Recently an undercover operation by the US authorities resulted in the arrest of two Chinese Americans, John Chen and Lin Feng. The charges against these two were acting as unregistered agents of the Chinese government and attempting to bribe an undercover officer who presented as a public official. Moreover, they stand accused of having intentions to commit international money laundering.
The US authorities suspect these two men of plotting the downfall of the Falun Gong Spiritual Movement. 43 years old Feng and the 70 years of Chen were born in China. Later they migrated to the USA and are currently legal citizens of the country. They allegedly bribed the undercover officer, who was acting as a tax official, to cancel the Falun Gong’s non-tax status. The officer states that they affirmed that the People’s Republic of China would show gratitude in monetary terms to the officer. He has submitted his recordings and tapes for further inquiries related to the case.
What is the Falun Gong Spiritual Movement?
Falun Gong is a spiritual movement whose name means ‘Disciples of the Dharma Wheel’. This movement originated in China in 1992 by Li Hongzi. In 1992 the group has called for its members and public to unite and renounce the ruling Chinese Communist Party. Consequently, 10,000 members joined a silent protest against the Chinese government at the central leadership compound in Beijing. Thus, the Chinese government banned the Falun Gong in 1999 after and has been trying to shut down its operations globally.
The Falun Gong’s US branch established itself in 1995. The founder, Li Hongzi, resettled in the US in hopes of avoiding the Chinese government and its criticism. The group was banned in China as a heretical cult that proliferated false hopes and ideas in the name of Chinese Science. The Falun Gong’s popularity with the Chinese diaspora in the USA and Canada saved it from the far reaching arms of the Chinese government.Â
The Falun Gong Spiritual Movement works as a NGO that enjoys non-profit status in the US. Therefore, they do not need to pay any taxes to the US government. It has a large number of practices believers that pay generous donations.
The Falun Gong practitioners own a 400-acre compound called Dragon Springs in New York.
The conspiracy triangle of China, the USA, and Falun GongÂ
The Chinese government has a genuine fear of the Falun Gong Spiritual Movement. At its peak the Falun Gong had more members than the Chinese Communist Party. At the time of the silent protest, Falun Gong was the second largest religion in China after Buddhism. The Chinese government fears the influence of the organization’s political motivations.
The US authorities state that the Falun Gong’s criticism of the Chinese government puts them in the center of the target for the Chinese. There have been repeated attempts to silence the voice of dissention from the ruling Chinese government. Their repeated attempts in recent years have been successfully foiled by the Justice Department of the USA. This protection of the Falun Gong Organization by the USA is also viewed negatively by the Chinese government. The increasing number of believers and contributors to the Falun Gong Spiritual Movements scares the Chinese government into taking proactive action to stop the organization’s growth.
Such incidents reveal the Chinese government’s hidden agenda to defame all those who oppose the Communist Party’s ideology and regime. They highlight the depths of Chinese sleeper cells in foreign lands. These sleeper cells can be activated at the slightest indication by the communist regime. Thus, nations like India that grant refuge to people or organizations that are at cross purposes with the Chinese government must always be on alert of similar infiltration by China.