Before 1992 Although qigong-like practices have a long history, the modern qigong movement traces its origins only to the late 1940s and 1950s. At that time, CCP
cadres began pursuing qigong as a means of improving health, and regarded it as a category of traditional
Chinese medicine. From his youth, Li Hongzhi claims to have been tutored by a variety of Buddhist and Daoist masters, who, according to his spiritual biography, imparted to him the practice methods and moral philosophy that would come to be known as Falun Gong. • 7 July 1952 – Founder
Li Hongzhi is born. • 1989 – Li begins private instruction of Falun Gong to select students.
1992–1995 Falun Gong was publicly founded in the Spring of 1992, toward the end of China's
qigong fever, a period which saw the proliferation of thousands of disciplines. Li Hongzhi and his Falun Gong became an "instant star" of the qigong movement, and were welcomed into the government-administered China Qigong Scientific Research Society (CQRS). From 1992 to 1994, Li traveled throughout China giving 54 lecture seminars on the practice and beliefs of Falun Gong. The practice grew rapidly based on its purported efficacy in improving health and its moral and philosophical elements, which were more developed than those of other qigong schools. • 1992 – On 13 May, Li begins public teaching of Falun Gong at the No. 5 Middle School in Changchun, Jilin Province, lecturing to a crowd of several hundred. The seminar ran for nine days at a cost of 30 Yuan per person. • 1992 – Li and several Falun Gong students participate in the 1992 Asian Health Expo in Beijing from 12 to 21 December. The organizer of the health fair remarked that Falun Gong and Li "received the most praise [of any qigong school] at the fair, and achieved very good therapeutic results." • 1993 – In August, an organization under
Ministry of Public Security sends a letter to the CQRS thanking Li Hongzhi for providing his teachings to police officers injured in the line of duty. The letter claimed that of the 100 officers treated by Li, only one failed to experience "obvious improvement" to their health. With its presentation of Li's religious teachings,
Zhuan Falun marked Falun Gong's transition to a new religious movement. • 1995 – In February, Li is approached by the Chinese National Sports Committee, Ministry of Public Health, and China Qigong Science Research Association to jointly establish a Falun Gong association. Li declines the offer. • 1996 – At Li's direction, administrators of the Falun Gong Research Association of China apply for registration with three other government organizations, including the
Buddhist Association of China and
United Front Work Department. All applications are ultimately denied. • 1996 – The first major state-run media article criticizing Falun Gong appears in the
Guangming Daily newspaper on 17 June. The article writes that Falun Gong represents a manifestation of feudal superstition, and that its core text Zhuan Falun is a work of "pseudo-science" that swindles the masses. Falun Gong practitioners responded to the article's publication with a letter-writing campaign to the newspaper and national qigong association. These articles contend that Falun Gong has appropriated, distorted, and slandered
Buddhism. • 1996 – Li begins another international lecture tour in the summer of 1996, traveling to Hong Kong, Sydney, Bangkok, Houston, New York, and Beijing. • 1997–1999 – Criticism of Falun Gong escalates in state-run media. With the encouragement of Li, Falun Gong practitioners respond to criticisms by peacefully petitioning outside media offices seeking redress against perceived unfair reporting. The tactic succeeds frequently, often resulting in the retraction of critical articles and apologies from the news organizations. • 1999 – Li Hongzhi continues to teach Falun Gong internationally, with occasional stops in China. By early 1999, Li had lectured in Sydney, Bangkok, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Taipei, Frankfurt, Toronto, Singapore, Geneva, Houston and New York, as well as in Changchun and Beijing. • 1999 – In April, physicist He Zuoxiu from the
Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes an article in Tianjin Normal University's Youth Reader magazine criticizing Falun Gong as superstitious and potentially harmful for youth and stating that he knew someone who died because of it. At that time, some countries near China had people practicing, like Vietnam. • 1999 – Tianjin Falun Gong practitioners respond to the article by peacefully petitioning in front of the editorial offices. Editors initially agree to publish a retraction of the He Zuoxiu article, then renege. • 1999 – On 23 April, some 300 security forces are called in to break up ongoing Falun Gong demonstration. Forty-five Falun Gong practitioners are beaten and detained. • 1999 – Falun Gong practitioners petition Tianjin