Editing Falun Gong (section)

==Persecution==
{{main|Persecution of Falun Gong}}

On 20 July 1999, security forces abducted and detained thousands of Falun Gong practitioners who they identified as leaders.<ref name=Tong2009/> Two days later, on 22 July, the PRC Ministry of Civil Affairs outlawed the Falun Dafa Research Society as an illegal organization that was "engaged in illegal activities, advocating superstition and spreading fallacies, hoodwinking people, inciting and creating disturbances, and jeopardizing social stability".<ref name="ban">{{cite news |url=http://english.people.com.cn/special/fagong/1999072200A101.html |title=China Bans Falun Gong |archive-url=https://archive.today/20151105210640/http://en.people.cn/special/fagong/1999072200A101.html |archive-date=5 November 2015 |work=People's Daily |date=22 July 1999}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| publisher= Human Rights Watch| series= Dangerous Mediation| date = 12 March 2016|url=https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/2002/china/China0102-09.htm#P1008_283830| title = Appendix II: Laws and Regulations Used to Crack Down on Falungong|access-date=2023-02-10|archive-date=12 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312021343/https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/2002/china/China0102-09.htm#P1008_283830|url-status=live}}</ref> The same day, the Ministry of Public Security issued a circular forbidding citizens from practicing Falun Gong in groups, possessing Falun Gong's teachings, displaying Falun Gong banners or symbols, or protesting against the ban.<ref name=Dangerous/>

The aim of the ensuing campaign was to "eradicate" the group through a combination of means which included the publication and distribution of propaganda which denounced it and the imprisonment and coercive thought reform of its practitioners, sometimes resulting in deaths. In October 1999, four months after the imposition of the ban, legislation was passed in order to outlaw "[[heterodoxy|heterodox]] religions" and [[sentence (law)|sentence]] Falun Gong devotees to prison terms.<ref name="Leung">{{cite journal |last=Leung |first=Beatrice |year=2002 |title=China and Falun Gong: Party and society relations in the modern era |journal=Journal of Contemporary China |volume=11 |issue=33 |pages=761–784|doi=10.1080/1067056022000008904 }}</ref><ref name="Amnesty" />

Hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners are estimated to have been extrajudicially imprisoned, and practitioners who are currently in detention are reportedly subjected to forced labor, psychiatric abuse, [[torture]], and other coercive methods of [[Thought reform in the People's Republic of China|thought reform]] at the hands of Chinese authorities.<ref name="CER" /><ref name="sunnygalli">{{cite journal |first1=Sunny Y. |last1=Lu |first2=Viviana B. |last2=Galli |url=http://www.jaapl.org/content/30/1/126.full.pdf |title=Psychiatric Abuse of Falun Gong Practitioners in China |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161025065316/http://www.jaapl.org/content/30/1/126.full.pdf |archive-date=25 October 2016 |journal=Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=126–130 |year=2002|pmid=11931360 }}</ref><ref name="munro2002">{{cite journal |first=Robin J. |last=Munro |title=Judicial Psychiatry in China and its Political Abuses |journal=Columbia Journal of Asian Law |volume=14 |number=1 |date=Fall 2000 |page=114|doi=10.52214/cjal.v14i1.13664 |doi-access=free }}</ref> The [[U.S. Department of State]] and [[Congressional-Executive Commission on China]] cite estimates that as much as half of China's reeducation-through-labor camp population is made up of Falun Gong practitioners.<ref name="KM">{{cite report |work=U.S. Department of State |url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/2008/108404.htm |title=2008 Country Report on Human Rights: China (includes Hong Kong and Macao) |date=October 2008 |quote=Some foreign observers estimated that at least half of the 250,000 officially recorded inmates in the country's re-education-through-labor camps were Falun Gong adherents. Falun Gong sources overseas placed the number even higher. |access-date=22 May 2019 |archive-date=9 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190709131815/https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/2008/108404.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="AR">{{cite report |work=Congressional Executive Commission on China |url=http://www.cecc.gov/publications/annual-reports/2008-annual-report |title=Annual Report 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141207021417/http://www.cecc.gov/publications/annual-reports/2008-annual-report |archive-date=7 December 2014 |date=31 October 2008 |quote=International observers believe that Falun Gong practitioners constitute a large percentage—some say as many as half—of the total number of Chinese imprisoned in RTL camps. Falun Gong sources report that at least 200,000 practitioners are being held in RTL and other forms of detention.}}</ref> Researcher Ethan Gutmann estimates that Falun Gong practitioners represent an average of 15 to 20 percent of the total "[[laogai]]" population, a population which includes practitioners who are currently being held in [[re-education through labor]] camps as well as practitioners who are currently being held in prisons and other forms of administrative detention.<ref name="Gutmann2012">{{cite book |author-link=Ethan Gutmann |first=Ethan |last=Gutmann |chapter=How many harvested? |title=State Organs: Transplant Abuse in China |location=Woodstock, Ontario |publisher=Seraphim Editions |year=2009 |pages=49–67}}</ref> Former detainees of the labor camp system have reported that Falun Gong practitioners comprise one of the largest groups of prisoners; in some labor camp and prison facilities, they comprise the majority of the detainees, and they are often said to receive the longest sentences and the worst treatment.<ref>{{cite report |work=Human Rights Watch |url=https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/china1205wcover.pdf |title=We Could Disappear at Any Time |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170211082336/https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/china1205wcover.pdf |archive-date=11 February 2017 |date=7 December 2005 |quote=Several petitioners reported that the longest sentences and the worst treatment were meted out to members of the banned meditation group, Falungong, many of whom also petition in Beijing. Kang reported that of the roughly one thousand detainees in her labor camp in Jilin, most of them were Falungong practitioners. The government's campaign against the group has been so thorough that even long-time Chinese activists are afraid to say the group's name aloud}}</ref><ref>{{cite report |work=Chinese Human Rights Defenders |url=http://docs.law.gwu.edu/facweb/dclarke/public/CHRD_RTL_Report.pdf |title=Re-education through Labor Abuses Continue Unabated: Overhaul Long Overdue |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118005433/http://docs.law.gwu.edu/facweb/dclarke/public/CHRD_RTL_Report.pdf |archive-date=18 January 2012 |date=4 February 2009 |quote=More than half of our 13 interviewees remarked on the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in RTL camps. They said Falun Gong practitioners make up one of the largest groups of detainees in the camp, and that they are often persecuted because of their faith{{nbsp}}... 'Of all the detainees, the Falun Gong practitioners were the largest group'}}</ref> A 2013 report on labor reeducation camps by [[Amnesty International]] found that in some cases, Falun Gong practitioners "constituted on average from one third to 100 per cent of the total population" of certain camps.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.amnesty.org/es/documents/asa17/042/2013/es/ |title=Changing the soup but not the medicine: Abolishing re-education through labor in China |publisher=Amnesty International |date=December 2013 |location=London |access-date=31 January 2022 |archive-date=23 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191123153407/https://www.amnesty.org/es/documents/asa17/042/2013/es/ |url-status=dead}}</ref>

