Falun Gong is not an innocent religious organization.

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Falun Gong-aligned media push fake news about Democrats and Chinese communists

They're a delusional cult with a large propaganda arm; The Epoch Times is part of their propaganda network.

Even disregarding the appalling parts of the Chinese government's propaganda, FLG's public opinion in China is not "innocent".
FLG are quite capable of defrauding the life savings of ignorant old people. And many times play the role of anti-vaxxer.
And FLG have a long track record of harassing the Chinese diaspora. This often impresses Chinese citizens traveling abroad for short periods of time.

I hope those who have a crush on them will enjoy these qualities of them.
Oh no, they only seem to be trying to poison ethnic Chinese.

Yeah Falun Gong are a great illustration that the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend.

The persecution they have experienced at the hands of the CCP is disgusting, but their English language media is unhinged. The sort of unhinged that should be tolerated in a liberal society that values free speech, but unhinged enough that we shouldn't mistake them for allies.

While not interested in Falun Gong, I am interested in learning Tai Chi Chuan (e.g., the slow-moving, dance-like exercise based on a Chinese martial-art form).  Every time I find a class (for seniors, naturally), I also seem to find at least one recruiter/panhandler for the Falun Gong movement.

I believe they've done some terroristic sorts of things.

They go around the streets of (especially) Chinatowns in NYC, trying to impose their agenda upon passersby. I believe, were I of Chinese descent, that they would try to recruit me into the organization. Rather similar to something like the Moonies.

According to Wikipedia . . .

So, this "Shen Yun" production making the rounds is Falun Gong propaganda -- the dancing and music are wonderful to watch, but the overall production is propaganda, nonetheless.

^I also read this wiki.

Despite the violation of procedural justice, part of me wished it were true.
In the context of "chinese studies" ideologues being brought into public schools in China to blatantly promote ultra-conservative and misogynistic ideology, this statement is so credible.

It had to have been fifteen years ago that I was hearing jokes about Falun Gong burgers (some warped twist that it was a bit like soilent greens). If I remember correctly one of China's worst wars with heaviest loss of life was kicked off by a religious mystic and that had an impact on their view of religion, especially religious cults, even before Mao.

Thankfully I learned Tai Chi (and most of my FMA) from a Lebanese martial arts teacher so I got to skip the shady guy in the corner peddling fliers.

You mean the Taiping rebellion? The leader thought he was the brother of Jesus, and startet a massive civil war against the Qing dynasty government. But if I remember correctly, he wasn't alone and the Qing were ethnic Manchu, not Han Chinese, so the whole civil war thing might have contained a lot of ethnic tension....

Religious cults are quite difficult for any government - they're basically denying that the highest authority is the state, and that the national laws are the one's that need to be respected, rather than the religion's laws.
If people in the west took their religions seriously, that'd be a problem, too. But luckily, most people here have learned to carry their beliefs lightly, at least, lightly enough to accept that the national laws are the ones being enforced, and their religious laws are optional.
But I'd guess the CCP is taking it personally, like an Old-Testament god...

That almost reminds me of how the whole Tamil persecution in Sri Lanka came to pass, ie. that a western educated politician came back claiming to be a devout Buddhist and played the Sinhalese against the Tamil. Demagogues suck.

I think the guy really thought he was the brother of Jesus, and the whole ethnic thing was incidental; the other Chinese ethnicities just jumped on the 'let's rebel against our Manchurian overlords'-bandwagon.

Oxford Research Encyclopedia

This is an accurate and ingenious metaphor for describing the attitude of quite a few Chinese people towards the government.

But this is more because of Chinese historical traditions that shaped Chinese culture, rather than some incredible magic or ulterior measure at the hands of the "CCP".
Change that position to another faction, then this kind of worship will still exist. As long as the toxicity in our culture persists.

IMHO, Supporting Falun Gong in its efforts against the CCP is like swallowing arsenic to cure cyanide poisoning.

The negative history of the "Taiping rebellion"/"Taiping Heavenly Kingdom" is rarely mentioned in Chinese public education due to the nominally special ideology of Chinese officials.

It is hard to say here that there is "an impact on our view of religion". This is not the first time in Chinese history that such violent revolution and extremist religion have been combined.
I'm not good at Chinese history, but "White Lotus Religion" and "Yellow Turban Rebellion" are examples that come to my mind right away.
I'd rather admit that this is what the ignorant lower classes of Chinese/all-human-beings would have done in ancient times, than that the otherwise virtuous people got some kind of unexpected stimulus.


According to the local historical records of different regions, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has a system that is extremely terrifying even in the history of Chinese autocracy.
Newspeak.
A rigid hierarchy combining Christianity and Confucianism.
Gender segregated so that sexual intercourse is a crime.
Being opposed to "Manchu culture" but being ignorant at the same time deprives civilians of the right to wear traditional clothing.
Use the death penalty for misdemeanors.
This was even worse than the Qing government, which had ethnic oppression, in many respects.

This is a possibility as a hint of what might grow on this soil if "we" overthrow disfavored governments with populist violence before cultural improvement and enlightenment.
The water level of ideas here has not yet risen to the level of "equality for all" and "self-governance".
So the results may not be that one we need.

Falun Gong is just one of these poisonous fruits that survived.

This makes me interested in the question of what the actual bulwark is against that. In the US we lucked out that the founding fathers came from a crap enough situation that they got a lot of things right and their experience with 17th and 18th century religious wars in the UK seem to have landed some things in our laws to prevent us from having large scale Northern Ireland style problems, I'm sure freedom of religion translating to the right to own private property without belonging to a given religious sect being a significant piece of that but I'm curious what else. As geographically large and populous as our country is it's really amazing that we aren't in the same basket as India or China in terms of internal dynamics. Things might not be perfect now but clearly they went a lot better than they might have otherwise.