Hands Off Chinese Sect

China’s three-month-old ban on the Falun Gong spiritual movement has not frightened its members into inactivity, much less extinction. In Beijing this week dozens of the sect’s adherents have gathered daily to protest a law now being drafted “to combat heretic cults” like Falun Gong. Police have broken up the passive demonstrations and made arrests. Homes have been raided in search of members.

What heresy Falun Gong is accused of practicing is unclear. Its aim is to promote health and morality through traditional exercises and practicing beliefs drawn from Buddhism and Taoism. Falun Gong has no discernible political agenda but nonetheless is being branded a subversive organization. The official People’s Daily calls it a “devil cult,” and warns that to show it mercy would be to “trample the human rights of other citizens.”

It’s not difficult to understand the regime’s fear of Falun Gong. Officials see the seven-year-old sect, which claims millions of followers, as a rival to the Communist Party’s claim to unique moral authority in China. As other religious movements have done in other countries in other eras, Falun Gong originated and grew at a time of sweeping social change. Communism in China now exists in name only. Its ideology, the religion of the revolution, has all but disappeared. It has left behind an authoritarian structure and, for those who once gave it unquestioning allegiance, a spiritual void. For many, Falun Gong fills that vacuum.

China claims it has ample laws to safeguard its citizens’ human rights. But it also has a ruling party that is free to interpret and apply those supposed guarantees as it sees fit. Falun Gong members who daily face arrest for their beliefs display a moral courage that commands international respect. A regime that insists this peaceful group imperils national security invites international loathing.