According to Johnson, the campaign against Falun Gong extends to many aspects of society, including the media apparatus, the police force, the military, the education system, and workplaces.<ref name="wildgrass">{{cite book|first=Ian|last=Johnson|title=Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China|location=New York|publisher=[[Pantheon Books]]|date=2005|isbn=978-0307430250|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ExYwY56Sk84C|via=[[Google Books]]|url-access=limited|access-date=11 June 2023|archive-date=14 May 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240514023807/https://books.google.com/books?id=ExYwY56Sk84C|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|252}} An extra-constitutional body, the "[[610 Office]]" was created to oversee the effort.<ref name="Leung"/><ref name="CER">{{Cite web |url=http://www.cecc.gov/publications/annual-reports/2008-annual-report |title=Congressional-Executive commission on China, Annual Report 2008 |date=31 October 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141207021417/http://www.cecc.gov/publications/annual-reports/2008-annual-report |archive-date=7 December 2014 |access-date=8 January 2015}}</ref><ref name="morais">{{cite news |last=Morais |first=Richard C. |url=https://www.forbes.com/technology/2006/02/09/falun-gong-china_cz_rm_0209falungong.html |title=China's Fight With Falun Gong |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081216083608/http://www.forbes.com/technology/2006/02/09/falun-gong-china_cz_rm_0209falungong.html |archive-date=16 December 2008 |newspaper=Forbes |date=9 February 2006 |access-date=7 July 2006}}</ref> [[Human Rights Watch]] (2002) commented that families and workplace employees were urged to cooperate with the government.<ref name=Dangerous/> Scholar Andrew Junker noted in 2019 that "Falun Gong ranks as one of, and by some measures perhaps the most, severely persecuted groups in the reform era."<ref name="JUNKER-2019-6" />

===Causes===
Observers have attempted to explain the CCP's rationale for banning Falun Gong as stemming from a variety of factors. Many of these explanations centre on institutional causes, such as Falun Gong's size and popularity, its independence from the state, and internal politics within the Chinese government.<ref name="FC">{{Cite web |date=2017 |title=Falun Gong: Religious Freedom in China |url=https://freedomhouse.org/report/2017/battle-china-spirit-falun-gong-religious-freedom |access-date= |website=Freedom House |language=en}}</ref><ref name="HP" /><ref name="CC" /><ref name="BF" /> Other scholars have noted that Chinese authorities were troubled by Falun Gong's moral and spiritual content, which put it at odds with aspects of the official [[Marxism|Marxist ideology]].<ref name="XIX" /><ref name="zhao" /><ref name="Shue" /> Still others have pointed to China's history of bloody sectarian revolts as a possible factor leading to the crackdown.{{sfn|Chang|2004|p={{page needed|date=May 2025}}}}<ref name="Rahn2002" />

[[File:610 Office.jpg|thumb|610 Office's organization in China]]
[[Xinhua News Agency]], the official news organization of the Chinese government, declared that Falun Gong is "opposed to the Communist Party of China and the central government, preaches [[idealism]], [[theism]] and [[Feudalism|feudal]] [[superstition]]".<ref name="english.peopledaily.com.cn">{{Cite news |title=Xinhua Commentary on Political Nature of Falun Gong |work=People's Daily|date= 2 August 1999|url=http://en.people.cn/english/199908/02/enc_19990802001003_TopNews.html|access-date=2023-02-10|archive-date=2018-05-24|archive-url=https://archive.today/20180524125754/http://en.people.cn/english/199908/02/enc_19990802001003_TopNews.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Xinhua also asserted that "the so-called 'truth, kindness and forbearance' principle preached by [Falun Gong] has nothing in common with the socialist ethical and cultural progress we are striving to achieve", and it also argued that it was necessary to crush Falun Gong in order to preserve the "vanguard role and purity" of the Chinese Communist Party.<ref name="hanson1999">{{Cite news|last=Hanson|first=Gayle M. B.|date=1999-08-23|title=China Shaken by Mass Meditation|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_31_15/ai_55553470|access-date=2023-02-10|website=[[Insight on the News]]|via=[[FindArticles]]|language=en|archive-date=8 July 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120708205336/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_31_15/ai_55553470|url-status=dead}}</ref> Other articles which appeared in the state-run media in the first days and weeks after the ban was imposed posited that Falun Gong must be defeated because its "theistic" philosophy was at odds with the [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist–Leninist]] [[paradigm]] and the [[Secular ethics|secular values]] of [[materialism]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Noakes |first1=Stephen |title=Contextualizing a Crackdown: Voegelin on China's Falun Gong |date=2020-06-15 |url=https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/handle/2292/53738 |access-date= |publisher=Lexington |isbn=978-1-4985-9861-3 |last2=Ford |first2=Caylan}}</ref>

Willy Wo-Lap Lam writes that Jiang Zemin's campaign against Falun Gong may have been used to promote allegiance to himself; Lam quotes one party veteran as saying "by unleashing a [[Mao Zedong|Mao]]-style movement [against Falun Gong], Jiang is forcing senior cadres to pledge allegiance to his line".<ref name="HP" /> ''[[The Washington Post]]'' reported that sources indicated not all of the [[Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party|Politburo Standing Committee]] shared Jiang's view that Falun Gong should be eradicated, and Jiang alone made the decision of crackdown.<ref name="ReidG">{{cite magazine |last=Reid |first=Graham |volume=203 |issue=3442 |date=29 April – 5 May 2006 |url=http://www.listener.co.nz/issue/3442/features/5972/nothing_left_to_lose.html |title=Nothing left to lose |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930160710/http://www.listener.co.nz/issue/3442/features/5972/nothing_left_to_lose.html |archive-date=30 September 2007 |website=New Zealand Listener |access-date=6 July 2006}}</ref><ref name="CC">{{Cite news |last=Pomfret |first=John |author-link=John Pomfret (journalist) |date=12 November 1999 |title=Cracks in China's Crackdown |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPcap/1999-11/12/062r-111299-idx.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171214030203/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPcap/1999-11/12/062r-111299-idx.html |archive-date=14 December 2017 |access-date=2024-03-02 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref>

Human Rights Watch commented that the crackdown on Falun Gong reflects historical efforts by the CCP to eradicate religion, which the government believes is inherently subversive.<ref name=Dangerous/> The Chinese government protects five "patriotic", state-sanctioned religious groups. Unregistered religions that fall outside the state-sanctioned organizations are thus vulnerable to suppression.<ref>{{Cite web|title=2010 Annual Report | work=Congressional-Executive Commission on China|url=https://www.cecc.gov/publications/annual-reports/2010-annual-report|access-date=2023-02-10| date=10 October 2010|archive-date=10 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230210134451/https://www.cecc.gov/publications/annual-reports/2010-annual-report|url-status=live}}</ref> ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'' wrote: "any group that does not come under the control of the Party is a threat".<ref name="BF">{{cite news |newspaper=The Globe and Mail |date=26 January 2001 |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/beijing-v-falun-gong/article759323 |title=Beijing v. falun gong<!--sic--> |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150926030056/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/beijing-v-falun-gong/article759323/ |archive-date=26 September 2015 |department=Metro |page=A14}}</ref> [[Craig S. Smith]] of ''The New York Times'' wrote that the CCP feels increasingly threatened by any belief system that challenges its ideology and has an ability to organize itself.<ref name="nyt20000430">{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/30/weekinreview/the-world-rooting-out-falun-gong-china-makes-war-on-mysticism.html?pagewanted=all |title=Rooting Out Falun Gong; China Makes War on Mysticism |last=Smith |first=Craig S. |date=30 April 2000 |work=The New York Times |access-date=19 February 2017 |archive-date=11 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171111152438/http://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/30/weekinreview/the-world-rooting-out-falun-gong-china-makes-war-on-mysticism.html?pagewanted=all |url-status=live }}</ref> That Falun Gong, whose belief system represented a revival of [[traditional Chinese religion]], was being practiced by a large number of Communist Party members and members of the military was seen as particularly disturbing to Jiang; according to [[Julia Ching]], "Jiang accepts the threat of Falun Gong as an ideological one: spiritual beliefs against militant atheism and historical materialism. He [wished] to purge the government and the military of such beliefs."<ref name="XIX">{{cite journal |first=Julia |last=Ching |title=The Falun Gong: Religious and Political Implications |journal=American Asian Review |volume=XIX |issue=4 |date=Winter 2001 |page=12}}</ref>

