Falun Gong, a new religious movement that combines meditation with the moral philosophy articulated by founder Li Hongzhi, first began spreading widely in China in 1992. Li's first lectures outside mainland China took place in Paris in 1995. At the invitation of the Chinese ambassador to France, he lectured on his teachings and practice methods to the embassy staff and others.[1] From that time on, Li gave lectures in other major cities in Europe, Asia, Oceania, and North America. He has resided permanently in the United States since 1998.[2]Falun Gong is now practiced in some 70 countries worldwide, and the teachings have been translated to over 40 languages.[3] The international Falun Gong community is estimated to number in the hundreds of thousands, though participation estimates are imprecise on account of a lack of formal membership.[1]
The Falun Gong also operates the Epoch Media Group, which is known for its subsidiaries, New Tang Dynasty Television and The Epoch Times newspaper. The latter has been broadly noted as a politically far-right[28] media entity, and it has received significant attention in the United States for promoting conspiracy theories, such as QAnon and anti-vaccine misinformation, and producing advertisements for former U.S. PresidentDonald Trump. It has also drawn attention in Europe for promoting far-right politicians, primarily in France and Germany.[29][19][30][31]
Since 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has persecuted Falun Gong in mainland China. In response, Falun Gong practitioners around the world have conducted activities aimed at raising awareness about related human rights issues. These include lobbying, passing out of flyers, participating in sit-ins in front of Chinese embassies and consulates, and staging parades and demonstrations.[32] They have established media outlets, have founded advocacy and research organizations to report information on the persecution in China, and launched lawsuits against the alleged architects and participants of the persecution campaign.[1]
Several foreign governments, the United Nations, and human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have expressed their concerns over allegations of torture and ill-treatment of Falun Gong practitioners in China.[33][34] Nonetheless, some observers have noted that Falun Gong has failed to attract the level of sympathy and sustained international attention afforded to Tibetans, Chinese Christians or democracy activists. This has been attributed to the group's unsophisticated PR skills,[35] the impact of the CCP's propaganda against the practice,[36] or the foreign nature of its teachings, which identify with Buddhist and Daoist traditions.[37]
^Zadrozny, Brandy. 2023. "How the conspiracy-fueled Epoch Times went mainstream and made millions". NBC News, October 13, 2023. OnlineArchived 14 October 2023 at the Wayback Machine.
^Folkenflik, David. 2021. "Falun Gong, Steve Bannon And The Trump-Era Battle Over Internet Freedom". NPR. OnlineArchived 2 November 2023 at the Wayback Machine.
^Zuylen-Wood, Simon van. 2021. "Maga-Land's Favorite Newspaper". The Atlantic. Archive.org.
^Roose, Kevin. 2020. "How The Epoch Times Created a Giant Influence Machine". The New York Times. OnlineArchived 25 December 2021 at the Wayback Machine.
^Kaiser, Jonas (2019). "In the heartland of climate scepticism: A hyperlink network analysis of German climate sceptics and the US right wing". In Forchtner, Bernard (ed.). The Far Right and the Environment: Politics, Discourse and Communication. Routledge. p. 265. ISBN978-1351104029.
^Weisskircher, Manès (September 11, 2020). "Neue Wahrheiten von rechts außen? Alternative Nachrichten und der 'Rechtspopulismus' in Deutschland" [New truths from the far-right? Alternative news and 'right-wing populism' in Germany]. Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen (in German). 33 (2). De Gruyter: 474–490. doi:10.1515/fjsb-2020-0040. ISSN2192-4848. S2CID222004415. In Deutschland existiert eine Vielzahl an alternativen Nachrichten-Plattformen von Rechtsaußen. Der Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2019 nennt Junge Freiheit, Compact online, PI News und Epoch Times als Plattformen mit der häufigsten Nutzung (Newman 2019: 86). [In Germany there is a large number of alternative news platforms from the far-right. The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2019 names Junge Freiheit, Compact online, PI News and Epoch Times as the platforms with the most frequent use (Newman 2019: 86).]
^Newton, Casey (May 12, 2020). "How the 'Plandemic' video hoax went viral". The Verge. Archived from the original on April 8, 2021. Retrieved November 6, 2020. it won approving coverage from far-right outlets including the Epoch Times, Gateway Pundit, and Next News Network.
^Callery, James; Goddard, Jacqui (August 23, 2021). "Most-clicked link on Facebook spread doubt about Covid vaccine". The Times. ISSN0140-0460. Archived from the original on September 29, 2022. Retrieved December 22, 2021. Facebook's data on the first quarter of this year shows that one of its most popular pages was an article by The Epoch Times, a far-right newspaper that has promoted QAnon conspiracy theories and misleading claims of voter fraud related to the 2020 US election.