Noakes, StephenFord, CaylanTrepanier, Lee2020-12-072020-12-072020-6-15In Eric Voegelin's Asian Political Thought. Editors: Trepanier, Lee. Lexington Books, Langham, Maryland, USA 15 Jun 202097814985986131498598617https://hdl.handle.net/2292/53738While most analyses of China’s campaign against the Falun Gong religious movement focus on the institutional reasons underpinning the July 1999 crackdown, we explore the moral reasoning behind the state’s actions. Applying a framework initially developed by Austrian thinker Eric Voegelin, we argue that Falun Gong invoked the ire of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on account of its theistic philosophy, which focused on transcendence of the secular world as the ultimate and highest purpose of human existence, and which is inherently in tension with the “gnosticism” of the CCP. We then employ this notion of binary moral systems to explore in greater detail two rival understandings of social progress, as well as the Party’s responses to the moral basis of Falun Gong.Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. Previously published items are made available in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher.https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htmBook Item2020-11-17Copyright: Lexington Bookshttp://purl.org/eprint/accessRights/OpenAccess