Editing Falun Gong (section)

===Tianjin and Zhongnanhai protests===
By the late 1990s, the Chinese government's relationship to the growing Falun Gong movement had become increasingly tense. Reports of discrimination and surveillance by the Public Security Bureau were escalating, and Falun Gong practitioners were routinely organizing sit-in demonstrations responding to media articles they deemed to be unfair. The conflicting investigations launched by the Ministry of the Public Security on one side and the State Sports Commission and Qiao Shi on the other spoke of the disagreements among China's elites on how to regard the growing practice.<ref>{{harvp|Penny|2012|pp=55–56}}</ref>

In April 1999, an article critical of Falun Gong was published in [[Tianjin Normal University]]'s ''Youth Reader'' magazine. The article was authored by physicist He Zuoxiu who, as Porter and Gutmann indicate, is a relative of [[Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party|Politburo]] member and public security secretary [[Luo Gan]].<ref name=porterthesis/> The article cast qigong, and Falun Gong in particular, as superstitious and harmful for youth.<ref name="hezuoxiu">{{Cite web |url=http://www.cnfxj.org/Html/lgxd/2007-6/24/165513641.html# |trans-title=I do not agree with Youth Practicing ''Qigong'' |script-title=zh:我不赞成青少年炼气功 |author=He Zuoxiu |year=1999 |language=zh |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070714235247/http://www.cnfxj.org/Html/lgxd/2007-6/24/165513641.html |archive-date=14 July 2007}}</ref> Falun Gong practitioners responded by picketing the offices of the newspaper requesting a retraction of the article.<ref name="Palmer267">{{harvp|Palmer|2007|p=267}}</ref> Unlike past instances in which Falun Gong protests were successful, on 22 April the Tianjin demonstration was broken up by the arrival of three hundred riot police. Some of the practitioners were beaten, and forty-five arrested.<ref name=Schechter/><ref name=Palmer267/><ref name="Ownby171">{{harvp|Ownby|2008|p=171}}</ref> Other Falun Gong practitioners were told that if they wished to appeal further, they needed to take the issue up with the Ministry of Public Security and go to Beijing to appeal.<ref>{{harvp|Penny|2012|p=57}}</ref>

The Falun Gong community quickly mobilized a response, and on the morning of 25 April, upwards of 10,000 practitioners gathered near the central appeals office to demand an end to the escalating harassment against the movement, and request the release of the Tianjin practitioners. According to Benjamin Penny, practitioners sought redress from the leadership of the country by going to them and, "albeit very quietly and politely, making it clear that they would not be treated so shabbily".<ref name="pennyharrold"/> They sat or read quietly on the sidewalks surrounding the [[Zhongnanhai]].<ref name="Tong5">{{harvp|Tong|2009|p=5}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last1=Pomfret|first1=John|author-link1=John Pomfret (journalist)|last2=Laris|first2=Michael|date=1999-04-26|title=Silent Protest Draws Thousands to Beijing|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1999/04/26/silent-protest-draws-thousands-to-beijing/e0b7ee29-eec6-48ba-b6a6-5cd10980ec77/|access-date=2025-12-22|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286}}</ref>

Five Falun Gong representatives met with Premier [[Zhu Rongji]] and other senior officials to negotiate a resolution. The Falun Gong representatives were assured that the regime supported physical exercises for health improvements and did not consider the Falun Gong to be anti-government.<ref name=Tong5/>

President [[Jiang Zemin]] was alerted to the demonstration by Luo Gan,<ref name=Zong/> and was reportedly angered by the audacity of the demonstration—the largest since the [[1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre]]. Jiang called for resolute action to suppress the group,<ref name=Tong2009/> and reportedly criticized Premier Zhu for being "too soft" in his handling of the situation.<ref name=Schechter/> That evening, Jiang composed a letter indicating his desire to see Falun Gong "defeated". In the letter, Jiang expressed concerns over the size and popularity of Falun Gong, and in particular about the large number of senior CCP members found among Falun Gong practitioners. He believed it possible foreign forces were behind Falun Gong's protests (Li Hongzhi had emigrated to the United States), and expressed concern about their use of the internet to coordinate a large-scale demonstration. Jiang also intimated that Falun Gong's moral philosophy was at odds with the [[Marxist–Leninist atheism|atheist values of Marxist–Leninism]], and therefore constituted a form of ideological competition.<ref>Jiang Zemin, Letter to Party cadres on the evening of 25 April 1999. Published in ''Beijing Zhichun'' no. 97 (June 2001)</ref>

Jiang is held by Falun Gong to be personally responsible for this decision to persecute Falun Gong.<ref name="peerman">{{Cite magazine|magazine=The Christian Century| date=10 August 2004| first= Dean | last= Peerman| title= China syndrome: the persecution of Falun Gong|url=https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2004-08/china-syndrome|volume=121 | issue=16|access-date=2023-05-19|archive-date=28 June 2009|archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20090628140710/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_16_121/ai_n8702386/pg_4/}}</ref><ref name="Saich">{{cite book |first=Tony |last=Saich |title=Governance and Politics in China |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |edition=2nd |year=2004}}{{ISBN?}}</ref> Peerman cited reasons such as suspected personal jealousy of Li Hongzhi; Saich points to Jiang's anger at Falun Gong's widespread appeal, and ideological struggle as causes for the crackdown that followed. [[Willy Wo-Lap Lam]] suggests Jiang's decision to suppress Falun Gong was related to a desire to consolidate his power within the Politburo.<ref name="HP">{{cite web |last=Lam |first=Willy Wo-Lap |url=https://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/east/02/05/china.willycolumn/index.html |title=China's sect suppression carries a high price |work=CNN |date=9 February 2001 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010211105808/https://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/east/02/05/china.willycolumn/index.html|archive-date=11 February 2001}}</ref> According to [[Human Rights Watch]], senior officials were far from unified in their support for the crackdown.<ref name=Dangerous/>

After the 1999 anti-Falun Gong campaign, the state imposed stricter controls on the remaining permitted qigong groups.<ref name=":0" />{{Reference page|page=137}} The qigong fever social phenomenon declined as a result.<ref name=":0" />{{Reference page|page=137}}