City Hall for the release of the detained practitioners. They are reportedly told that the order to break up the crowd and detain protesters came from central authorities in Beijing, and that further appeals should be directed at Beijing. • 1999 – On 26 April, Jiang Zemin convenes a meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee to discuss the Falun Gong demonstration. Some Politburo members reportedly favored a conciliatory position towards Falun Gong, while others – such as Jiang and security czar Luo Gan – favored a decisive suppression of the group. • 1999 – Authorities increased surveillance on Falun Gong, tapping telephones of practitioners and monitoring practitioners in several cities. • 1999 – On 2 June, Li purchases space in several Hong Kong newspapers to publish an article defending Falun Gong, and urging Chinese leaders not to "risk universal condemnation" and "waste manpower and capital" by antagonizing the group. • 1999 – On 3 June, 70,000 practitioners from Jilin and
Liaoning travel to Beijing in an attempt to appeal to authorities. They were intercepted by security forces, sent home, and placed under surveillance. • 1999 – On 7 June 1999, Jiang Zemin convened a meeting of the
Politburo to address the Falun Gong issue. In the meeting, Jiang described Falun Gong as a grave threat to CCP authority – "something unprecedented in the country since its founding 50 years ago" – and ordered the creation of a special leading group within the party's
Central Committee to "get fully prepared for the work of disintegrating [Falun Gong]." The office was not created with any legislation, and there are no provisions describing its precise mandate. • 1999 –On 17 June, Jiang Zemin declared in a Politburo meeting that Falun Gong is the most serious political incident since the 1989 student protests. • 1999 – Just after midnight on 20 July, Falun Gong practitioners and "assistants" are abducted and detained across numerous cities in China. In response, tens of thousands of practitioners petition local, provincial and central appeals offices. • 1999 – 29 July, Chinese authorities ask
Interpol to seek the arrest of Li Hongzhi. Interpol declines. The following week, Chinese authorities offer a substantial cash reward for the extradition of Li from the United States. The U.S. government similarly declines to follow up. During the press conference, some of the first allegations of Falun Gong torture deaths in custody are made. • 1999 – On 30 October, the
National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China issues a resolution on article 300 of the criminal code. The resolution elaborates on the identification and punishments for individuals who use "heretical religions" to undermine the implementation of the law. • 1999 – On 5 November 1999, the
Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China issues a circular giving instruction to the people's courts that Falun Gong should be prosecuted as a 'heretical religion' under article 300. • 2000 – On 21 April,
Xinhua News Agency admits for the first time the difficulty the Central authorities have had in stamping out Falun Gong, noting that since "22 July 1999, Falun Gong members have been causing trouble on and around Tiananmen Square in Central Beijing nearly every day." • 2000 – Zhao Ming, a graduate student at Ireland's Trinity College, is sent to the Tuanhe
forced labor camp in Beijing in May. He spends two years in the camp amidst international pressure for his release, and is reportedly tortured with electric batons. • 2000 – On 1 October, thousands of Falun Gong practitioners travel to Tiananmen Square to stage protests against the persecution. Foreign media correspondents witness security officers beating and practitioners on the square. • 2000 – In November, Zhang Kunlun, a Canadian citizen and professor of art, is detained while visiting his mother in China and held in a forced labor camp where he reported being beaten and shocked with electric batons. Canadian politicians intervene on his behalf, eventually winning his release to Canada. • 2001 – On 23 January, five individuals
set themselves on fire on Tiananmen Square. State-run media claim they are Falun Gong practitioners, driven to suicide by the practice. Falun Gong sources deny involvement, saying that Falun Gong forbids suicide and violence, and arguing that the event was staged by the government to turn public opinion against the practice. • 2001 – By February, international concern grows over psychiatric abuses committed against Falun Gong practitioners, several hundred of whom had reportedly been held and tortured in psychiatric facilities for refusing to denounce the practice. • 2001 – On 23 December, a New York District Court hands down a default judgement against Zhao Zhifei, Public Security Bureau chief for Hubei Province, for his role in the wrongful death and torture of Falun Gong practitioners.