Yuezhi Zhao points to several other factors that may have led to a deterioration of the relationship between Falun Gong and the Chinese state and media.<ref name="zhao"/> These included infighting within China's qigong establishment, the influence of qigong opponents among leaders of China, and the struggles from mid-1996 to mid-1999 between Falun Gong and the Chinese power elite over the status and treatment of the movement.<ref name="zhao"/> According to Zhao, Falun Gong practitioners have established a "resistance identity"—one that stands against prevailing pursuits of wealth, power, scientific rationality, and "the entire value system associated with China's project of modernization".<ref name="zhao"/> In China the practice represented an indigenous spiritual and moral tradition, a cultural revitalization movement, and it was a sharp contrast to "Marxism with Chinese characteristics".<ref name="twiss">{{cite book |last=Twiss |first=Sumner B. |chapter=Religious Intolerance in Contemporary China, Including the Curious Case of Falun Gong |title=The World's Religions After September 11 |editor-first=Arvind |editor-last=Sharma |publisher=Greenwood |year=2009 |pages=227–240}}</ref>

[[Vivienne Shue]] similarly writes that Falun Gong presented a comprehensive challenge to the CCP's legitimacy. Shue argues that Chinese rulers have historically derived their legitimacy from their claim to possess an exclusive connection to the "Truth". In imperial China, truth was based on a [[Confucianism|Confucian]] and [[Taoism|Daoist]] cosmology, where in the case of the Communist Party, the truth is represented by Marxist–Leninism and historical materialism. Falun Gong challenged the Marxist–Leninism paradigm, reviving an understanding which is based on more traditionally [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] or Daoist conceptions.<ref name="Shue">{{cite book |first=Vivienne |last=Shue |chapter=Legitimacy Crisis in China? |editor1-first=Peter Hays |editor1-last=Gries |editor1-link=Peter Hays Gries |editor2-first=Stanley |editor2-last=Rosen |title=State and Society in 21st-century China. Crisis, Contention, and Legitimation |location=New York |publisher=Routledge Curzon |year=2004}}</ref> David Ownby contends that Falun Gong also challenged the Communist Party's hegemony over the [[Chinese nationalism|Chinese nationalist]] discourse: "[Falun Gong's] evocation of a different vision of Chinese tradition and its contemporary values are now so threatening to the state and the party because it denies them the sole right to define the meaning of Chinese nationalism, and it even denies them the sole right to define the meaning of Chineseness."<ref>{{Cite news|last=Ownby|first=David|date=2001-02-15|title=Opinion &#124; China's War Against Itself|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/15/opinion/china-s-war-against-itself.html|access-date=2023-02-10|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=28 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161228103005/http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/15/opinion/china-s-war-against-itself.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Maria Chang commented that since the overthrow of the [[Qin dynasty]], "[[Millenarianism|Millenarian]] movements had exerted a profound impact on the course of [[History of China|Chinese history]]", culminating in the [[Chinese Communist Revolution]], which brought the CCP to power.<ref name="Chang"/>{{rp|59}} Patsy Rahn (2002) describes a paradigm of conflict between Chinese sectarian groups and the rulers who they often challenge. According to Rahn, the history of this paradigm goes back to the [[End of the Han dynasty|collapse of the Han dynasty]]: "The pattern of a ruling power keeping a watchful eye on sectarian groups, at times threatened by them, at times raising campaigns against them, began as early as the second century and continued throughout the [[Dynasties in Chinese history|dynastic period]], through the [[History of the People's Republic of China (1949–1976)|Mao era]] and into the present."<ref name="Rahn2002">{{Cite journal|last=Rahn|first=Patsy|date=2002-01-24|title=The Chemistry of a Conflict: The Chinese Government and the Falun Gong|url=https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/tpv/2002/00000014/00000004/art00004|journal=Terrorism and Political Violence|volume=14|issue=4|pages=41–65|doi=10.1080/714005633|s2cid=145680606|access-date=10 February 2023|archive-date=10 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230210134442/https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/tpv/2002/00000014/00000004/art00004|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

===Conversion programs===
According to James Tong, the regime aimed at both coercive dissolution of the Falun Gong denomination and "transformation" of the practitioners.<ref>{{harvp|Tong|2009|p=105}}</ref> By 2000, the CCP escalated its campaign by sentencing "recidivist" practitioners to "[[re-education through labor]]" in an effort to have them renounce their beliefs and "transform" their thoughts.<ref name=Dangerous/> Terms were also arbitrarily extended by police, while some practitioners had ambiguous charges levied against them, such as "disrupting social order", "endangering national security", or "subverting the socialist system".<ref name="bejesky">{{cite journal |first=Robert |last=Bejesky |title=Falun Gong & reeducation through labor |journal=Columbia Journal of Asian Law |volume=17 |issue=2 |date=Spring 2004 |pages=147–189}}</ref> According to Bejesky, the majority of long-term Falun Gong detainees are processed administratively through this system instead of the criminal justice system. Upon completion of their re-education sentences, those practitioners who refused to recant were then incarcerated in "legal education centers" set up by provincial authorities to "transform minds".<ref name="bejesky"/><ref name="CECC2009">Congressional Executive Commission on China Annual Report 2006, p. 59; note 224, p. 201</ref>

Much of the conversion program relied on Mao-style techniques of indoctrination and [[Thought reform in the People's Republic of China|thought reform]], where Falun Gong practitioners were organized to view anti-Falun Gong television programs and enroll in Marxism and materialism study sessions.<ref>{{harvp|Tong|2009|p=109}}</ref> Traditional Marxism and materialism were the core content of the sessions.<ref>{{harvp|Tong|2009|p= 128}}</ref> Conversion programs also included study of Buddhist writings and the Confucian primer ''[[Di Zi Gui|The Codes of Conduct for Students and Children]]''.<ref name=":0" />{{Reference page|page=136}}

The government-sponsored image of the conversion process emphasizes psychological persuasion and a variety of "soft-sell" techniques; this is the "ideal norm" in regime reports, according to Tong. Falun Gong reports, on the other hand, depict "disturbing and sinister" forms of coercion against practitioners who fail to renounce their beliefs. Among them are cases of severe beatings; psychological torment, corporal punishment and forced intense, heavy-burden hard labor and stress positions; solitary confinement in squalid conditions; "heat treatment" including burning and freezing; electric shocks delivered to sensitive parts of the body that may result in nausea, convulsions, or fainting; "devastative" forced feeding; sticking bamboo strips into fingernails; deprivation of food, sleep, and use of toilet; rape and gang rape; asphyxiation; and threat, extortion, and termination of employment and student status.<ref name="tong122-128">{{harvp|Tong|2009|pp=122–128}}</ref>

The cases appear verifiable, and the great majority identify (1) the individual practitioner, often with age, occupation, and residence; (2) the time and location that the alleged abuse took place, down to the level of the district, township, village, and often the specific jail institution; and (3) the names and ranks of the alleged perpetrators. Many such reports include lists of the names of witnesses and descriptions of injuries, Tong says. The publication of "persistent abusive, often brutal behavior by named individuals with their official title, place, and time of torture" suggests that there is no official will to cease and desist such activities.<ref name=tong122-128/>

