Does Falun Dafa have any political affiliation or intent?
Falun Gong receives funding from the National Endowment Fund for democracy. The NED a US government initiative which funds opposition groups in countries not aligned with the United States. The NED funds 18 organizations related to China by groups against or seeking independence from China including Taiwanese independence groups, Tibetan independence groups, Xinjiang independence groups. NED founder Allen Weinstein has said "A lot of what we [NED] do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA."
The US government also provided $1.5 million in funding to Global Internet Freedom Consortium, which, like New Tang Dynasty Television and Epoch Times, a propaganda branch of the Falun gong. GIFC probably runs all of the run of the mill and nearly identical Falun Gong websites, blogs, and Youtube Channels all over the internet, and has people dedicated to swinging online sentiment towards Falun Gong and againts the Chinese government, much like the 50 cent group used by the Chinese government. This funding was approved after a 4-year lobbying campaign by the Falun Gong.
Falun Gong also received funding from Taiwan when Taiwan was headed by pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party and Chen Shui-bian, and it regularly voices support for Taiwan-independence and the Dalai Lama.
Its publications such as Epoch Times and New Tang Dynasty Television, both of which denies their connection with their parent organization, in addition to reporting regular news and articles supporting Falun Gong, also never reports anything positive about China. Negative aspects of Chinese news stories are always exaggerated and sometimes with portions faked, and debunked rumors about China, such as mass organ harvesting from Falun Gong members, are also always taken as fact. It also routinely run articles such as "Nine Commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party", which is a poorly written, poorly researched essay about how the CCP is completely evil throughout its entire history, and paparazzi style exposes on Chinese leader’s private lives.
It is very clear where Falun Gong’s political leanings with respect to China lies.
Although there may be some professional politicians who practice Falun Dafa, the system itself has no affiliation to any political party or government. Practitioners are encouraged to conduct themselves with “Truth-Compassion-Tolerance” in all situations. The goal is to become enlightened to the truth of human life and to cultivate to higher levels. The focus is on an individual’s self-examination and self-improvement rather than the development of an organization or a group. Last years peaceful demonstration by about 10,000 practitioners in Beijing was a perfect example of self-discipline and self-restraint qualities developed through the cultivation practice. It took place because the police in the nearby city of Tianjin used force to drive practitioners away from the offices of a youth magazine when they were calmly asking that an article containing false information be corrected. A number of people were arrested without any legal reason. The spontaneous, peaceful, and voluntary gat
