The Chicago Chinatown annual parade in celebration of the year of horse on February 17 rejected Falun Gong to participate. According to Stephen Quan, president of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, Falun Gong is a political movement. The parade should not be involved in politics. "We don't want to be involved in China's politics. We are only involved in American politics. We are all Americans here," said Quan. Falun Gong on Falun Dafa (Great Law of Wheel) is a combination of qigong, mediation, and religion, as claimed by the founder, Mr. Li Hongzhi who is in exile in the United States. Some of his teaching are mystical, such as "The practitioners of Falun Dafa are forbidden to consult doctors;" "I will stage a marvelous spectacle by bringing all my disciples to physically fly into the sky;" and "I can look after as many people as I want to - even the entire human race."
After a massive protest by Falun Gong members, some 10,000 of them, surrounded Zhongnanhai, the Chinese leadership's compound of April 15, 1999, and other protests which followed, the Chinese government has outlawed Falun Gong and banned it from holding gatherings that would upset social stability in China.