with
obvious antigovernment and antisocial characteristics.
Fourth, the so-called Falun Dafa Institute is an illegal
retroactive organization with a rigorous structure, strong
political aims as well as antigovernment and antisocial purposes.
Falun Dafa is the highest guidelines of this retroactive
organization.
Measures that the Chinese Government have taken in dealing with
Falun Gong according to law are commonly supported by all walks of
life. Of course, because we say that Falun Gong is a cult does not
mean that all people who once exercised it are cult advocates. The
policy of the Chinese Government is to differentiate common
exercisers from the tiny minority of organizers with ulterior
motives. The purpose of this is to educate and save the majority of
duped practitioners and punish the minority of those who break the
law or constitute crimes. To those practitioners who do not know
the true nature of Falun Gong, we do not discriminate against or
reject but instead patiently and painstakingly help them break away
from the cult and return to normal life.
At present, the Chinese people as a whole
lead a moderately prosperous life. The picture shows swimmers at
the Silver Beach in Beihai, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous
Region.
