Falun Gong outside mainland China

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]

Led by Li Hongzhi, who is viewed by adherents as a deity-like figure, Falun Gong practitioners operate a variety of organizations in the United States and elsewhere, including the dance troupe Shen Yun.[4][5] They are known for their opposition to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), espousing anti-evolutionary views, opposition to homosexuality and feminism, and rejection of modern medicine, among other views described as "ultra-conservative".[13][14]

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. President Donald 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]

  1. ^ a b c David Ownby, Falun Gong and the Future of China (2008) Oxford University Press
  2. ^ Tong, James (September 2002). "An Organizational Analysis of the Falun Gong: Structure, Communications, Financing". The China Quarterly. 171: 636–660. doi:10.1017/S0009443902000402. S2CID 154108066.
  3. ^ Falun Dafa.org, List of languages Archived November 29, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Accessed 11-09-2013.
  4. ^ Maloney, Carolyn. "In Recognition of Shen Yun; Congressional Record Vol. 168, No. 41". congress.gov. Archived from the original on June 20, 2023. Retrieved July 4, 2023.
  5. ^ Knutsen, Elise (July 5, 2011). "Shen Yun Performance Brings Out Stars And Awareness". The Observer. Archived from the original on March 17, 2023. Retrieved July 4, 2023.
  6. ^ Zadrozny, Brandy. 2023. "How the conspiracy-fueled Epoch Times went mainstream and made millions". NBC News, October 13, 2023. Online Archived 14 October 2023 at the Wayback Machine.
  7. ^ Folkenflik, David. 2021. "Falun Gong, Steve Bannon And The Trump-Era Battle Over Internet Freedom". NPR. Online Archived 2 November 2023 at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ^ Zuylen-Wood, Simon van. 2021. "Maga-Land's Favorite Newspaper". The Atlantic. Archive.org.
  9. ^ Tolentino, Jio (March 19, 2019). "Stepping Into the Uncanny, Unsettling World of Shen Yun". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on March 17, 2021. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  10. ^ Braslow, Samuel (March 9, 2020). "Inside the Shadowy World of Shen Yun and Its Secret Pro-Trump Ties". Los Angeles. Archived from the original on March 10, 2020. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
  11. ^ Andrew Junker (2019). Becoming Activists in Global China: Social Movements in the Chinese Diaspora. Cambridge University Press. p. 99. ISBN 978-1108482998. Archived from the original on April 5, 2023. Retrieved May 23, 2020.
  12. ^ Roose, Kevin. 2020. "How The Epoch Times Created a Giant Influence Machine". The New York Times. Online Archived 25 December 2021 at the Wayback Machine.
  13. ^ [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
  14. ^ Dorrell, Taylor (March 5, 2022). "The Right-Wing Cult Behind Shen Yun". Columbus Free Press. Retrieved May 18, 2024.
  15. ^ 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. ISBN 978-1351104029.
  16. ^ 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. ISSN 2192-4848. S2CID 222004415. 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).]
  17. ^ Allen-Ebrahimian, Bethany (September 23, 2017). "The German Edition of Falun Gong's 'Epoch Times' Aligns with the Far Right". ChinaFile. Center on U.S.-China Relations at Asia Society. Archived from the original on October 28, 2017.
  18. ^ Alba, Davey (May 9, 2020). "Virus Conspiracists Elevate a New Champion". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 1, 2021. Retrieved November 6, 2020.
  19. ^ a b Hettena, Seth (September 17, 2019). "The Obscure Newspaper Fueling the Far-Right in Europe". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Archived from the original on July 2, 2020. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  20. ^ Aspinwall, Nick (November 2, 2020). "Guo Wengui and Steve Bannon Are Flooding the Zone With Hunter Biden Conspiracies". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on March 2, 2021. Retrieved November 6, 2020.
  21. ^ Farhi, Paul (August 20, 2020). "A 'loud mouth' writer says the White House broke its own briefing-room rules. So he did the same". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 31, 2020. Retrieved November 6, 2020. Last week, McEnany admitted representatives from two far-right outfits, the Gateway Pundit and Epoch Times
  22. ^ Aspinwall, Nick (November 6, 2020). "As Taiwan Watches US Election, It May Need Time to Trust a Biden Administration". The Diplomat. Archived from the original on February 12, 2021. Retrieved November 6, 2020. That's likely due in large part to the presence of influential Chinese-language far-right media on the island, such as the Falun Gong-backed Epoch Times
  23. ^ 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.
  24. ^ Pressman, Aaron; Morris, David Z. (August 7, 2020). "This moon landing video is fake". Fortune. Archived from the original on February 23, 2021. Retrieved November 6, 2020.
  25. ^ Sommer, Will (October 19, 2019). "Bannon Teams Up With Chinese Group That Thinks Trump Will Bring on End-Times". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved November 6, 2020. New Tang Dynasty is part of the Epoch Media Group, a collection of far-right media outlets linked to Falun Gong
  26. ^ Callery, James; Goddard, Jacqui (August 23, 2021). "Most-clicked link on Facebook spread doubt about Covid vaccine". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. 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.
  27. ^ Waldman, Scott (August 27, 2021). "Climate denial newspaper flourishes on Facebook". E&E News. Archived from the original on September 28, 2022. Retrieved January 8, 2022.
  28. ^ [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]
  29. ^ Zadrozny, Brandy; Collins, Ben (August 20, 2019). "Trump, QAnon and an impending judgment day: Behind the Facebook-fueled rise of The Epoch Times". NBC News. Archived from the original on August 23, 2019. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  30. ^ Roose, Kevin (February 5, 2020). "Epoch Times, Punished by Facebook, Gets a New Megaphone on YouTube". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on February 6, 2020. Retrieved February 6, 2020.
  31. ^ Perrone, Alessio; Loucaides, Darren (March 10, 2022). "A key source for Covid-skeptic movements, the Epoch Times yearns for a global audience". Coda Media. Archived from the original on March 13, 2022. Retrieved March 13, 2022.
  32. ^ Noah Porter, ‘Falun Gong in the United States: An Ethnographic Study’ 18 July 2003.
  33. ^ Spiegel, Mickey (2002). Dangerous meditation: China's campaign against Falungong (PDF). New York: Human Rights Watch. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 15, 2017. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
  34. ^ Amnesty International, "The crackdown on Falun Gong and other so-called 'heretical organizations'" Archived April 25, 2019, at the Wayback Machine March 23, 2000.
  35. ^ Gutmann, Ethan. "China's Gruesome Organ Harvest" Weekly Standard, 24 November 2008, Vol. 14, No. 10
  36. ^ Ownby (2000), p. 248
  37. ^ Frank 2004, p. 241