Published on July 20th 2005, on Croatian website www.tportal.hr
(Clearwisdom.net)
Falun Gong is an ancient Eastern practice, which improves mind and body. The
slow and peaceful exercises include meditation and improvement of the mind.
Falun Gong is based on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance.
To assure physical and mental improvement from the exercises, one must at the
same time cultivate the heart. This includes being truthful, good and tolerant
towards others, always thinking of others first, letting go of selfishness and
much more.
From the day it took power in China up until today, the Chinese Communist Party
has suppressed and persecuted adherents of many religions, as well as
intellectuals, dissidents, and often their own CCP contemporaries. Since
Communism disappeared in Eastern Europe and the bloody student demonstration in
Beijing in 1989, the CCP has been in constant fear that someone will overthrow
their monopoly of power, ideology and absolute control of the media.
In the eyes of the former head of the CCP and Chinese President Jiang Zemin, the greatest threat was the popularity and respect that Falun Gong held among the Chinese population. He worried that the greatest danger and challenge to the CCP's power was the high ethical principles, which are the mainstay of Falun Gong.
Once the number of Falun Gong practitioners reached between seventy and one hundred million and had become larger than the CCP membership, Jiang Zemin began his brutal persecution of these peaceful people.
Originally published in German at http://www.clearharmony.de/articles/200508/25679.html