Plight of the Falun Gong
Throughout the extensive history of China, from the Qin dynasty to modern days, the Chinese government has been witness to complete political reformations due to weaker periods in history combined with the rise of a new movement competing for loyalties of the people. During imperial rule, the era of dynasties lasting from third century B.C. up till 1912, emerging movements led by groups such as the Taiping rebels or the Boxers had disrupted the run of government. (Eckholm "A Quiet") Chairman Mao Zedong was also incredibly mindful as to protecting Maoism, the Chinese version of Communism, which came about in 1949, following the Chinese Communist victory over the Chinese Nationalist in a civil war. (Holt, Rinehart and Winston 509) In the 1950's, Mao was wary to disband any secret society or religious sect that could produce a potential competition. And again, in 1966-1967 during the Cultural Revolution, the Red Guards who were originally created by Mao were dispersed by army troops sent in by Mao due to the fusing of several local groups; the organization was spreading and growing to become a threat to the state. (Eckholm "A Quiet") The Communist government has been extremely cautious to intercept any intention to subvert the gover
In summary, Communist China's paranoia of mutiny and loss of power, combined with its technically atheistic stand on religion, has caused it to react strongly and may have resorted to tactics with questionable propriety concerning the Falun Gong, a group in search of a peaceful location to practice their blend of traditional Chinese "qigong" exercises, mysticism, Buddhism, and Taoism. With the rising number of followers, Falun Gong could easily prove to be a potential threat to the Communist Government and a source of opposing loyalties as it gains support and more practitioners. However, lacking the intentions to undermine the government, the Falun Gong feels as if it has unjustly been enthralled to accusations of a religion, cult or "evil sect" when all they are aspiring to attain is a peaceful locale to practice and recognition other than the depreciative type they have been subjugated to by the government. With the involvement of outside third parties such as the United States and the United Nations, the expediency of the Chinese government's method of dealing with the conglomeration became open for examination for its possible violation of fundamental human rights. Hopefully, following the Geneva meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Commission on April 18, 2000, a common ground can be found and peace between the two nations will be achieved. Perhaps the views of Liang, a member of both the Communist Party and Falun Gong, will be realized; the two beliefs are not mutually exclusive and can coexist, one beside the other. "They are both about serving the people." (Faison) With the founder of the Falun Gong residing in the United States, and the followers reaching out to the United Nations and other human rights organizations for reprehension of the manner they have been treated in, involvement of outside sources was inevitable. The main concern of the third parties are not whether or not the Falun Gong should be dispersed, but whether or not the Chinese Communist Government has been using proper tactics to accomplish their decision. With little hard evidence in their support, the government has been condemning Falun Gong as an evil sect. In response to this, Sima Nan, a Chinese man who has been on a pursuit against Falun Gong and similar groups which "promote superstition and unscientific thought" said, "Instead of just saying Falun Gong is an evil sect, they should be using science to be proving generally that there are no supernatural powers." (Rosenthal) He also alluded that China's leaders have been at fault for singling out Falun Gong for scrutiny while several other groups, such as Zhong Gong, Yuang Ji Gong, and Wang Gong, have not been subjected to such calumny; some have even been granted legal status due to benefaction of government officials. (Rosenthal) Another example of how the Communist Government has been applying their tactics without propriety occurred on July 29, 1999, when the Chinese government issued an arrest warrant for Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong who was already living in exile in the United States since 1997. This deed was incredibly pointless, being powerless due to the lack of an extradition treaty between the two countries, and exemplifies the government as being more politically minded than legally minded. (Faison) Also, with the democratic history of the United States and the strong attempt to remain politically correct and fair on all terms, US citizens tend to view the Chinese choice of course to take for resolution of this conflict as inhumane and not properly supported with evidence. A spokesperson of the American Embassy said, "We have no evidence that practitioners have done anything other than peacefully exercise their internationally recognized rights." (Eckholm "China Reassures") In addition, the US government has
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Approximate Word count = 2564
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)
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