2002–2004 By 2002, Falun Gong practitioners had all but completely abandoned the approach of protesting on Tiananmen Square, and coverage in Western news outlets declined precipitously. Falun Gong practitioners continued adopting more novel approaches to protesting, including the establishment of a vast network of underground 'material sites' that create and distribute literature, Practitioners outside China established a television station to broadcast into China, designed censorship-circumvention tools to break through Internet censorship and surveillance, and filed dozens of largely symbolic lawsuits against Jiang Zemin and other Chinese officials alleging genocide and crimes against humanity. • 2002 – On 5 March, a group of six Falun Gong practitioners in Changchun city intercept television broadcasts, replacing them with content about Falun Gong and the persecution. Apparently believing that it to be a signal that the ban on Falun Gong had been lifted, citizens gather in public squares to celebrate. • 2002 – In June, Jiang Zemin visits
Iceland. Dozens of Falun Gong practitioners from around the world attempt to travel to the country to protest, but find their names on an international blacklist organized at the behest of Chinese authorities, suggesting extensive espionage against foreign Falun Gong practitioners. • 2002 – Falun Gong practitioners in New York establish
New Tang Dynasty Television, a Chinese-language station created to present an alternative to state-run Chinese media. • 2002 – On 24 July, U.S. House of Representatives passes a unanimous resolution (House Concurrent Resolution 188) condemning the persecution of Falun Gong in China. • 2002 – On 21 October, Falun Gong practitioners from North America, Europe and Australia file a legal case against Jiang Zemin,
Zeng Qinghong, and
Luo Gan to the United Nations Human Rights Committee and the International Criminal Court for their involvement in the persecution of Falun Gong. • 2002 – In November,
Hu Jintao begins the process of taking over China's leadership from Jiang Zemin, assuming the position General Secretary of the CCP. • 2003 – On 1 May, Pan Xinchun, Deputy Consul General at the Chinese consulate in Toronto, published a letter in the Toronto Star in which he said that local Falun Gong practitioner Joel Chipkar is a member of a "sinister cult." In February 2004, the Ontario Superior Court found Pan liable for libel, and demanded he pay $10,000 in compensation to Chipkar. Pan refused to pay, and left Canada. • 2003 – On 26 December, Liu Chengjun, one of the leaders behind the Changchun television broadcasts, is tortured to death while serving out a 19-year prison sentence. • 2004 – In December, prominent
Weiquan lawyer
Gao Zhisheng writes to the National People's Congress detailing torture and sexual abuse against Falun Gong practitioners in custody. In response to his letter, Gao's law firm is shut down, his legal license is revoked, and he is put under house arrest.
2005–2007 As Falun Gong becomes more overt in its rhetorical charges against CCP rule, allegations emerge that Chinese security agencies engage in large-scale overseas spying operations against Falun Gong practitioners, and that Falun Gong prisoners in China are killed to supply China's organ transplant industry. • 2005 – On 4 June, Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin, a political consul at the Chinese consulate in Sydney, defects to Australia. He reports that a large part of his job was to monitor and harass Falun Gong practitioners in Australia. Days later, on 8 June, Hao Fengjun, a former member of the Tianjin city 610 office, goes public with his story of defection, and tells of abuse against Falun Gong in China. • 2005 – On 16 June,
Gao Rongrong is reported tortured to death in Shenyang at the age of 37. • 2006 – UN special rapporteur on torture
Manfred Nowak releases the findings of his 2005 investigation on torture in China. He reports that two-thirds of reported torture cases are against Falun Gong practitioners. • 2006 – In July 2006, former Canadian Member of Parliament
David Kilgour and international human rights attorney
David Matas release the findings of their investigation into
allegations of organ harvesting. Although their evidence was largely circumstantial, they conclude that involuntary organ extractions from Falun Gong practitioners are widespread and ongoing. Chinese officials deny the allegations. • 2006 – Falun Gong practitioners in the United States establish
Shen Yun Performing Arts, a classical Chinese dance company that begins touring internationally in 2007. • 2007 – August, practitioners of Falun Gong launch the
Human Rights Torch Relay, which toured to over 35 of countries in 2007 and 2008 ahead of the
2008 Beijing Olympics. The relay was intended to draw attention to a range of human rights issues in China in connection with the Olympics, especially those related to Falun Gong and
Tibet, and received support from hundreds of elected officials, past Olympic medallists, human rights groups and other concerned organizations. scenes in
New York City • • 2009 – CCP heir apparent
Xi Jinping is put in charge of
6521 Project, a strike hard effort to crack down on Tibetans, democracy activists and Falun Gong practitioners around sensitive anniversaries.
