Falun Gong is a spiritual practice that combines the practice of meditation with the moral philosophy articulated by its founder, Li Hongzhi. It emerged on the public radar in the Spring of 1992 in the city of Changchun, and was classified as a system of qigong. Though it initially enjoyed official sanction and support, Falun Gong became estranged from the state-run qigong associations in 1996, leading to a gradual escalation of tensions with the party-state that culminated in the Spring of 1999. Following a protest of 10,000+ Falun Gong adherents near the Zhongnanhai government compound on April 25, 1999 to request official recognition, then-Communist Party head Jiang Zemin ordered Falun Gong be crushed. A campaign of propaganda, mass imprisonment, systematic torture and coercive reeducation ensued. Falun Gong practitioners have responded to the campaign with protests on Tiananmen Square, the creation of their own media companies overseas, international lawsuits targeting Chinese officials, and the establishment of a network of underground publishing sites to produce literature on the practice within China.

Timeline of major events

Before 1992

Falun Gong has been classified variously as a form of spiritual cultivation and as a qigong discipline. Qigong refers to a broad set of exercises, meditation and breathing methods that have long been part of cultivation practices of select Buddhist sects, of Daoist alchemists, martial artists, and some Confucian scholars. The...
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