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Zha-McConneU: 09-jun-90 Parapsychology in the People's Republic of China page I
qigong departments. It is estimated that at least 20 million people in P.R.C., many of them wen
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
mynall. 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 q1gong 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).
'Ibis 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
ng, 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, 19,~7, under a
new -officially- translated- name as-the -!'Chinese- Society-of-Somatic-Science" (CSSS).- Mr. Zhang
enhuan was elected as the CSSS's first president to hdp'or his contributions, although he had
,*etired from his military commission by then. The NJ alsb resumed publishing research papers
,xplicitly on psi topics in 1987, though they are often qigong-related now. Thus, parapsychology
ovas officially acce field of s e in P.R.C.
pted as alegitimate cienc
An important change affecting the qigong movement occurred in 1987 when Dr. Qian Xuesen
as named.chairman of the Chinese Science and Technology Association, the serni-governmental
;ommission that coordinates the nation's scientific research. Dr. Qian, although famous, had held
lo position outside the military before, but now he was granted the right to guide the nation's
;cience 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 modem science and
echnology--high technology--absolutely top technology" (Yi, 1987).
What caused Dr. Qian to offer so strong an endorsement? Aside from the prize-winning film
lescribed in Phase II above, we do not know what may have been achieved by defense-related
eams such as ISME. It seems certain, however, that Dr. Qian was strongly impressed by the
rsults more recently reported in Academia Sinica's Shengwu Wuli Xuebao (Acta Biophysica
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 W-Jun-90
 L094,n-90 _~'
 page I
             Parapsychology in the People's Republic of China:
                                 1979-1989
 Leping Zhal & 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 thelpres~s, ending in a collaborative test of
 the country's best-known psychics, the Communist Party ruled that-bodi sides must cease public
 discussion but that unsupported research could proceed quietly. ~rorn 198~ _tq 1986, interest
 shifted to gifted adult psychics. Research was conducted partly at major universities but
 primarily u 'nder defense-related auspices in Beijing, where gross PK effects were.reported.
 Meanwhile, privately circulated publications farmed 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 a0phrently persisted despite the Beijing
 events of the Spring of 1989. Meanwhile, a divergencebf the popular qigong movement and
 scientific EFHB research has begun. The greater prevalence and strengt1k of psi effects reported
 from the P.R.C., as compared tb laboratory experience in the W7eif,__ra'ise__s_ i-quiestfoin -ist-o t-h- e- role
 of the West's Cartesian cultural heritage in determining empirical reality.
      'In accordance with Chinese custom Chinese family names precede given names in this paper except in the
 author's by-line, where the U.SA. custom of family-narne-last is followed to facilitate indexing.
      Mr. 2ha 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. firom 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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