===Deaths===
Due to the difficulty in corroborating reports of torture deaths in China, estimates of the number of Falun Gong practitioners who have been killed as a result of the persecution vary widely. In 2009, ''[[The New York Times]]'' reported that, according to [[human rights]] groups, the repressions had claimed "at least 2,000" lives.<ref name="nytimes.com">{{cite news |last=Jacobs |first=Andrew |author-link=Andrew Jacobs (journalist) |date=27 April 2009 |title=China Still Presses Crusade Against Falun Gong |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/world/asia/28china.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170613054258/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/world/asia/28china.html |archive-date=13 June 2017 |access-date=16 August 2017 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> [[Amnesty International]] said at least 100 Falun Gong practitioners had reportedly died in the 2008 calendar year, either in custody or shortly after their release.<ref>Amnesty International. [https://www.amnesty.org/en/region/china/report-2008 "China – Amnesty International Report 2008"]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140818123222/http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/china/report-2008 |date=18 August 2014 }}.</ref> Investigative journalist [[Ethan Gutmann]] estimated 65,000 Falun Gong were killed for their organs from 2000 to 2008 based on extensive interviews,<ref name=Gutmann2012/> while researchers [[David Kilgour]] and [[David Matas]] reported, "the source of 41,500 transplants for the six-year period 2000 to 2005 is unexplained".<ref name=orgharv/><ref>{{cite book |first1=David |last1=Kilgour |first2=David |last2=Matas |title=Bloody Harvest: The killing of Falun Gong for their organs |publisher=Seraphim Editions |year=2009 |isbn=978-0980887976}}</ref>

Chinese authorities do not publish statistics on Falun Gong practitioners killed amidst the crackdown. In individual cases, however, authorities have denied that deaths in custody were due to torture.<ref name="DE">{{cite news
| work = The Wall Street Journal
| title= A Deadly Exercise
| date = 20 April 2000
| last = Johnson| first = Ian
| publisher= Dow Jones
}} Reprinted in {{Cite web|website=The Pulitzer Prizes|title=The 2001 Pulitzer Prize Winner in International Reporting: Ian Johnson of ''The Wall Street Journal''|url=https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/ian-johnson|access-date=2023-02-10|language=en|archive-date=27 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230227202142/https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/ian-johnson|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Forced organ harvesting allegations===
{{further|Forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China|Organ transplantation in China}}

In 2006, allegations emerged that a large number of Falun Gong practitioners had been killed to supply China's organ transplant industry. These allegations prompted an investigation by former Canadian Secretary of State [[David Kilgour]] and human rights lawyer [[David Matas]].

The [[Kilgour-Matas report]]<ref name=orgharv/><ref name="theage060708">{{Cite news|date=2006-07-08|title=Falun Gong organ claim supported|url=https://www.theage.com.au/world/falun-gong-organ-claim-supported-20060708-ge2o9o.html|access-date=2023-02-10|website=The Age|language=en|archive-date=20 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221020194313/https://www.theage.com.au/world/falun-gong-organ-claim-supported-20060708-ge2o9o.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Ottawa">{{cite news |last=Endemann |first=Kirstin |date=6 July 2006 |agency=CanWest News Service |work=Ottawa Citizen |url=http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=290fed94-d0c2-4265-8686-54ce75d08eca&k=34245 |title=Ottawa urged to stop Canadians travelling to China for transplants |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151017095219/http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=290fed94-d0c2-4265-8686-54ce75d08eca&k=34245 |archive-date=17 October 2015 }}</ref> was published in July 2006, and concluded that "the government of China and its agencies in numerous parts of the country, in particular hospitals but also detention centers and 'people's courts', since 1999 have put to death a large but unknown number of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience." The report, which was based mainly on circumstantial evidence, called attention to the extremely short wait times for organs in China—one to two weeks for a liver compared with 32.5 months in Canada—implying it was indicative of organs being procured on demand. It also tracked a significant increase in the number of annual organ transplants in China beginning in 1999, corresponding with the onset of the persecution of Falun Gong. Despite very low levels of voluntary organ donation, China performs the second-highest number of transplants per year. Kilgour and Matas also presented self-accusatory material from Chinese transplant center web sites<ref>{{Cite web
| title=French Newspaper Le Figaro Reports on CCP's Forced Organ Harvesting
| date= 3 August 2016
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161030081813/http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2016/8/3/158092.html
| website= minghui.org
| publisher = Falun Dafa
| archive-date=30 October 2016
| url = http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2016/8/3/158092.html
|url-status=live}}</ref> advertising the immediate availability of organs from living donors, and transcripts of interviews in which hospitals told prospective transplant recipients that they could obtain Falun Gong organs.<ref name="orgharv">{{cite web |first1=David |last1=Kilgour |author1-link=David Kilgour |first2=David |last2=Matas |author2-link=David Matas |date=6 July 2006 |title=An Independent Investigation into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China |url=https://organharvestinvestigation.net}}</ref>{{nonspecific|date=May 2025}}

[[File:Ethan Gutmann (left) with Edward McMillan-Scott.jpg|thumb|[[Ethan Gutmann]] (left) with [[Edward McMillan-Scott]] at a Foreign Press Association press conference, 2009|left]]
In May 2008 two United Nations Special Rapporteurs reiterated requests for the Chinese authorities to respond to the allegations,<ref name="marketwireun2">{{cite web |url=http://www.theinformationdaily.com/2008/05/09/united-nations-human-rights-special-rapporteurs-reiterate-findings-on-chinas-organ-harvesting-from-falun-gong-practitioners |title=United Nations Human Rights Special Rapporteurs Reiterate Findings on China's Organ Harvesting from Falun Gong Practitioners |website=The Information Daily |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512183828/http://www.theinformationdaily.com/2008/05/09/united-nations-human-rights-special-rapporteurs-reiterate-findings-on-chinas-organ-harvesting-from-falun-gong-practitioners |archive-date=12 May 2015 |date=9 May 2008 |access-date=24 September 2010}}</ref> and to explain a source for the organs that would account for the sudden increase in organ transplants in China since 2000. Chinese officials have responded by denying the organ harvesting allegations, and insisting that China abides by [[World Health Organization]] principles that prohibit the sale of human organs without written consent from donors. Responding to a U.S. House of Representatives Resolution calling for an end to abusing transplant practices against religious and ethnic minorities, a Chinese embassy spokesperson said "the so-called organ harvesting from death-row prisoners is totally a lie fabricated by Falun Gong."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/us-calls-china-end-state-sanctioned-harvesting-human-organs-prisoners-1459184 |title=US Calls for China to End 'State-Sanctioned Harvesting of Human Organs' From Prisoners |last=Smith |first=Lydia |date=31 July 2014 |website=[[International Business Times]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140819085539/http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/us-calls-china-end-state-sanctioned-harvesting-human-organs-prisoners-1459184 |archive-date=19 August 2014 |access-date=15 August 2014}}</ref> In August 2009, [[Manfred Nowak]], the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, said, "The Chinese government has yet to come clean and be transparent{{nbsp}}... It remains to be seen how it could be possible that organ transplant surgeries in Chinese hospitals have risen massively since 1999, while there are never that many voluntary donors available."

In 2014, investigative journalist Ethan Gutmann published the result of his own investigation.<ref name=EGbook/> Gutmann conducted extensive interviews with former detainees in Chinese labor camps and prisons, as well as former security officers and medical professionals with knowledge of China's transplant practices.<ref name="Jay">{{cite news |first=Jay |last=Nordlinger |author-link=Jay Nordlinger |date=25 August 2014 |url=http://www.nationalreview.com/sites/default/files/nordlinger_gutmann08-25-14.html |title=Face The Slaughter: The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China's Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160223172904/http://www.nationalreview.com/sites/default/files/nordlinger_gutmann08-25-14.html |archive-date=23 February 2016 |magazine=[[National Review]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2014-10-21|title=Q&A: Author and analyst Ethan Gutmann discusses China's illegal organ trade| first = Barbara | last = Turnbull|url=https://www.thestar.com/life/2014/10/21/qa_author_and_analyst_ethan_gutmann_discusses_chinas_illegal_organ_trade.html|access-date=2023-02-10|website=Toronto Star|language=en|archive-date=7 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170707062227/https://www.thestar.com/life/2014/10/21/qa_author_and_analyst_ethan_gutmann_discusses_chinas_illegal_organ_trade.html|url-status=live}}</ref> He reported that organ harvesting from political prisoners likely began in [[Xinjiang|Xinjiang province]] in the 1990s, and then spread nationwide. Gutmann estimates that some 64,000 Falun Gong prisoners may have been killed for their organs between 2000 and 2008.<ref name="EGbook">{{Cite news |url=https://nypost.com/2014/08/09/chinas-long-history-of-harvesting-organs-from-living-political-prisoners/ |title=China's long history of harvesting organs from living political foes |last=Getlen |first=Larry |date=9 August 2014 |work=[[New York Post]] |access-date=15 August 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140811212811/http://nypost.com/2014/08/09/chinas-long-history-of-harvesting-organs-from-living-political-prisoners/ |archive-date=11 August 2014}}</ref><ref name="Slaughter">{{Cite book |last=Gutmann |first=Ethan |title=The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China's Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem |publisher=Prometheus Books |year=2014 |isbn=978-1616149406 |page=67}}</ref>

