【明報專訊】On 25 April 1999, tens of thousands of practitioners of Falun Gong (法輪功), a Chinese spiritual practice founded by Li Hongzhi (李洪志, right), gathered outside Zhongnanhai (中南海), where a number of government agencies are headquartered. The event ultimately led to its crackdown in Mainland China.

What is Falun Gong?

Falun Gong, which combines meditation (冥想) and qigong (氣功) exercises with a moral philosophy centred on the tenets of truthfulness (真), compassion (善) and forbearance (忍), was first taught publicly in Northeast China in 1992 by Li Hongzhi. There are vastly conflicting accounts of Li's background — not even his date of birth is verified.

Falun Gong's following grew rapidly in the 1990s. The Chinese government found it acceptable at first. However, as its influence grew, it came under the authorities' increasing scrutiny (密切觀察). Official media outlets began to publish articles disparaging (貶損) Falun Gong as superstition (迷信).

The April 25 Incident and the banning of Falun Gong

Conflicts between the government and Falun Gong culminated in the April 25 Incident, the largest demonstration staged in Beijing after the June Fourth crackdown. More than 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners descended on Zhongnanhai, demanding that the Chinese government stop mistreating them.

The incident hugely unsettled the Chinese government. Zhu Rongji (朱鎔基), who was then Premier, met with five representatives of Falun Gong. Zhu promised to release the Falun Gong members previously arrested and not to treat Falun Gong as an anti-government organisation.

But Zhu's conciliatory (調解的) approach was regarded as weak by President Jiang Zemin (江澤民), as he then was. Jiang overturned Zhu's decision, and set up the 610 Office (610辦公室) on June 10 that year. On July 20, the police launched a nation-wide effort to arrest Falun Gong practitioners. Two days later, an official announcement was made to outlaw Falun Gong. People are prohibited from displaying Falun Gong banners and pictures, distributing Falun Gong materials or staging sit-ins or visits aimed at defending or publicising Falun Gong.

Li Hongzhi moved to the US in 1996 with his wife and daughter and became a US permanent resident.

Persecution of Falun Gong - as claimed by its practitioners

Falun Gong practitioners have long complained that the Chinese government has been persecuting (迫害) them. According to them, not only have they been subjected to programmes of enforced ideological conversion and re-education and physical torture, sometimes resulting in deaths, but large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners have been killed to supply China's organ transplant (器官移植) industry. Their claims are supported by the Kilgour-Matas report (喬高-麥塔斯調查報告), which Canadian MP David Kilgour and human rights lawyer David Matas have published. The Chinese government have denied such claims.

Falun Gong in Hong Kong

It is not against the law to practise Falun Gong in Hong Kong. But in recent years, it has increasingly come into conflicts with pro-Beijing organisations like Hong Kong Youth Care Association (香港青年關愛協會). On 4 August 2013 a primary school teacher unleashed a string of verbal abuse against police officers at Mong Kok, who were trying to mediate disagreements between the two groups over the exhibition of their banners. That incident led to considerable controversy.

Falun Gong operates an extensive web of media outlets in Hong Kong and the rest of the world.