Visit puts Falun Gong in spotlight

The Chinese Government describes Falun Gong as a "sinister cult" and organised a crackdown on the spiritual movement in 1999. Picture / Brett Phibbs

The brief visit of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and a delegation of ministers and officials has raised the profile of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement banned in China. Here is a brief guide.

* What is Falun Gong?

Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) is based on the Chinese exercise concept of the same name, which channels energy to cultivate mind and body. It was popularised in 1992 by Li Hongzhi, who has since left China and now has a publishing company in the United States.

Falun Gong, which translates as "cultivation and practice of the great law wheel", involves "slow, gentle movements and meditation", says the website falundafa.org.nz. It incorporates Chinese folk beliefs and elements of pop culture, such as curiosity about alien life.

Its motto is "truthfulness, compassion, tolerance"; there are no membership fees or hierarchy. Adherents reportedly number many millions, many of them non-Chinese, in more than 40 countries.

* Who belongs to the movement in New Zealand?

Practitioners are mostly Chinese but include non-Chinese. You might have seen them giving away the New York-published Falun Gong newspaper, The Epoch Times, in Queen St, and staging peaceful sit-ins outside the Chinese Consulate-General in Great South Rd, Penrose, and the embassy in Wellington. They regularly practise in public places such as Auckland's Cornwall Park.

* What is the Chinese Government's problem with Falun Gong?

The website Chinaembassy.org.nz says Falun Gong is a "sinister cult ... [which] exercises total mind control of its followers and demands total obedience from them ... An alarmingly large number of Falun Gong followers have become mentally deranged". In New Zealand, it adds, Falun Gong followers have attempted to "mislead and deceive the public".

Professor Paul Clark, of the New Zealand Asia Institute, points out that China is wary of any group which can mobilise the masses and, perhaps, become uncontrollable. Beijing estimated that Falun Gong adherents numbered 70 to 100 million people in China before the Government began a bloody crackdown in 1999.

* Why are Falun Gong members making a fuss over Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to New Zealand?

They want China's leaders made accountable for what they say is persecution and torture of followers, and have launched court cases on several fronts to this end.

* How do other governments view the issue?

China has an appalling human rights record and New Zealand is among the countries which regularly raise concerns with Chinese officials. People have been accorded refugee status in this country because they have been persecuted for their practice of Falun Gong but the Department of Labour will not give details of their numbers.

Last month, Manfred Nowak, the UN special rapporteur on torture, released a report (www.ohchr.org) following a fact-finding visit to China. The report found that Falun Gong practitioners were targeted for "re-education", which included widespread torture, and "punishment aim[ed] at altering the personality of detainees up to the point of even breaking their will".