In a 2016 report, [[David Kilgour]] found that he had underestimated. In the new report he found that the government's official estimates for the volume of organs harvested since the persecution of Falun Gong began to be 150,000 to 200,000.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kilgour |first=David |title=Blood Harvest: The Slaughter |url=http://endorganpillaging.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Bloody_Harvest-The_Slaughter-June-23-V2.pdf |url-status=live |journal=End Organ Pillaging |page=428 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160706184456/http://endorganpillaging.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Bloody_Harvest-The_Slaughter-June-23-V2.pdf |archive-date=6 July 2016 |access-date=9 August 2016}}</ref> Media outlets have extrapolated from this study a death toll of 1.5 million.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-kills-millions-of-innocent-meditators-for-their-organs-report-finds-a7107091.html |title=China kills millions of innocent meditators for their organs, report finds |last=Samuels |first=Gabriel |date=2016-06-29 |website=The Independent |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160702141054/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-kills-millions-of-innocent-meditators-for-their-organs-report-finds-a7107091.html |archive-date=2 July 2016 |access-date=27 August 2017}}</ref> [[Ethan Gutmann]] estimated from this update that 60,000 to 110,000 organs are harvested in China annually, observing that it is (paraphrasing) "difficult but plausible to harvest 3 organs from a single body" and also calls the harvest "a new form of [[genocide]] using the most respected members of society".<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOFx8tm6uRA |title=Bloody Harvest / The Slaughter |people=International Coalition to End Organ Pillaging in China|date=24 June 2016 |via=YouTube |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160812021105/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOFx8tm6uRA |archive-date=12 August 2016 |access-date=9 August 2016}}</ref>

In June 2019, the [[China Tribunal]]— a non-governmental tribunal set up by the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China—concluded that detainees including imprisoned followers of the Falun Gong movement are still being killed for organ harvesting. The Tribunal, chaired by British barrister [[Geoffrey Nice]], said it was "certain that Falun Gong as a source—probably the principal source—of organs for forced organ harvesting".<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/17/china-is-harvesting-organs-from-detainees-uk-tribunal-concludes |title=China is harvesting organs from detainees, tribunal concludes |work=The Guardian |access-date=17 June 2019 |archive-date=16 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200316220515/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/17/china-is-harvesting-organs-from-detainees-uk-tribunal-concludes |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-china-rights/china-is-harvesting-organs-from-falun-gong-members-finds-expert-panel-idUSKCN1TI236 |title=China is harvesting organs from Falun Gong members, finds expert panel |work=Reuters |access-date=17 June 2019 |archive-date=18 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190618062441/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-china-rights/china-is-harvesting-organs-from-falun-gong-members-finds-expert-panel-idUSKCN1TI236 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In June 2021, the Special Procedures of the [[United Nations Human Rights Council]] voiced concerns over having "received credible information that detainees from ethnic, linguistic or religious minorities may be forcibly subjected to blood tests and organ examinations such as ultrasound and x-rays, without their informed consent; while other prisoners are not required to undergo such examinations." The press release stated that UN's human rights experts "were extremely alarmed by reports of alleged 'organ harvesting' targeting minorities, including Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Muslims and Christians, in detention in China."<ref>{{Cite web |date=14 June 2021 |title=China: UN human rights experts alarmed by 'organ harvesting' allegations |url=https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2021/06/china-un-human-rights-experts-alarmed-organ-harvesting-allegations?LangID=E&NewsID=27167 |publisher=[[Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights]]}}</ref>

===Media campaign===
The Chinese government's campaign against Falun Gong was driven by large-scale propaganda through television, newspapers, radio and internet.<ref name=Tong2009/><ref name="Leung"/> The propaganda campaign focused on allegations that Falun Gong jeopardized social stability, was deceiving and dangerous, was [[anti-science]] and threatened progress, and argued that Falun Gong's moral philosophy was incompatible with a Marxist social ethic.<ref name=Ownbyfuture/>

China scholars Daniel Wright and Joseph Fewsmith stated that for several months after Falun Gong was outlawed, China Central Television's evening news contained little but anti-Falun Gong rhetoric, and that the government operation was "a study in all-out demonization".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fewsmith |first1=Joseph |first2=Daniel B. |last2=Wright |title=The promise of the Revolution: stories of fulfilment and struggle in China |year=2003 |publisher=Rowman and Littlefield |page=156}}</ref> Falun Gong was compared to "a rat crossing the street that everyone shouts out to squash" by ''Beijing Daily'';<ref>{{cite news |agency=Associated Press |title='Enemies of people' warned |date=23 January 2001}}</ref>{{verify source|reason=Could not find a web source for this. AP News is not a print publication – as a news agency AP articles are mostly published in other outlets|date=May 2025}} other officials said it would be a "long-term, complex and serious" struggle to "eradicate" Falun Gong.<ref>{{cite news |last=Plafker |first=Ted |title=Falun Gong Stays Locked In Struggle With Beijing |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=26 April 2000}}</ref>

State propaganda initially used the appeal of scientific rationalism to argue that Falun Gong's worldview was in "complete opposition to science" and communism.<ref name="Lu2004">{{cite book |last=Lu |first=Xing |title=Rhetoric of the Chinese Cultural Revolution: the impact on Chinese thought, culture, and communication |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |year=2004}}</ref> For example, the ''[[People's Daily]]'' asserted on 27 July 1999, that the fight against Falun Gong "was a struggle between theism and atheism, superstition and science, idealism and materialism". Other editorials declared that Falun Gong's "idealism and theism" are "absolutely contradictory to the fundamental theories and principles of Marxism", and that the {{" '}}truth, kindness and forbearance' principle preached by [Falun Gong] has nothing in common with the socialist ethical and cultural progress we are striving to achieve." Suppressing Falun Gong was presented as a necessary step to maintaining the "vanguard role" of the CCP in Chinese society.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Chen |first=Chiung Hwang |title=Framing Falun Gong: Xinhua News Agency's Coverage of the New Religious Movement in China |journal=Asian Journal of Communication |volume=15 |issue=1 |year=2005 |pages=16–36|doi=10.1080/0129298042000329775 }}</ref>