Zhou Yongkang heads a parallel effort to crack down on Falun Gong practitioners, ethnic separatism, and protests. • 2009 – In March, U.S. House of Representatives passes a resolution on recognizing and condemning the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong in China. • 2009 – On 13 May,
Weiquan lawyers Zhang Kai(张凯) and Li Chunfu(李春富) are violently beaten and detained in
Chongqing for investigating the death of Jiang Xiqing(江锡清), a 66-year-old Falun Gong practitioner killed in a labor camp. • 2009 – On 4 July, Dalian city lawyer Wang Yonghang(王永航) is taken from his home by security agents, interrogated, and beaten for defending Falun Gong practitioners. In November 2009, Wang was sentenced in a closed court to seven years in prison for his advocacy on behalf of Falun Gong practitioners. When his lawyers were permitted to see him in January 2010, they reported that he had been tortured. • 2009 – In November, Jiang Zemin and other high-ranking Chinese officials are indicted by a Spanish court on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity for their involvement in the persecution of Falun Gong. A month later, an Argentine judge concludes that top Chinese officials Jiang Zemin and Luo Gan had adopted a "genocidal strategy" in pursuing the eradication of Falun Gong, and asks Interpol to seek their arrest • 2010 – Over 100 Falun Gong practitioners in Shanghai are abducted and detained in connection with the Shanghai World Expo. Some reportedly face torture for their refusal to disavow Falun Gong. • 2010 – In the Spring of 2010, Chinese authorities launch a new, three-year campaign whose goal is to coercively transform large portions of the known Falun Gong population through attendance in reeducation classes. • 2010 – On 22 April 2010, Beijing lawyers
Liu Wei and
Tang Jitian were permanently disbarred for defending Falun Gong practitioners. • 2011 – In February, a Falun Gong practitioner named Qin Yueming dies in custody at the Jiamusi Prison. His family state that his body was covered with extensive bruising, with blood in his nose, though authorities said the cause of death was heart attack. A petition seeking redress for his death garners over 15,000 signatures. Qin's wife and daughter are subsequently imprisoned and reportedly tortured for their efforts to draw attention to the case. • 2011 – In May, a lawsuit is filed on behalf of Falun Gong practitioners against
Cisco. The suit alleges, based mainly on internal Cisco documents, that the technology company "designed and implemented a surveillance system for the Chinese Communist Party, knowing it would be used to root out members of the Falun Gong religion and subject them to detention, forced labor and torture." • 2011 – In Hebei province, 3,000 Chinese citizens sign a petition calling for the release of detained Falungong practitioners Zhou Xiangyang and Li Shanshan, who were being held at the Gangbei Prison and Tangshan reeducation center, respectively. • 2012 – In June 2012, 15,000 people in Heilongjiang Province signed and affixed their fingerprints to a petition requesting that the government investigate the death of Qin Yueming, a Falun Gong practitioner who died in custody. • 2012 – in December, a woman in
Oregon finds a letter written in both Chinese and English in a box of Halloween decorations purchased from Kmart. The letter said that the decorations were assembled in Unit 8, Department 2 of
Masanjia forced labour camp. It went on to describe forced labor conditions in the camp, and noted that many of the detainees were Falun Gong practitioners being held without trial. The letter's author, a Falun Gong practitioner from Beijing, was later identified by
The New York Times. • 2013 – Central 610 Office authorities launch a new three-year campaign calling for the ideological "transformation" of Falun Gong practitioners. Local governments issue quotas and targets for the number of Falun Gong practitioners to reeducate, and prescribe the appropriate means for doing so. • 2014 – In August, investigative journalist
Ethan Gutmann publishes his book "The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China's Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem," in which he writes that
large number of Falun Gong practitioners and ethnic Uyghurs have been killed for their organs in China. • 2014 – Four lawyers in
Northeast China are detained and reportedly tortured by the police while investigating abuses against Falun Gong practitioners held at the Qinglongshan farm reeducation centre. ==References==