Why do you think the Chinese government made practicing Falun Gong illegal?
Falun Gong is perceived as a threat for several reasons, among them is the fact that its spiritual leader is somebody who the Chinese cannot control, who lives outside the country. That was an issue in the Chinese relationship with Catholics. Allegiance to the Pope was an issue, so the government created the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Church, or something like that. The things that scared the regime the most about Falun Gong: No. 1, a lot of party members joined Falun Gong, so there was this internal question of why so many people were looking outside the core teachings of the party for spiritual sustenance. No. 2 is that during a 1999 protest where they were trying to become registered as an approved civic organization — it hadn’t been outlawed yet — the Falun Gong, using cell phones, assembled a huge number of people outside the gates of where government officials lived without them knowing it was going to happen. These folks posed no threat whatsoever. They stood silently and didn’t
