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Top leaders in China who have expressed their support
of qigong and EFHB study:
(1987)
Senior Politicians
Wan Li
ye Jianying
Wang Zhen
Per Zang
Pan Chong
Wang Penzhong
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Her Giaome, the standing member of the Party. Central Political
Bureau in charge of propaganda, said in a reported meeting in
1987 :
" We should mobilize every unit in our society to study
qigong science. I believe it is a very fundamental scientific
effect and absolutely not superstitions fiction. This is not
something about which one ' should not propagandize , or
make any comment', but a topic that needs great
efforts to publicize and facilitate its development to
serve the four modernizations. "
Note: The mines quotation is from the previously-referred- to
May 13, 1982 directive of Au Yaobang, the former Party
general secretary who had
that been
subsequently removed from power. His official statement
had been " The EFHB is not [ an officially accepted ] subject
for our scientific research . Before proof of The phenomena.
is firmly established , our media should not
propagandize or make any comment about any test
el experiment. "
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Zha-McConnell: 09-Jun-90
Parapsychology in the People's Republic of China
page 11
qigong departments. It is estimated that at least 20 million people in P.R.C., many of them well
educated, were practicing qigong in some form and at some level by the end of 1987 (Yi, 1987).
Foreign visitors were astonished to see that the qigong learners blocked parks, courtyards, and
CPYRGHT Gremall streets while doing their morning or evening exercises.
It is obvious that the qigong movement and the reappearance of EFHB news reports (usually in
relation to qigong practices) could not have occurred in this tightly controlled country without a
decision by the Party to change its earlier ruling. This was done informally. Instead of issuing a
new document, the instructions were given privately and gradually by some of the Party's senior
leaders.
It is widely believed that many leaders in the highest positions became interested in qigong and
convinced of the reality of EFHB. In the first phase there were many specially arranged psi
demonstrations, some privately performed, in an effort by some of the researchers to gain
governmental support. As time went on, it was found that a better way to obtain support was to
let qigong masters take care of the health of the leaders. Countless healing sessions were held,
and a wide variety of effects were demonstrated. Some leaders reportedly started to practice
qigong themselves. It was said, for instance, that Deng Xiaoping, the party and military head,
became interested in qigong and asked to watch the videotapes of a qigong master's therapeutic
lectures (see later). Other leaders showed their support publicly. Hu Qiaomu, the standing mem-
ber of the Party's Central Political Bureau in charge of propaganda, said in a reported meeting in
1987:
We should mobilize every unit in our society to study qigong science. I believe it is a very fundamen-
tal scientific effect and absolutely not superstitious fiction. This is not something about which one
"should not propagandize, or make any comment", but a topic that needs great efforts to publicize and
facilitate its development to serve the four modernizations [Li, 1988, p. 315].
This speech is clearly contrary to the former ruling and, though not mentioned, the inner quota-
tion is from the previously-referred-to May 13, 1982, directive of Hu Yaobang, the former Party
general secretary who had been subsequently removed from power. Other top leaders who ex-
pressed their support of qigong and of EFHB study were Wan Li, Ye Jianying, Wang Zhen, Pen
Zeng, Pen Chong, and Wang Renzhong, almost all of them senior politicians. As final evidence
of the acceptability of qigong and psi research, the application presented seven years earlier by
the preliminary committee under the translated name "Chinese Human-Body Science Associa-
tion" (and "China Anthropic Science Association") was finally approved on May 3, 1987, under a
new officially-translated-name as-the"Chinese-Society-of-Somatic-Science" (CSSS). Mr. Zhang
Zhenhuan was elected as the CSSS's first president to honor his contributions, although he had
retired from his military commission by then. The NJ also resumed publishing research papers
explicitly on psi topics in 1987, though they are often qigong-related now. Thus, parapsychology
was officially accepted as a legitimate field of science in P.R.C.
An important change affecting the qigong movement occurred in 1987 when Dr. Qian Xuesen
was named chairman of the Chinese Science and Technology Association, the semi-governmental
commission that coordinates the nation's scientific research. Dr. Qian, although famous, had held
ho position outside the military before, but now he was granted the right to guide the nation's
science policy. He did not waste this opportunity and soon gave instructions urging the fur-
herance of somatic science. He is quoted as saying: "Chinese qigong is modern science and
technology -- high technology -- absolutely top technology" (Yi, 1987).