Despite Party efforts, initial charges leveled against Falun Gong failed to elicit widespread popular support for the persecution of the group. In the months following July 1999, the rhetoric in the state-run press escalated to include charges that Falun Gong was colluding with foreign, "anti-China" forces. In October 1999, three months after the persecution began, the ''People's Daily'' newspaper claimed Falun Gong as a {{lang|zh-Latn|xiejiao}} ({{lang|zh|邪教}}).<ref name="chan2004" /><ref name="irons2003">{{Cite journal |last=Irons |first=Edward |date=2003 |title=Falun Gong and the Sectarian Religion Paradigm |journal=[[Nova Religio]] |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=244–262|doi=10.1525/nr.2003.6.2.244}}</ref> A direct translation of that term is "heretical teaching", but during the anti-Falun Gong propaganda campaign was rendered as "evil cult" in English.<ref name="Amnesty">{{Cite web |date=23 March 2000 |title=China: The crackdown on Falun Gong and other so-called 'heretical organizations' |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa17/011/2000/en/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210729225340/https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/ASA17/011/2000/en/ |archive-date=29 July 2021 |access-date=2023-02-10 |website=[[Amnesty International]] |language=en}}</ref> According to a ''Washington Post'' report, it was Jiang Zemin who issued the order to label Falun Gong a "cult".<ref name="CC" /> In mainland China, the term {{lang|zh-Latn|xiejiao}} has been used to target religious organizations that do not submit to CCP authority.{{sfn|Chang|2004|p={{page needed|date=May 2025}}}}<ref>{{cite web |publisher=Freedom House |url=http://www.hudson.org/files/publications/Analysis_of_China_Docs_1_to_7.pdf |title=Report Analyzing Seven Secret Chinese Government Documents |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402165033/http://www.hudson.org/files/publications/Analysis_of_China_Docs_1_to_7.pdf |archive-date=2 April 2012 |date=11 February 2002}}</ref>

[[Ian Johnson (writer)|Ian Johnson]] argued that applying the 'cult' label to Falun Gong effectively "cloaked the government's crackdown with the legitimacy of the West's anticult movement". He wrote that Falun Gong does not satisfy common definitions of a cult: "its members marry outside the group, have outside friends, hold normal jobs, do not live isolated from society, do not believe that the world's end is imminent and do not give significant amounts of money to the organisation{{nbsp}}... it does not advocate violence and is at heart an apolitical, inward-oriented discipline, one aimed at cleansing oneself spiritually and improving one's health."<ref name="wildgrass"/>{{rp|224}} David Ownby similarly wrote that "the entire issue of the supposed cultic nature of Falun Gong was a red herring from the beginning, cleverly exploited by the Chinese state to blunt the appeal of Falun Gong".<ref name=Ownbyfuture/> According to John Powers and Meg Y. M. Lee, because the Falun Gong was categorized in the popular perception as an "apolitical, qigong exercise club", it was not seen as a threat to the government. The most critical strategy in the Falun Gong suppression campaign, therefore, was to convince people to reclassify the Falun Gong into a number of "negatively charged religious labels",<ref name="powerslee">{{cite book |last1=Powers |first1=John |first2=Meg Y. M. |last2=Lee |chapter=Dueling Media: Symbolic Conflict in China's Falun Gong Suppression Campaign |title=Chinese Conflict Management and Resolution |editor1-first=Guo-Ming |editor1-last=Chen |editor2-first=Ringo |editor2-last=Ma |year=2001 |publisher=Greenwood}}</ref> like "evil cult", "sect", or "superstition". The group's silent protests were reclassified as creating "social disturbances". In this process of relabelling, the government was attempting to tap into a "deep reservoir of negative feelings related to the historical role of quasi-religious cults as a destabilising force in Chinese political history".<ref name=powerslee/>

A turning point in the propaganda campaign came on the eve of [[Chinese New Year]] on 23 January 2001, when [[Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident|five people attempted to set themselves ablaze]] on Tiananmen Square. The official Chinese press agency, [[Xinhua News Agency]], and other state media asserted that the [[Self-immolation|self-immolators]] were practitioners, though the Falun Dafa Information Center disputed this,<ref name="FDI_PressRelease">{{Cite web |url=http://www.clearwisdom.net/eng/2001/jan/23/vsf012301_3.html |title=Press Statement |date=23 January 2001 |publisher=Clearwisdom |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070310213800/http://www.clearwisdom.net/eng/2001/jan/23/vsf012301_3.html |archive-date=10 March 2007 |access-date=9 February 2007}}</ref> on the grounds that the movement's teachings explicitly forbid suicide and killing,<ref name="wildgrass" />{{rp|224}}<ref name="FDI_PressRelease" /> further alleging that the event was "a cruel (but clever) piece of stunt-work".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brady |first=Anne-Marie |author-link=Anne-Marie Brady |title=Marketing Dictatorship: Propaganda and Thought Work in Contemporary China |date=2009-11-16 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing PLC |isbn=978-0-7425-4058-3 |pages=86 |language=en}}</ref> The incident received international news coverage, and video footage of the burnings were broadcast later inside China by [[China Central Television]] (CCTV). The broadcasts showed images of a 12-year-old girl, Liu Siying, burning, and interviews with the other participants in which they stated a belief that self-immolation would lead them to paradise.<ref name="FDI_PressRelease"/><ref name="oneway">{{Cite news |title=One-Way Trip to the End in Beijing |last=Pan |first=Philip P. |date=5 February 2001 |work=International Herald Tribune}}</ref> But one of the CNN producers on the scene did not even see a child there. Falun Gong sources and other commentators pointed out that the main participants' account of the incident and other aspects of the participants' behavior were inconsistent with Falun Gong's teachings.<ref name="WOIPFG2">{{Cite web |url=http://www.zhuichaguoji.org/en/node/54 |title=New Evidence Confirms Alleged Falun Gong 'Tiananmen Square Self-Immolation' Was a State Conspiracy |date=August 2004 |publisher=World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130325173957/http://www.zhuichaguoji.org/en/node/54 |archive-date=2013-03-25 |access-date=22 July 2013}}</ref> Media Channel and the International Education Development (IED) agree that the supposed self-immolation incident was staged by CCP to "prove" that Falun Gong brainwashes its followers to commit suicide and has therefore to be banned as a threat to the nation. IED's statement at the 53rd UN session describes China's violent assault on Falun Gong practitioners as [[state terrorism]] and that the self-immolation "was staged by the government". ''[[Washington Post]]'' journalist Phillip Pan wrote that the two self-immolators who died were not actually Falun Gong practitioners.<ref name="oneway"/> On 21 March 2001, Liu Siying suddenly died after appearing very lively and being deemed ready to leave the hospital to go home. ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' reported that prior to the self-immolation incident, many Chinese had felt that Falun Gong posed no real threat, and that the state's crackdown had gone too far. After the event, however, the mainland Chinese media campaign against Falun Gong gained significant traction.<ref name="breakingpoint">{{cite magazine |last=Forney |first=Matthew |date=25 June 2001 |url=http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,165163,00.html |title=The Breaking Point |magazine=Time |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013111614/http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,165163,00.html |archive-date=13 October 2007}}</ref> As public sympathy for Falun Gong declined, the government began sanctioning "systematic use of violence" against the group.<ref name="FG">{{cite news |last1=Pan |first1=Philip |last2=Pomfret |first2=John |author-link2=John Pomfret (journalist) |date=5 August 2001 |title=Torture is Breaking Falun Gong |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/08/05/torture-is-breaking-falun-gong/ea6c5341-c7a7-47c9-9674-053049b7323d/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191005165937/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/08/05/torture-is-breaking-falun-gong/ea6c5341-c7a7-47c9-9674-053049b7323d/ |archive-date=5 October 2019 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref>

