Page "Falun Gong" Paragraph 42

Following the ban of Falun Gong in 1999, Chinese authorities sought to portray Falun Gong as a hierarchical and well-funded organization.

James Tong writes that it was in the government's interest to portray Falun Gong as highly organized in order to justify its repression of the group: " The more organized the Falun Gong could be shown to be, then the more justified the regime's repression in the name of social order was.

" He concluded that Party's claims lacked " both internal and external substantiating evidence ", and that despite the arrests and scrutiny, the authorities never " credibly countered Falun Gong rebuttals ".