What caused Dr. Qian to offer so strong an endorsement? Aside from the prize-winning film
described in Phase II above, we do not know what may have been achieved by defense-related
Jeams such as ISME. It seems certain, however, that Dr. Qian was strongly impressed by the
results more recently reported in Academia Sinica's Shengwu Wuli Xuebao (Acta Biophysica
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Prof. Jim Shukuany of the Physics Department at Beijing Teacher's
College formally established , in The 1980' , a " Comprehensive Technology
Institute"
to do work in somatic science . It has gained
official suport from the Chinese National Science Foundation as well
as state, ministry, and commission levels,
according to a Chinese source in 1990-" Evidently the senior leaders
of China , now firmly in power , are favorable to the public study
of qigong and related EFHB.
It is assumed as a matter of course fin SKT, that paying
ability, as well as then
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09-Jun-90
page 1
Parapsychology in the People's Republic of China:
1979 - 1989
Leping Zha1 & Tron McConnell
ABSTRACT: The senior author, a graduate student of physics in the U.S.A., provides from his
personal involvement, an informal history of the parapsychology movement in the People's
Republic of China (P.R.C.) over the last decade. From 1979 to 1982, research into ESP (and PK)
among children swept through China. This research upon what was called "exceptional functions
of the human body" (EFHB), gave rise to a sizable literature and to commitments, pro and con,
among scientists. Two protagonists emerged to carry the battle to the highest political forum.
The opponent of EFHB was an eminent social scientist and vice-chairman of the Chinese
Academy of Science. The proponent was a physicist regarded internationally as "the father of
Chinese space technology." After a public debate in the press, ending in a collaborative test of
the country's best-known psychics, the Communist Party ruled that both sides must cease public
discussion but that unsupported research could proceed quietly. From 1983 to 1986, interest
shifted to gifted adult psychics. Research was conducted partly at major universities but
primarily under defense-related auspices in Beijing, where gross PK effects were reported.
Meanwhile, privately circulated publications fanned civilian research interest in parapsychology
under the ancient rubrics of "qigong" and "Traditional Chinese Medicine." In 1987 a set of
seminal PK experiments was reported in the Acta Biophysica Sinica from Qinghua University.
From 1987 to 1989 interest in qigong grew until, according to news reports, there were 20 million
participants, including top leaders of the Communist Party. Restraints on research were quietly
lifted. Official approval was granted to a "China Society of Somatic Science" for the study of
EFHB. The space scientist mentioned earlier was made responsible for coordinating all of
Chinese science. The favoring of parapsychology has apparently persisted despite the Beijing
events of the Spring of 1989. Meanwhile, a divergence of the popular qigong movement and
scientific EFHB research has begun. The greater prevalence and strength of psi effects reported
from the P.R.C., as compared to laboratory experience in the West, raises a question as to the role
of the West's Cartesian cultural heritage in determining empirical reality.
1In accordance with Chinese custom, Chinese family names precede given names in this paper except in the
author's by-line, where the U.S.A. custom of family-name-last is followed to facilitate indexing.
Mr. Zha is currently studying for a doctoral degree in physics at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He
received a B.S. in physics from Wuhan University in P. R. China in 1982 and an M.S. from the University of Pittsburgh
in 1988. Between 1979 and 1986 he participated in parapsychological research activities at Wuhan University, Beijing
Teachers College, and elsewhere.
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Official reaction
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(U) "Research into humay paranormal abilities was given a bad name
following the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee .
as of 1982 there were still some papers lashing out against it on
The front pages . Although there have been some changes , to this
day it has not yet been set right. Therefore , in the eyes of
many people it is connected to ' magic' and sorcery '
=
Comrade Qian Quelin has repeatedly pointed out that ' research
in somalie science may lead to a new scientific revolution
in the 21st century,' It ' may also be a greater scientific revolution
than those of quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity
in the 20th century :
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