(Minghui.org) The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began persecuting Falun Gong in 1999, and this 27-year-long suppression not only harms practitioners, it also undermines society’s morals. Based on the Chinese authorities’ documents, information collected by Minghui.org, and investigations by human rights advocates, the suppression of Falun Gong is not just a political campaign—it has reshaped and redefined China’s moral values.
The 10-year-long Cultural Revolution was an effort by the CCP to severe Chinese people's ties to their traditional culture. The persecution of Falun Gong took it a step further and destroyed people’s moral standards, causing society uncertainty and chaos.
Laozi, one Chinese civilization’s founders, wrote, “The utmost goodness is like water. Water benefits all things and does not compete.”
Confucius said, “Leading people with virtue is like a North Star.” When people uphold values, it ensures society’s stability.
Accordingto Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian), one of China’s renowned history books, “Those who rely on virtue will prosper; those who rely on force will perish.”
These highlight the importance of moral values. A common thread through each of China’s dynasties is that cherishing virtue brings prosperity and social stability, and conversely, a lack of morality results in disaster and chaos.
But this millennia-old tradition was lost after the CCP’s series of political campaigns. During the Anti-Rightist Campaign (1957 – 1959), the Cultural Revolution (1966 – 1976), and the Tiananmen Square Massacre (1989), officials and ordinary citizens followed the Party line instead of voicing their own opinions. When guandao (profiteering by officials) and corruption were widespread in the 1980s and 1990s, people followed their example and raked in money unscrupulously.
Against this backdrop, Falun Gong was introduced to the public in 1992. The principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance woke up people's conscience and reconnected them with their thousands-year-long civilization, bringing a fresh outlook and vitality to modern China.
Inspired by Falun Gong’s teachings, millions of Chinese people strove to become better citizens at work, at home, and in society. This is in line with what righteous belief systems – Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity and others – strive to achieve.
Because the CCP’s starting point is struggle, hatred, and lies, its ideology contradicts traditional values and it cannot tolerate Falun Gong, despite the spiritual discipline’s popularity and benefits. Former CCP leader Jiang Zemin launched the massive suppression in July 1999 and claimed that he would “eradicate Falun Gong within three months.”
Twenty-seven years have passed, and Falun Gong is still thriving—the CCP is unable to wipe out the practitioners’ pursuit of goodness. However, the persecution has severely damaged Chinese society, both morally and socially.
Because the CCP mobilized its entire state machinery to defame and target Falun Gong, the persecution penetrated every corner of society. Over time, morals were ignored.
Several Examples
Similar to its previous political campaigns, the CCP began by criminalizing Falun Gong, and then collected “evidence” to frame the practice. But many people were not convinced and some officials passively carried out the persecution orders.
Unsatisfied with the progress, Jiang and his follower Luo Gan rolled out the staged self-immolation incident at Tiananmen Square in January 2001 to further slander Falun Gong. From news to in-depth coverage, from literature to entertainment and textbooks, the comprehensive propaganda systematically wiped out people’s sympathy toward Falun Gong and replaced it with hostility and hatred.
False Fire, an award-winning documentary, analyzed CCTV videos and concluded that the Tiananmen Square incident was a hoax to mislead people. In addition, a neighbor of Liu Chunling (a victim of the incident), a 610 Office staff member, and even the CCTV reporter who covered it admitted it was staged by the CCP to defame Falun Gong.
What happened shows that journalism, education, and entertainment in China are vulnerable. When people follow the Party line without questioning it, the entire state apparatus is turned into a machine that produces lies to crush ordinary citizens and harm the common good.
Organ Harvesting
Since 2006, Minghui.org collected a mountain of evidence of the forced organ harvesting by the CCP from detained Falun Gong practitioners. While being tortured and mistreated, samples of their blood were collected, but they were not told why.
According to reports, surgeons followed orders and carried out organ transplants without questioning the organ source; nurses did as they were told and supervisors shirked their responsibility by claiming they were following orders from higher officials.
In addition to taking innocent lives, the crime of organ harvesting endangers the medical profession’s ethical standard. Due to political pressure and monetary incentives, many doctors switched from saving lives to taking them.
The organ harvesting victims also included minority groups such as the Uyghurs. Luo Shuaiyu from Xiangya Second Hospital of Central South University in Hunan Province found that medical staff falsified information, claiming the patients had terminal illnesses in order to justify organ harvesting. After he publicized the information, he was found dead outside his dorm in May 2024.
Apathy in the General Public
After being brainwashed by the CCP for years, many people are cold or hostile toward practitioners.
According to Minghui reports, when practitioners are arrested, their neighbors often know they are innocent, but they choose to ignore them and some even help the officials. They may do this out of fear or self-protection, but it shows a lack of moral values.
