Falun Gong or Falun Dafa is a spiritual practice introduced to the public in China by Li Hongzhi （李洪志） in 1992. According to China scholar David Ownby, Falun Gong developed as part of the the wider "qigong boom" of the 1990's, and understands itself in terms of a centuries-old tradition of cultivation practice (修煉 xiūliàn). Ownby, David, "A History for Falun Gong: Popular Religion and the Chinese State Since the Ming Dynasty", Nova Religio, Vol. ,pp. 223-243 It has five sets of meditation exercises and seeks to develop practitioners' hearts and character according to the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance (真，善，忍）articulated in the main books Falun Gong（法輪功）and Zhuan Falun（轉法輪）. The teachings deal with issues such as "cultivation of virtue and character", "moral standards for different levels", and "salvation of all sentient beings." The books have been translated into over 40 languages.

The exact number of practitioners is not known: a 1998 figure from the Chinese government suggests there were 70 million practitioners in China at that time; Falun Gong claims 100 million practitioners in more than 80 countries. blank">"Answers to Commonly Asked Questions about Falun Gong", Falun Dafa Clearwisdom.net, retrieved June 10, 2006

On July 20, _1999, 3 months after 10,000 practitioners staged a silent protest at the Chinese Communist Party headquarters at Zhongnanhai the authorities banned and began a crackdown on Falun Gong in mainland China. Xinhua, blank">China Bans Falun Gong, _People's Daily, July 22, 1999 In the attempt to eradicate the practice , practitioners have been publicly vilified by state media, fired from their jobs, and subject to widespread torture in custody, beatings, illegal imprisonment, psychiatric abuses, and forced labor terms. Amnesty International believes it is politically motivated and a restriction of fundamental freedoms. In early 2006, David Kilgour and David Matas published a report, based on circumstantial evidence, that concluded that the authorities had been systematically harvesting the organs of living practitioners. Though their methods of investigation have been questioned in a Congressional Research Service report and by some journalists, and the report rejected by the Chinese government, the authors maintain their conclusion. CRS Report for Congress (August 11, 2006)blank">"China and Falun Gong", _Congressional Research Service, retrieved November 12, 2007 Brian Abeda, How Falun Gong Reached the Media Over Organ Harvesting, Embassy, July 12 2006, accessed 31/12/07.