Boston Globe: Chinese breathing free

February 19, 2001

IN CHINESE HISTORY there are well-known precedents for a decadent dynasty succumbing to a vigorous spiritual movement. It would be poetic justice, therefore, if, with their repressive efforts to expunge the exercise and meditation movement known as Falun Gong, the panicky Communist bosses in Beijing were foreshadowing their own downfall.

A peculiar success the Beijing regime has had in its fight with the Falun Gong - perhaps its only success - has been in getting the media in the United States to describe Falun Gong practitioners as members of [Chinese governments slanderous words].

In reality, Falun Gong was one of several groups teaching the traditional Chinese varieties of ''qi,'' a [] exercise practice associated with meditation. Once the capitalist reforms of the late ྂs began in China, health care was among the social welfare services that were defunded or privatized within a vestigial statist system. Early retirees and senior citizens went to parks to perform their breathing exercises, often because they needed inexpensive ways to stay healthy and prevent illnesses.

The state was so far from condemning this ancient practice that it created an official ''qigong'' federation. The founder of the Falun Gong, Li Hongzhi, who now lives in exile in New York, differed from other teaching masters in the federation [] because he made his writings available free of charge on the Internet. The appeal of his teachings, and the unbeatable advantage of his pricing, made Li the envy of his competitors in the federation.

Appalled at the millions of health-seeking meditators flocking to Falun Gong, they asked the state to do something about Li's business practices. He was told he had to charge prices comparable to those of the other qigong masters. He refused and quit the federation. What followed was a Chinese business competition that molted into a political crisis.

A survey in 1999 by the government surmised that there were between 70 million and 100 million practitioners of Falun Gong - more than the membership of the Communist Party. Among the practitioners were not only party members but officers of the Army and the security services. So in April 1999, when 10,000 Falun Gong adherents - upset that members of the movement had been beaten and arrested by police in Tianjin - took their appeal for fairness to the authorities in Beijing, they unintentionally scared the daylights out of Communist leaders. These men know what it meant to organize stealthily and assumed that the petitioners were receiving orders from some equivalent of a clandestine politburo.

As a result of the ensuing crackdown, 50,000 practitioners have been incarcerated. In a report issued Feb. 12, Amnesty International documents horrific cases of Falun Gong devotees being tortured to death.

The bosses of Beijing may not yet realize it, but they have chosen to do battle with the Chinese people. They are picking on a foe they cannot eliminate.