Overseas Chinese commentator Hu Liren recently shared his views on Falun Gong after attending a Shen Yun performance at New York’s Lincoln Center, describing the production as an “epic masterpiece” in a subsequent livestream.
Hu, a Chinese social media personality who has been based in the United States since 2018, used the broadcast to reflect on his evolving views of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice that combines meditation exercises with teachings centered on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. The practice grew rapidly in China during the 1990s before being banned by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1999. Since then, it has been subject to a long-running campaign of suppression by Chinese authorities, which label it a cult. Falun Gong practitioners and human rights groups have documented cases of detention, forced labor, and other abuses, allegations that Beijing denies.
Shen Yun Performing Arts, founded by Falun Gong practitioners in 2006, aims to showcase traditional Chinese culture through classical Chinese dance. The company has gained international acclaim, and reaches an audience of about 1 million annually, despite the CCP’s growing attempts at transnational repression against it.
‘The fine qualities of traditional Chinese culture’
Hu Liren said he first became aware of Falun Gong at the start of the crackdown but did not engage closely with the group at the time. After relocating to the United States, however, he said he had more opportunities to interact with practitioners within overseas Chinese communities.
In his livestream, Hu described his personal observations over several years, saying he found Falun Gong practitioners to be “honest and consistent” in their conduct. He attributed this to the group’s emphasis on moral discipline and self-cultivation.
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Hu also addressed what he described as lingering skepticism toward Falun Gong among some members of the Chinese diaspora, including individuals critical of the CCP. He suggested that such views may be influenced by the habits shaped under Communist Party indoctrination.
During the broadcast, Hu condemned the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong in moral and ideological terms. He argued that the group’s emphasis on personal ethics and independent belief places it at odds with a political system that prioritizes centralized authority and ideological conformity.
“The principles and teachings of Falun Gong are completely opposite to those of the CCP,” Hu said, characterizing the relationship as fundamentally incompatible. He praised the conduct and character of Falun Gong adherents he was personally familiar with as embodying the “fine qualities of traditional Chinese culture.”
Upholding virtue: Falun Gong as the CCP’s greatest ideological obstacle
Falun Gong was first taught in China by Master Li Hongzhi in 1992. Rooted in the country’s ancient spiritual traditions, Falun Gong became immensely popular in the 1990s, with Chinese government estimates showing that between 70 million and 100 million people had taken up the qigong practice. State-backed studies reported that the majority of practitioners experienced physical and spiritual improvement.
However, within a few years, discussions within the Communist Party — which promotes atheism in line with its authoritarian Marxist ideology — had brought CCP leader Jiang Zemin to the conclusion that he had to crush Falun Gong lest it become a threat to communist rule.
The CCP began a sudden and relentless nationwide repression against Falun Gong starting in July 1999, and the persecution has continued ever since. Due to pervasive propagnda aimed at demonizing the faith and its adherents, many ordinary Chinese have come to harbor prejudices against Falun Gong.
During his livestream, Hu Liren questioned: does the CCP feel compelled to persecute a group of spiritual cultivators who pose no threat to society and focus solely on their personal spiritual cultivation? The answer lies in morality.
Falun Gong teaches people to cultivate virtue. Those with genuine faith naturally have a moral baseline. Hu Liren sharply pointed out that the CCP’s totalitarian machine is built on “absolute obedience and committing evil”: if a superior orders you to kill, you kill; if ordered to fabricate charges, you fabricate; if instructed to persecute the innocent, you must carry out the repression.
Hu Liren said that the relationship between the CCP and Falun Gong is one of evil versus goodness—two completely opposing poles. “Falun Gong’s principles are truthfulness, compassion, forbearance, while the CCP’s essence can be summed up as deceit, malice, and violence.”
What is the CCP’s “deceit”? Hu Liren bluntly stated that everything under CCP rule is false — news is fake, history is falsified, and even the everyday food consumed by ordinary people is often toxic and fake. In a system that forces everyone to lie, “truth” becomes the ultimate subversive force.
What is the CCP’s “malice”? Its evil has reached a pathological level — from the murderous political campaigns since the founding of the PRC to the Tiananmen Square massacre; from the cruel live organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience to extreme wealth inequality today — corrupt officials embezzle billions while hardworking farmers receive only meager pensions.
What is the CCP’s “violence”? The CCP rose and maintains its rule through “violent revolution” and “class struggle.” It constantly promotes “fight to the end,” intimidating people with violence and maintaining power through guns and knives.
For this reason, a faith group that emphasizes “truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance” quietly undermines the CCP’s lies and violence simply by existing. As Hu Liren summarized: “The principles and teachings of Falun Gong are completely opposite to those of the CCP. Falun Gong is the CCP’s natural enemy — the true nemesis of the CCP!”
