Statement by Ye Xiaowen,
Administrator of the State Administration of Religious Affairs,
At Press Conference Held by the Information Office of the State Council

4 November 1999

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning. I am very pleased to meet the press at the invitation of the Information Office of the State Council.

Three months ago, the Ministry of Civil Affairs of China declared illegal the Falun Dafa Research Society and the Falun Gong organization under it and outlawed them. Not long ago, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress adopted the Decision on Outlawing Cults and Preventing and Cracking Down on Cult Activities. The Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procurotarate publicly made judicial interpretation of punishment of illegal cult activities. The People’s Daily carried an article entitled Falun Gong Is a Cult, which systematically exposes the essential features and dangerous effects of Falun Gong as a cult. Today, I would like to take this opportunity to brief you on the cult.

1. Li Hongzhi has advocated the Doomsday theory on many occasions and created a panic atmosphere. This is an essential feature of a cult.

Shoko Asahara, founder of the Aum Doomsday Cult, Jones, founder of the People’s Temple, Koresh, founder of the Branch of Davidians, and Luc Jouret, founder of the Solar Temple, all advocated the Doomsday theory in different ways.

Like these cult founders, Li Hongzhi has also predicted the imminent end of the earth and that he alone can postpone the explosion of the earth and send people to the heaven. He has deceived Falun Gong practitioners into believing that he has many versions of self to protect them and he has installed a wheel of law in the belly of his followers in an attempt to control their mind.

2. Li has made up many anti-science and anti-human civilization absurdities in an attempt to deceive and control Falun Gong practitioners. He has claimed that the scientific common sense of this world is all wrong, his Falun Dafa alone is the right law and super science, and his followers would acquire supernatural capabilities as long as they persist in practicing Falun Dafa. He has negated Newton’s universal gravitation, and said that if Newton’s theory were right, the earth would have long been drawn to the sun. He is even so disrespectful of his parents as to say that he created them.
3. Li has advocated that Falun Gong practitioners must not take medicine and preached the so-called karma-eliminating fallacy. He has concocted a survey report of ten thousand practitioners and fabricated cases of illnesses cured by practicing Falun Gong. Li has said that medicine is a dirty thing and that a pious follower of Falun Gong never falls ill. He has claimed that the power achieved by practicing Falun Gong can automatically eliminate viruses and karma. If one takes medicine, he could push back karma, making it impossible to cleanse his body and hence to cure his diseases. If one gets over this, he will become a superman. After the relevant departments in China made public that the practice of Falun Gong had led to more than 1,400 deaths, Li, who is residing abroad, has repeatedly denied that he has instructed his followers not to take any medicine or medication. However, truth is undeniable. Numerous facts have shown that many practitioners have lost their lives only because they believed in Li’s fallacies.
4. Li Hongzhi and his Falun Gong organization have been involved in a host of illegal activities. Should anyone disapprove of, or just utter some negative remarks about Falun Gong, Li Hongzhi and his Falun Gong organization would, under the pretext of "seeking a clarification" or "safeguarding Falun Dafa", mastermind and instigate large-scale illegal gatherings to besiege and harass government institutions, media and schools, taking revenge on and staging demonstrations against the society. These activities have seriously disrupted the public order, disturbed the normal life of the people and infringed upon their freedom of speech and personal safety. As is known to all, since the besiege in August 1996 of the office of Guangming Daily by Falun Gong organization directed by Li Hongzhi, there have been 78 illegal demonstrations , each of over 300 participants. On 25 April 1999, he masterminded and organized the unlawful gathering of more than 10,000 people around Zhongnanhai, the seat of the Central Government. Moreover, Li Hongzhi has made a fortune out of Falun Gong illegally. Most of his ill-gotten wealth has evaded tax.

Li Hong zhi has spread many fallacies and absurdities and produced huge amount of audio-visual products. Today, I am showing you only a few of them.

The Chinese Government cannot sit back and do nothing about Falun Gong, a cult organization that has seriously endangered the society. To indulge such a cult is tantamount to reaction to science, blasphemy against civilization and trampling on human rights.