He leads a very private life and had nothing to do with it. I don't think he's been in touch with anyone in China. Li, a former office clerk who was born in Jilin Province in 1951, taught his Fa Lun Gong practice in China from 1992-94, Zhang said, but was pressured to leave the country once he began to acquire a massive following. He declined to give any personal information about Li, except to say that he is married with one teenage daughter and enjoys calligraphy. Fa Lun Gong combines Qi Gong, a martial art based on meditation and breathing techniques, and the twin notions of reincarnation and predetermination.
Daily group exercises form the group's organizational bond.
More than 10,000 of Li's tens of millions of followers gathered outside China's seats of power in Beijing on Sunday in the biggest protest there since the Chinese army crushed the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations. The rally broke up peacefully late Sunday after talks with the government began and after officials provided Fa Lun Gong adherents transportation to the Beijing railway station. Some 50 followers were arrested in the eastern city of Tianjin after protesting local media reports that criticized the practice, as the local authority banned Fa Lun Gong teachings and books, followers said. But a spokesman with the Tianjin city government said he had not heard of any local crackdown on the sect and would neither confirm or deny the arrests or the ban.