May 13, 2001

David Li and his wife, Mingming Liu, sensed a terrible tension when they visited family in China in October 1999. Four months earlier, China's government had denounced the tens of millions of practitioners of Falun Gong as "an XX" [slanderous term respectfully omitted] and banned its practice. Both David and Ming are followers.

The crackdown on Falun Gong, which practitioners say is no XX and promotes only moral, physical and spiritual growth, was intended to squash a movement whose members were beginning to outnumber those of the XX party, according to Falun Gong activists.

Ming knew she would be arrested if she brought Falun Gong texts with her to China. When she visited her parents, outside of Beijing, her mother feared the family would be watched by police because of Ming's and David's beliefs. Her parents had already been contacted by the government's security bureau, which wanted to know what Ming and David were up to in the United States, Ming said. "We understood it is very possible that we cannot go back to the U.S. if the police find us as Falun Gong practitioners," she said. Both Davjd and Ming were named on Falun Gong Web sites, which they feared meant they had been added to a government "black list," she said.

They ultimately managed to slip by Customs and return to the United States; others have not been as fortunate since the crackdown. Nearly 100 Falun Gong followers were barred from entering Hong Kong last week, in anticipation of a visit by Chinese President Jiang Zemin, even though Falun Gong is not illegal in the former British colony.

"That means the black list is playing a role now," Ming said.

Fear and anxiety are now commonplace among practitioners.

"It's very, very uncomfortable," David said of the atmosphere in his homeland. "You can feel it when you get into China."

David and Ming live in Portsmouth and have taught Falun Gong's tenets to hundreds of people in New Hampshire and Maine. The couple say they are dedicated to educating people about the principles of Falun Gong and the atrocities committed against its practitioners by the Chinese government.

"I feel I have to tell the world what is Falun Gong and what is wrong with the Chinese government," Ming said. "I want to do something, for more people to know the truth."

Falun Gong is the regimen of exercises performed by followers of Falun Dafa, or "The Practice of the Wheel of Dharma." It was introduced in China in 1992 by Li Hongzhi, who assembled elements of Taoism, Buddhism and martial arts [there are no martial arts components to Falun Gong--ed.] to establish Falun Gong. Falun Gong is a type of qi gong (pronounced chee-gong), an ancient discipline that aims to improve mind and body with meditation and exercise, such as tai chi. Falun Gong adds spirituality to the mix.

As many as 100 million people in 40 countries are believed to practice Falun Gong, most of them in China. When China banned the practice in July 1999, Li was already a resident of the United States, living in New York. The Chinese government called on Interpol to arrest Li, but Interpol refused, discounting the charges as political.

The Chinese government continues to denounce Falun Gong in state-controlled television, radio and newspaper reports as an evil XX [slanderous term respectfully omitted]. China's State Council Office for Prevention and Handling of XX considers Falun Gong a "spiritual drug" that ravages people as severely as any narcotic. It points to the self-immolation of five practitioners in January -including a mother and her 12-year-old daughter as evidence.

However, Falun Gong has suggested the government staged the burnings in Tiananmen Square to shore up accusations of suicide and violence perpetuated by Falun Gong. Practitioners insist Falun Gong is a non-violent and non- political movement whose only goal is the betterment of self.

"That's the goal of Falun Gong, to return to your true nature," said Martin Fox of Kittery, who has practiced Falun Gong for a year and a half. "It's really to become a better person, more compassionate."

Fox is one of a growing number of non-Asians who practice Falun Gong and adhere to its three main principles: truthfulness, benevolence and forbearance.

Those principles, along with "Five Sets of Movements" - a regimen of exercise and meditation - are the path to a host of spiritual benefits, David said. Falun Gong's incredible growth in China and elsewhere, he added, can be chalked up to its effectiveness and word of mouth.

"If you feel good, you share," David said,

Fox said Falun Gong does not ask for membership; practice is voluntary. Many people learn the system and disappear with its teachings, he said.

No one is supposed to turn a profit from Falun Gong, its proponents say. Its principal texts can be downloaded for free from the Internet. However, bound copies of the books, as well as videos and audio tapes, can be purchased from the Falun Gong Web site.

How often it's practiced is up to each person, Fox said, but he added that Falun Gong is a success only when practiced in whole.

"It's not just the exercise," Fox said. "If you don't improve your moral character, you don't really get the energy."

Dozens of Falun Gong members now meet in Portsmouth, Dover, Nashua in New Hampshire, and Kittery, Waterville and Portland, Maine.

"I think if people understood what this was, it would grow like wildfire, " Fox said. "They just don't know what it is. It's given me a whole new way to look at life."