In February 2001, the month following the Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident, Jiang Zemin convened a rare Central Work Conference to stress the importance of continuity in the anti-Falun Gong campaign and unite senior party officials behind the effort.<ref name=Dangerous/> Under Jiang's leadership, the crackdown on Falun Gong became part of the Chinese political ethos of "[[Stability maintenance|upholding stability]]"—much the same rhetoric employed by the CCP during 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. Jiang's message was echoed at the 2001 National People's Congress, where the Falun Gong's eradication was tied to China's economic progress.<ref name=Dangerous/> Though less prominent on the national agenda, the persecution of Falun Gong has carried on after Jiang was retired; successive, high-level "strike hard" campaigns against Falun Gong were initiated in both 2008 and 2009. In 2010, a three-year campaign was launched to renew attempts at the coercive "transformation" of Falun Gong practitioners.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Communist Party Calls for Increased Efforts To 'Transform' Falun Gong Practitioners as Part of Three-Year Campaign | work= Congressional-Executive Commission on China|url=https://www.cecc.gov/publications/commission-analysis/communist-party-calls-for-increased-efforts-to-transform-falun-gong|access-date=2023-02-10|archive-date=5 April 2018| date= 22 March 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180405214722/https://www.cecc.gov/publications/commission-analysis/communist-party-calls-for-increased-efforts-to-transform-falun-gong|url-status=live}}</ref>

====In the education system====
Anti-Falun Gong propaganda efforts have also permeated the Chinese education system. Following Jiang's 1999 ban of Falun Gong, then-Minister of Education [[Chen Zhili]] launched an active campaign to promote the CCP's line on Falun Gong within all levels of academic institutions, including graduate schools, universities and colleges, middle schools, primary schools, and kindergartens. Her efforts included a "Cultural Revolution-like pledge" in Chinese schools that required faculty members, staff, and students to publicly denounce Falun Gong. Teachers who did not comply with Chen's program were dismissed or detained; uncooperative students were refused academic advancement, expelled from school, or sent to "transformation" camps to alter their thinking.<ref name="specialtribunal.org">[http://www.specialtribunal.org/downloads/WOIPFG_MinistryOfEducation_Part1.pdf "Chinese Ministry of Education Participating in Persecution of Falun Gong: Investigative Report"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040927053846/http://www.specialtribunal.org/downloads/WOIPFG_MinistryOfEducation_Part1.pdf |date=27 September 2004 }}. 16 March 2004. Retrieved 17 November 2011.</ref> Chen also worked to spread the anti-Falun Gong academic propaganda movement overseas, using domestic educational funding to donate aid to foreign institutions, encouraging them to oppose Falun Gong.<ref name="specialtribunal.org"/>

===Falun Gong's response to the persecution===
[[File:Protesting the Persecution of Falun Gong in Washington DC.jpg|thumb|Practitioners meditate to protest the persecution of Falun Gong at a demonstration in Washington, D.C.]]
Falun Gong's response to the persecution in China began in July 1999 with appeals to local, provincial, and central petitioning offices in Beijing.<ref>{{cite news |first1=Elisabeth |last1=Rosenthal |first2=Erik |last2=Eckholm |title=Vast Numbers of Sect Members Keep Pressure on Beijing |work=The New York Times |date=28 October 1999}}</ref> It soon progressed to larger demonstrations, with hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners traveling daily to Tiananmen Square to perform Falun Gong exercises or raise banners in defense of the practice. These demonstrations were invariably broken up by security forces, and the practitioners involved were arrested—sometimes violently—and detained. By 25 April 2000, a total of more than 30,000 practitioners had been arrested on the square;<ref name="johnson2000">{{Cite web |url=http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/6464 |title=Defiant Falun Dafa Members Converge on Tiananmen |last=Johnson |first=Ian |date=25 April 2000 |website=The Wall Street Journal |via=The Pulitzer Prizes |page=A21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091229022658/http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/6464 |archive-date=29 December 2009 |access-date=10 October 2009}}</ref> seven hundred Falun Gong followers were arrested during a demonstration in the square on 1 January 2001.<ref name="Perry">{{Cite book |title=Chinese Society: Change, Conflict and Resistance |last1=Selden |first1=Elizabeth J. |last2=Perry |first2=Mark |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2003 |isbn=978-0415301701}}</ref> Public protests continued well into 2001. Writing for the ''Wall Street Journal'', Ian Johnson wrote that "Falun Gong faithful have mustered what is arguably the most sustained challenge to authority in 50 years of Communist rule."<ref name="DE" /> Jiang Zemin reportedly described Falun Gong as the biggest political issue in China since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.<ref name=":0" />{{Reference page|page=134}}

Falun Gong asserted that its struggle with the CCP amounted to a struggle of good versus evil.<ref name=":0" />{{Reference page|page=135}} Falun Gong called on Chinese to denounce affiliations with the CCP, the [[Communist Youth League of China|Communist Youth League]], and the [[Young Pioneers of China|Young Pioneers]].<ref name=":0" />{{Reference page|page=135}} Falun Gong instructed its adherents in China to "tell the truth" (''jiang zhenxiangh''), which would advance their progress towards Consummation and fulfill their roles in saving humankind.<ref name=":0" />{{Reference page|page=135}} The primary means of "telling the truth" included circulating pamphlets and video to publicize the persecution and suppression of Falun Gong by the state.<ref name=":0" />{{Reference page|pages=135-136}}

By late 2001, demonstrations in Tiananmen Square had become less frequent, and the practice was driven deeper underground. As public protest fell out of favor, practitioners established underground "material sites", which would produce literature and DVDs to counter the portrayal of Falun Gong in the official media. Practitioners then distribute these materials, often door-to-door.<ref>{{cite book |first=Liao |last=Yiwu |title=The Corpse Walker: Real Life Stories, China from the Bottom Up |year=2008 |publisher=Anchor |page=230}}</ref> Falun Gong sources estimated in 2009 that over 200,000 such sites exist across China today.<ref name="GC" /> The production, possession, or distribution of these materials is frequently grounds for security agents to incarcerate or [[sentence (law)|sentence]] Falun Gong practitioners.<ref>{{Cite web|title=2009 Annual Report |work=Congressional-Executive Commission on China|url=https://www.cecc.gov/publications/annual-reports/2009-annual-report|access-date=2023-02-10|date=10 October 2009 |archive-date=10 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230210134452/https://www.cecc.gov/publications/annual-reports/2009-annual-report|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2002, Falun Gong activists in China tapped into television broadcasts, replacing regular state-run programming with their own content. One of the more notable instances occurred in March 2002, when Falun Gong practitioners in [[Changchun]] intercepted eight cable television networks in Jilin Province, and for nearly an hour, televised a program titled "Self-Immolation or a Staged Act?". All six of the Falun Gong practitioners involved were captured over the next few months. Two were killed immediately, while the other four were all dead by 2010 as a result of injuries sustained while imprisoned.<ref name="mediacontrol">{{Cite book |url=http://hrichina.org/sites/default/files/oldsite/PDFs/Reports/HRIC-Fog-of-Censorship.pdf |title=The Fog of Censorship: Media Control in China |author=He Qinglian |author-link=He Qinglian |publisher=Human Rights in China |year=2008 |isbn=978-0971735620 |pages=xii |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120229083633/http://hrichina.org/sites/default/files/oldsite/PDFs/Reports/HRIC-Fog-of-Censorship.pdf |archive-date=29 February 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="ws-20101206">{{Cite news |url=http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/thin-airwaves_519589.html?nopager=1 |title=Into Thin Airwaves |last=Gutmann |first=Ethan |date=6 December 2010 |work=The Weekly Standard |access-date=1 January 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120105190542/http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/thin-airwaves_519589.html?nopager=1 |archive-date=5 January 2012}}</ref>

