[Practitioner]

Falun Dafa is a personal cultivation or self-improvement discipline. Whether a person works in government is not relevant. Anyone can practice and benefit.

For years many people in China practiced Falun Gong of their own volition and they held positions in the CCP Politbureau, the government at different levels, the military, etc. There was no conflict with the CCP until a few leaders within the CCP felt that Falun Gong had become too popular, that too many people were practicing. A small group of corrupt officials in particular didn't like Falun Gong because it espouses truthfulness, compassion, tolerance (i.e., not stealing), and it unwittingly threatened their way of doing business. The CCP (Jiang Zemin in particular) made a big campaign out of banning the practice of Falun Gong, and this became a show of force to the people and a self-imposed ultimatum that unfortunately the Chinese gov't. has not been able to back out of yet. I have spoken with police and officials inside China, and they themselves admit that Falun Gong is good, that it's peaceful and that it doesn't conflict with the government, even though the communist movement in China tried to stamp out traditional Chinese culture and traditions. The whole country was threatened and forced to go along with it.

The persecution of people who practice Falun Gong has gone on for 10 years now, and it is one of the largest and worst crimes against humanity. It has largely gone unreported due to the CCP having a monopoly on information that circulates from the mainland. Falun Gong practitioners have made all sorts of peaceful efforts to appeal against and expose the persecution. They then get accused of being "political," which is a broad label the CCP likes to put on groups they want to punish. The truth is, the CCP abused its power and created this artificial persecution to assert themselves. It's like another chapter of the cultural revolution.