When the entire society acts this way, practitioners are systematically discriminated against. In this climate of persecution, following the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance to become a better person is made more difficult.
An Inevitable Moral Decline
In a normal society, a person is usually judged by his integrity—for example his ethics at work and how he conducts himself in his family. During the suppression of Falun Gong, however, a person is judged on their political views—anyone who refuses to listen to the Party is looked down upon.
There is a common theme in the persecution cases reported on Minghui—practitioners are diligent at work, fulfill their responsibilities at home, and play a positive role in their communities. Their upright behavior, which is rooted in their belief in Falun Gong, is ignored when they are detained, sentenced, or tortured. This sends a strong signal to society that following moral standards and one’s conscience does not protect you; only following the Party ensures safety.
In terms of long-term sustainability and short-term stability, this trend is dangerous for a society. Practitioners are mistreated for their faith, and various social problems arise as people abandon their principles.
Normalization of Violence
When one reads the Minghui reports, one finds that those who carry out the suppression are not always vicious people—they are police officers, prison guards, or community administrators. By following the CCP’s orders, they deprive practitioners of their freedom, torture them, tear apart their families, force children out of school, and cause their families great suffering.
The problem does not come from the individuals. The CCP’s political system and ideology have turned China into a giant machine that crushes innocent people. Due to decades of control and brainwashing, the CCP easily manipulates people—this, accompanied by intimidation and material interest incentives, allows the CCP to achieve its agenda.
The media is a good example. It has followed the Party closely throughout the decades during its various political campaigns, and has assisted the CCP by targeting minority groups and then whitewashed the Party. Employees are told since their salaries come from the CCP, they need to act as its mouthpieces. They do not realize that the money they receive from the Party actually comes from taxpayers, that is, the people that the Party suppresses.
In a similar situation when medical professionals follow orders without question and harvest organs, the scalpel in their hands becomes a butcher’s knife that kills innocent citizens. With a mentality of political conformity, they put aside the medical motto: Primum non nocere (First, do no harm). As lucrative profits expand this tragedy to include other minority groups and even students, society has lost its moral compass.
Negative Role Models
When Falun Gong and the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance are suppressed, the general public receives a message that being a good person could cause one to be punished or criminalized.
By persecuting Falun Gong, the CCP pushed Chinese people even further from their conscience. After decades of political campaigns that undermined traditional culture, the Party intends to destroy the last vestiges of people’s conscience, which is the cornerstone of society.
When they see how innocent citizens are targeted and imprisoned, similar to what took place during the Anti-Rightist Campaign and the Cultural Revolution, people learned to forsake their principles and instead focus on their personal interests.
In textbooks and in the classroom, children are told that the Party is great, and foreign influences such as the United States or Japan are vicious. Instilled with the CCP’s hate propaganda against Falun Gong, they are hostile and even hateful toward the practice. They are not taught China’s traditional values.
The price of the 27-year-long persecution is huge, both morally and socially. After Nanjing resident Peng Yu helped an elderly woman get up on the street in 2006, he was sued by her family, who claimed that Peng had knocked her down. When Peng defended himself in court, the judge asked, “If you didn’t knock her down, then why did you help her get up?”
While many felt this case was ridiculous, people nevertheless learned from this. After two-year-old Wang Yue (also known as Little Yue Yue) was knocked down by a car in October 2011, the driver ran over her a second time to avoid paying her medical bills. About 18 pedestrians walked by the scene in the next 7 minutes, but no one offered to help.
This negative behavior has spread to other countries. According to the BBC, a Chinese student poured hot coffee on a nine-month-old baby in Australia in August 2024; two months later, another Chinese man injured three children with a knife at a Zurich daycare center in Switzerland in 2024.
One news media professional said that these tragedies are rooted in the CCP’s education—from kindergarten to college, children are told to follow the Party and target anyone who opposes it.
A Society With No Trust
This is consistent with the CCP’s doctrine of class struggle, hatred, and lies—which came from Karl Marx. Through the systematic suppression of Falun Gong since 1999, this ideology has thoroughly penetrated society from the media to the justice system, from education to the medical field, from the central government to local communities.
When conscience is marginalized, everyone suffers. A German pastor wrote about the Holocaust during World War II,
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
“Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
“Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
“Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
Throughout history and across cultures, basic humanity and conscience are the foundation of our society. When this foundation is undermined, everyone loses.
Unfortunately, this is what is happening in China. After decades of political campaigns that suppress people economically, intellectually, and culturally, the CCP is now trying to break down the moral foundation of China by suppressing Falun Gong.
What happens next depends on us—which is why Falun Gong practitioners continue to raise aware of the catastrophe and why over 450 million Chinese people have renounced their memberships in the CCP organizations, including its junior organizations: the Youth League and the Young Pioneers.