Outside China, Falun Gong practitioners established international media organizations to gain wider exposure for their cause and challenge narratives of the Chinese state-run media. These include ''[[The Epoch Times]]'' newspaper, [[New Tang Dynasty Television]], and [[Sound of Hope]] radio station.<ref name=Ownbyfuture/> According to Zhao, through ''The Epoch Times'' it can be discerned how Falun Gong is building a "de facto media alliance" with China's democracy movements in exile, as demonstrated by its frequent printing of articles by prominent overseas Chinese critics of the PRC government.<ref name="zhao"/> In 2004, ''The Epoch Times'' published a collection of nine editorials that presented a critical history of the Chinese Communist Party.<ref name=Ping/><ref>{{cite news |last=Steel |first=Kevin |title=Revolution number nine |work=The Western Standard |date=11 July 2005}}</ref> This catalyzed the Tuidang movement, which encourages Chinese citizens to renounce their affiliations to the Chinese Communist Party, including ex post facto renunciations of the [[Communist Youth League of China|Communist Youth League]] and [[Young Pioneers of China|Young Pioneers]]. ''The Epoch Times'' claims that tens of millions have renounced the Chinese Communist Party as part of the movement, though these numbers have not been independently verified.<ref>{{cite conference |last=Gutmann |first=Ethan |title=The Chinese Internet: A dream deferred? |conference=National Endowment for Democracy panel discussion "Tiananmen 20 years on" |date=2 June 2009}}</ref>

In 2006, Falun Gong practitioners in the United States formed [[Shen Yun Performing Arts]], a dance and music company that tours internationally.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/dec/12/shen-yun-falun-gong-traditional-chinese-dance-troupe-china-doesnt-want-you-to-see |title=The traditional Chinese dance troupe China doesn't want you to see |last=Hune-Brown |first=Nicholas |date=12 December 2017 |work=The Guardian |access-date=19 December 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171219160004/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/dec/12/shen-yun-falun-gong-traditional-chinese-dance-troupe-china-doesnt-want-you-to-see |archive-date=19 December 2017}}</ref> During Shen Yun's 2024 season, the company's eight touring troupes performed over 800 shows on five continents. By 2024, Shen Yun accumulated $266 million in assets mainly through ticket sales and by keeping its costs down through numerous volunteer hours and sometimes personal savings of Falun Gong adherents.<ref>{{Cite web |date=29 December 2024 |title=How Shen Yun Tapped Religious Fervor to Make $266 Million |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/29/nyregion/shen-yun-money-falun-gong.html |website=The New York Times}}</ref>

Falun Gong software developers in the United States are also responsible for the creation of several popular censorship-circumvention tools employed by internet users in China.<ref name="Beiser, Vince 2010">{{cite magazine |author-link=Vince Beiser |last=Beiser |first=Vince |date=1 November 2010 |url=https://www.wired.com/2010/11/ff_firewallfighters/ |title=Digital Weapons Help Dissidents Punch Holes in China's Great Firewall |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161222135454/https://www.wired.com/2010/11/ff_firewallfighters/ |archive-date=22 December 2016}}</ref>

Falun Gong practitioners outside China have filed dozens of lawsuits against Jiang Zemin, Luo Gan, [[Bo Xilai]], and other Chinese officials alleging genocide and crimes against humanity.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=Human Rights Law Foundation |url=http://www.hrlf.net/direct.html |title=Direct Litigation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111111144251/http://www.hrlf.net/direct.html |archive-date=11 November 2011 |access-date=19 March 2011}}</ref> According to International Advocates for Justice, Falun Gong has filed the largest number of human rights lawsuits in the 21st century and the charges are among the most severe international crimes defined by international criminal laws.<ref name="Ownbyfuture"/> As of 2006, 54 civil and criminal lawsuits were under way in 33 countries.<ref name=Ownbyfuture/> In many instances, courts have refused to adjudicate the cases on the grounds of sovereign immunity. In late 2009, however, separate courts in Spain and Argentina indicted Jiang and Luo on charges of "crimes of humanity" and genocide, and asked for their arrest—the ruling is acknowledged to be largely symbolic and unlikely to be carried out.<ref name="elmundo">{{Cite web|title=La Audiencia pide interrogar al ex presidente chino Jiang por genocidio|language=es| date = 14 November 2009|url=https://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2009/11/14/espana/1258230601.html|access-date=2023-02-10|website=El Mundo|archive-date=10 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230210134441/https://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2009/11/14/espana/1258230601.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=2009-12-23|title=Argentine judge asks China arrests over Falun Gong| last = Henao | first = Luis Andres|language=en|work=Reuters|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-argentina-china-falungong-idUSTRE5BM02B20091223|access-date=2023-02-10|archive-date=3 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151203212405/https://www.reuters.com/article/2009/12/23/us-argentina-china-falungong-idUSTRE5BM02B20091223|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="ArgentinaJudge">{{Cite web|publisher=Falun Dafa Information Center| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110925154535/http://www.faluninfo.net/article/935/?cid=82| archive-date= 25 September 2011| title= Argentine Judge Orders Arrest of Top Chinese Communist Party Officials for Crimes Against Humanity| date= 20 December 2009| url = http://www.faluninfo.net/article/935/?cid=82| url-status =dead}}</ref> The court in Spain also indicted Bo Xilai, [[Jia Qinglin]] and [[Wu Guanzheng]].<ref name=elmundo/>

Falun Gong practitioners and their supporters also filed a lawsuit in May 2011 against the technology company [[Cisco Systems]], alleging that the company helped design and implement a surveillance system for the Chinese government to suppress Falun Gong. Cisco denied customizing their technology for this purpose.<ref>{{Cite web| date = 20 May 2011| first = Terry | last = Baynes| title= Suit claims Cisco helped China repress religious group| work= Thomson Reuters| publisher = Westlaw| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110527012636/http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/Legal/News/2011/05_-_May/Suit_claims_Cisco_helped_China_repress_religious_group/| archive-date= 27 May 2011| url = http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/Legal/News/2011/05_-_May/Suit_claims_Cisco_helped_China_repress_religious_group/| url-status= dead}}</ref> The [[United States District Court for the Northern District of California]] dismissed the lawsuit in September 2014.<ref>{{Cite web |date=September 5, 2014 |title=Doe I v. Cisco Systems, Inc., 66 F. Supp. 3d 1239 (N.D. Cal. 2014) |url=https://casetext.com/case/doe-v-cisco-sys-inc-1 |access-date=March 9, 2025 |website=casetext.com |archive-date=13 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240313042627/https://casetext.com/case/doe-v-cisco-sys-inc-1 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In July 2023, the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit]] reversed and ruled the lawsuit may proceed to trial.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |date=2023-07-07 |title=Lawsuit alleging California tech giant aided Chinese torture may proceed, 9th Circuit says |url=https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-07-07/9th-circuit-revives-case-alleging-california-tech-titan-aided-torture-by-china |access-date=2023-08-10 |website=Los Angeles Times}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=July 7, 2023 |title=''Doe I, et al v. Cisco Systems, Inc., et al'', No. 15-16909 (9th Cir. 2023) |url=https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2023/07/07/15-16909.pdf |access-date=August 9, 2023 |publisher=United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit}}</ref> Cisco filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court in January 2025.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dodge |first=William S. |date=2025-02-04 |title=Cisco's Cert Petition |url=https://tlblog.org/ciscos-cert-petition/ |access-date=2025-03-09 |website=Transnational Litigation Blog |language=en-US}}</ref>

Sociologist Andrew Junker described Falun Gong's [[nonviolent resistance]] to the persecution as the "most well-organized and tenacious grassroots Chinese protest movement ever to challenge the CCP".<ref name="JUNKER-2019-6">Junker (2019), p. 6.</ref> He argued that Falun Gong's more effective and enduring mobilization, compared to the pro-democracy movement ({{lang|zh-Latn|[[Democracy movements of China|minyun]]}}), is due in part to its decentralized organizational structure and emphasis on individual initiative.<ref name="JUNKER-2019-186">Junker (2019), p. 186.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lee |first=Chengpang |date=2019 |title=Review: Junker, Andrew: Becoming activists in global China – social movements in the Chinese diaspora |url=https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstream/handle/document/69185/ssoar-stss-2019-2-rez-lee.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |journal=Studies of Transition States and Societies |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=76–77 |via=Social Science Open Source Repository}}</ref>