this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2024
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The Falun Gong was originally an ally of the CCP as recently as 1993. They had a falling out when some of their chief leadership got caught in a string of financial scandals and abuse allegations. Attempts by the state to begin prosecuting church leaders triggered an outcry from the membership, which prompted more arrests and more efforts hide the organizations money, and finally a wholesale exodus from the country by its most devoted members.
Falun Gong leadership arrived in the US and immediately began churning out anti-China spin, with the help of the Epoch Times - an originally Chinese-only paper primarily distributed in Chinese ex-pat communities by church refugees. If you get into the history of the Epoch Times, you should very quickly discover that it is not a reliable source of information.
Which isn't to say China's been great wrt religious freedom or free association. But the modern incarnation of Falun Gong has more in common with Scientology than, say, Mormonism or Baháʼí. You're going to fall down some really QAnon-themed rabbit holes if you take everything their community is saying at face value.
That is some fine tuned measuring, my friend. Scientology Vs Mormonism. I appreciate you and your eye for detail.
And here's the person who know their shit.
From the 15 minutes on the toilet-grade research that I've done I got the feeling it was a Scientology kind of cult, but I had no idea that they were once affiliated with the CCP.
But now I have looked a bit deeper into them and holy shit they are so much worse then I though. They are so much similar to Scientology in level of infiltration and disinformation about their practices it's a bit scary.