[5] After a warrant for the arrest of leader Zhang Hongbao was issued, he fled to the United States and applied for political asylum—he gained Protective resident status in U.S. on 13 June 2001.
In the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations, Zhang Hongbao retreated to a remote base area in Sichuan, where he reorganised his followers as employees of a web of private enterprises owned by a parent firm, the Qilin Group.
Political scientist Patricia M. Thornton at the University of Oxford lists Zhong Gong as an example of a cybersect, due to the group's reliance on the internet for text distribution, recruitment and information-sharing among adherents.
[7] Palmer, citing Ji Yi, said Zhang developed a style of Qigong which was based on automation, physics, relativity, bionics, and with distinctive use of mechanical engineering jargon,[8] and founded Zhong Gong in 1987, launching it on the auspicious date of 8 August 1987.
[8] Zhong Gong is based on the "qilin culture" (麒麟文化), created by Zhang in 1987 which, as he claimed in 2000, is "an obvious challenge to Marxism and the CCP's one-party rule".
In 1992, based on the ancient theories of yin and yang, Zhang extrapolated his universal law of motion according to which all objects or matter can subdivide into 'Yin' or 'Yang', predicting anything or act which contravened it would bring eventual disaster.
[10] Zhang Hongbao's had two organisations which formed the foundation of what eventually became an "impressive set of interlocked enterprises, the engine of which was a Qigong practice" according to Patricia Thornton.
Unlike other qigong schools, which emphasised mastery of sitting meditation, movements, and inner alchemy, Zhong Gong geared its workshops around the acquisition of specific skills.
[11] Zhong Gong drew a large number of staunch believers across China, elaborating a highly organised structure that led Chinese Communist Party authorities to suspect it may turn into an opposing political force.