Despite its growth in China, little attention was paid to Falun Gong outside of China until the crackdown. Falun Gong activists maintain that hundreds of practitioners have been killed, more than 50,000 detained, another 10,000 sent to labor camps and 1,000 more locked away in mental institutions.

"Falun Gong is clearly singled out because of the numbers," Fox said.

Fox and others say the Chinese government" which first credited Falun Gong with reducing the cost of health-care, is waging war against followers because of the mass appeal and potential threat to the Communist regime.

Falun Gong members from New England recently joined other members at the 57th Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland, hoping to draw attention to atrocities against Falun Gong members in China.

"The brutality is hard to imagine," Fox said.

Fox said Falun Gong adherents in China don't fight back against repression, but protest without violence, making their beliefs known by practicing in public. In April 1999, three months before the crackdown, 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners assembled in Beijing to protest the government's increasingly adverse portrayal of Falun Gong.

"In this country, we take all that for granted," Fox said of the right to assemble in protest. "In my mind, this is a type of pollution that permeates the whole earth. In a very global way, it affects us all."

"This is a human rights issue," David said.

David insists he will practice his belief wherever he is, wherever he needs to go, in China or elsewhere.

New Hampshire Republican Sen. Bob Smith has also voiced concern about the treatment of spiritual sect members and others in China.

"(Sen. Smith) believes the U .S. should take stronger steps to reform China," said his press secretary, Eryn Witcher. Smith was one of three U .S. senators who last month called for the release of the leader of another persecuted qi gong group, Zhong Gong. Its leader, Zhang Hongbao, is being detained in Guam and has sought political asylum in the United States.

Several U .S. senators have called on the Chinese government to stop its crackdown on Falun Gong and other groups.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have done the same.

However, Falun Gong has been criticized by some for its peculiar doctrines on demonic and animal possession, extraterrestrial intelligence and "superhuman abilities," such as clairvoyance. A recent article in the Asia Times pointed out that Falun Gong's primary text, Zhuan Falun, claims that UFOs have visited Earth and are using TV and radio to control people.

The group has also been criticized for shunning modern medicine in deference to the Falun Dafa system. When the government banned the group in July of 1999, it charged that 1,400 members of Falun Gong had died after following a tenet to avoid medical treatment.

But Ming said that is not the whole truth.

"Falun Gong doesn't ask people not to go to hospital for a treatment," she said. "It tells the principles of the relationship between medical treatment and qi gong practice, and the real reasons of one becoming ill. Modern medicine can cure illness to some extent. As there are deeper reasons for illness, modern medical treatment cannot detect it and (it is) very difficult to treat some illnesses. My understanding from Falun Gong is that one's health is far more than the physical part, which is mainly handled by modern treatment."

Fox said he has not experienced miraculous healing, but has heard from others who have. "Their health problems just disappear," he said.

And UFOs?

"From many ordinary magazines, we know that UFOs frequently visit earth, not just have landed," Ming said. "The Falun Gong book mentioned that."

Despite those components of Falun Gong, the practice has drawn positive attention in the United States.

Ming and others point out that cities across the country have recognized the value of Falun Gong. More than 300 proclamations have been read in recent years, Ming said, including in Keene, Nashua and Manchester, Lewiston, Maine, Boston and Providence, R.I.

"The devotion of Falun Dafa members and their commitment to improving health in mind, body, and spirit is admired by many as evidenced by the growing numbers of Falun Dafa practitioners," New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen wrote in a letter earlier this year.

Massachusetts officials read another proclamation at the Statehouse Friday, which kicked off three days of events, culminating today on the second annual Falun Dafa Day, which is celebrated in more than a dozen countries.

Devotees here say they will continue to educate people about Falun Gong and its spiritual benefits, as well as China's continuing persecution.

"The responsibility is to tell people something really horrible is going on in China against a practice that's really good," Fox said.

David said he hopes as more people are drawn to the practice here and outside of China, adherents in China will hear the truth.

"Many Chinese people still do not know the truth of the persecutions," David said. In addition to state-controlled images and stories about Falun Gong, the government has burned and destroyed hundreds of thousands of books and tapes, David said.

And the government's reach has occasionally extended outside of China: Ming's personal Falun Gong Web site has been hacked, along with several others around the world, she said.

Still, after her experience in China and a litany of atrocities that continue today, Ming and others say they will continue to expose China's Communist government and treatment of Falun Gong, a purpose realized when she visited China in 1999.

"It was very clear that if the practitioners outside China cannot speak out for them, then there will be no way to expose the persecution to the world," she said. "After the terrible experience, I understood more and more about the persecution and felt I should do more to help them out."

For more information, see www.falundafa.org.