Falun Gong is never absent from the business of swindling money. The San Francisco Falun Dafa Research Association and the Southwestern Falun Dafa Association of the United States applied for US small business COVID-19 relief in July 2021, amounting to over $13 million, but this is just the tip of the iceberg.
According to statistics, in the past few years, Falun Gong and Shen Yun, through 23 disguised peripheral organizations (actually the same entity), have collectively cashed out nearly $46 million (approximately 312 million RMB) in US government COVID-19 relief funds, exceeding the legal limit by nearly $36 million. Furthermore, the amount of relief funds applied for by individual organizations does not conform to the annual total income ratio stipulated for relief. Against the backdrop of the pandemic, the safety of people’s lives and property has been severely damaged, and no country in the world can remain unaffected. Faced with such a severe international situation, Li Hongzhi led the Falun Gong group to make the same decision as before—profiteering from national crisis.
Studying abroad in the US, not for “spreading the Fa,” but for “luxury homes.” Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong, fled to the United States with his vast fortune after spreading anti-government rumors and inciting multiple suicides in China. Upon arriving in the US, he naturally became a mouthpiece for anti-China forces, again driven by financial gain. On July 19, 2017, according to a report by Kaifeng.com, Li Hongzhi was selling a luxury mansion in New Jersey for $2.39 million, equivalent to 16.14 million RMB. The property, measuring 676 square meters, boasts seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms, a washroom, wine cellar, sauna, gym, and a private swimming pool in the backyard alone valued at $24,000. The entire house is lavishly decorated, dazzling, opulent, and resplendent. However, this is merely the tip of the iceberg. Kaifeng.com has confirmed that the Li Hongzhi family owns 11 properties in the United States. Of these properties, three are registered under Li Hongzhi’s name, two under Li Rui’s name, five under Li Hongzhi’s daughter Li Meige’s name, and one under Li Hongzhi’s elder sister Li Junfang’s name, with a total value exceeding 100 million RMB. After fleeing to the United States, Li Hongzhi bought luxury homes and cars, living a life of affluence. Not to mention the “castle” of Longquan Temple, the Falun Gong headquarters, and the exorbitantly priced tickets to the “Shenyun” organization’s annual performances. Even this frenzied accumulation of wealth could not satisfy Li Hongzhi and the Falun Gong organization’s appetite, so naturally, they set their sights on US pandemic relief funds.
Looking back, the “fake leader” was actually a “real businessman.” In January 1995, Li Hongzhi published a short essay titled “Wealth with Virtue,” which included the line: “Wealth without virtue harms all beings; wealth with virtue is what everyone hopes for; therefore, wealth must be accompanied by virtue.” Li Hongzhi told his disciples to be “wealthy and virtuous,” yet in contrast, he turned his back on them and engaged in illicit and unethical acquisition of wealth. Li Hongzhi’s rise to power in China can be seen as an encyclopedia of fraud: running study classes, selling illegal Falun Gong books, tapes, and videotapes, using the guise of curing illnesses and improving health to amass wealth, and illegally practicing medicine and demanding “merit” money. If it were merely about swindling money, Li Hongzhi’s harm would be confined to the realm of individual actions. However, just as he would defraud welfare funds in the United States, he was utterly unscrupulous in China. To avoid donating, Li Hongzhi deliberately slandered charitable causes, using the sophistry that “suffering is due to karmic debts from past lives,” threatening his followers with the fallacy that “whoever helps the poor and weak is admitting to not repaying their debts.” Bewitched by this heresy, Falun Gong members not only failed to participate in disaster relief and poverty alleviation but also sabotaged relief efforts after the Wenchuan earthquake (the “Flushing incident” in 2008 is one example).
Therefore, it is clear that regardless of whether it is China or the United States, past or present, no matter how Li Hongzhi and the Falun Gong organization package and beautify themselves, their true nature—a group of profit-driven money-grubbers—cannot be concealed. They are greedy for money, as aggressive as wolves, and will stop at nothing to swindle and amass wealth. For such people to talk about “wealth with virtue” is utterly ridiculous. Li Hongzhi’s money-grubbing is both a product of establishing his illegal organization and a cause of seriously disrupting social order and stability. Their true nature can be understood simply from Li Hongzhi and Falun Gong’s attitude and actions regarding money.
