Falun Gong Practice Causes Health Problems and Death

Xinhua, July 22, 1999

BEIJING, July 22, 1999 (Xinhua) -- Cases of dire consequences caused by Falun Gong to the psychological and physical health of people are innumerable, according to facts collected by certain departments.

Serious results have been reported, including sickness, handicaps, and even death from the practice of Falun Gong. Since beginning the practice of Falun Gong, many people have lost their appetites, some appeared to be disorganized in words and behavior, and some became paranoid. Still others found themselves suffering from hallucinations. A number of people jumped into rivers or off buildings, or killed themselves in other ways. Some even cruelly injured or killed relatives and friends. Ma Jianmin, a retired worker from the Huabei Oilfield in north China, was often in a trance and became distraught after two years of practicing Falun Gong.

Ma insisted that he had a "wheel of law" in his stomach. Then, one day in 1998, Ma died at home after he cut his abdomen with a pair of scissors to look for the so-called wheel of law.

Official Gao Encheng, who became a leader of a Falun Gong practicing group in Kaixian County of Chongqing Municipality in southwest China, got the idea that he had become an "immortal." Gao killed himself by jumping off a building while holding his son in his arms.

Bai Changyu, a section chief geologist at a coal mine in northeast China's Fushun City, refused to see doctor or take any medicine when he was sick after he began practicing Falun Gong in 1997.

Bai became seriously ill in April 1999, but still refused medical treatment until he finally died, still holding the belief that Li Hongzhi would come to help him.

Liu Pinqing was a senior agronomist who had won a top prize given by the Ministry of Agriculture. Liu, however, became abnormal after practicing Falun Gong. He said many times that his master Li Hongzhi asked him to burn himself so as to become a buddha.

Liu attempted to burn himself to death on February 4, 1999, at home by revolving open the gas valve. He finally committed suicide two months later by jumping into a well.

Li Ting, a graduate student from a junior middle school under the age of 18, killed his parents with a dagger on March 20. Li, inquisited, said that after two years of practicing Falun Gong, he believed that his parents were demons while he himself a Buddha. "So I got rid of the two demons," Li said.

Wu Deqiao, 36, a clerk with Wujiang supply and marketing cooperative in east China's Jiangsu Province, became a practitioner of Falun Gong in February, 1998. He then felt that he had become a Buddha, and women around would affect his practice. Wu chopped his wife to death with a kitchen knife when she tried to stop him from practicing any more.

According to initial statistics, two madhouses alone in Beijing received six patients who became lunatic due to practice of Falun Gong in 1996. The number of such patients increased to 10 in 1997, 22 in 1998, and 16 during the first half of 1999.

The perniciousness of Falun Gong has waken up many victims and their families. A female worker surnamed Jiang wanted to beautify herself by practicing Falun Gong. She attempted to kill herself, however, when she became a paranoid later.

Jiang recovered after she was compelled by her family members to receive medical treatment. "I'll never practice that Falun Gong any more," vowed Jiang with resentment.

Retired worker Zhang Yuqin, who had become infatuated with practice of Falun Gong, killed herself in 1998.

"Falun Gong broke my family, and I ask Li Hongzhi and Falun Gong to be punished and banned, " said Lu Xingchong, Zhang's husband.