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The Chinese government does not need or want a "Taiping Rebellion" equivalent to that of the infamous Hong Xiuquan -- which was the largest war in human history

The Chinese government does not need or want a "Taiping Rebellion" equivalent to that of the infamous Hong Xiuquan -- which was the largest war in human history in terms of casualties and destruction. So to them, Falun Gong and it's leader represent that kind of threat, once it reached tens of millions in size. That is orders of magnitude larger than the student protests in Tiananmen, and that was brutally suppressed. Totalitarian regimes are going to be just that, brutal/monsterous and unforgiving.

Apocryphon 8y ago
The Taiping movement sprung up during the failing days of the Qing when governance was declining and life for the common people worsened, so maybe the PRC government should focus on fixing that first before torturing dissidents
- Pharmakon 8y ago
  Making life better for hundreds of millions of people is a very hard problem. Crushing dissent with terror and violence by contrast is relatively simple. It’s no wonder that tyrants tend to the latter and only the former as it impacts their greatest sources of support. In other words, Kim Jong-Un only worries about the population of Pyongyang elites, especially the military, and feels free to let the rest starve or rot in a camp.
- Laforet 8y ago
  The rise of Falun Gong was well correlated to a period of economic uncertainty in the late 90s, especially in the Manchurian rust belt cities where neoliberal reforms lead to massive unemployment and poverty. While the allegation of torture and organ harvesting are substantive, these acts were in no way targeted at FG followers or political prisoners in general. And FG's attempt at monopolizing such victimhood only comes off as disingenious. Nowadays FG is very much a shadow of its former glory these days in China thanks to both supression efforts as well as improved economic prospects. Its influence has aged much better outside China because the Chinese diaspora's world view is more or less stuck in the 1990s, like it was the end of history according to Francis Fukuyama.

Apocryphon 8y ago

The Taiping movement sprung up during the failing days of the Qing when governance was declining and life for the common people worsened, so maybe the PRC government should focus on fixing that first before torturing dissidents

Pharmakon 8y ago
Making life better for hundreds of millions of people is a very hard problem. Crushing dissent with terror and violence by contrast is relatively simple. It’s no wonder that tyrants tend to the latter and only the former as it impacts their greatest sources of support. In other words, Kim Jong-Un only worries about the population of Pyongyang elites, especially the military, and feels free to let the rest starve or rot in a camp.
Laforet 8y ago
The rise of Falun Gong was well correlated to a period of economic uncertainty in the late 90s, especially in the Manchurian rust belt cities where neoliberal reforms lead to massive unemployment and poverty. While the allegation of torture and organ harvesting are substantive, these acts were in no way targeted at FG followers or political prisoners in general. And FG's attempt at monopolizing such victimhood only comes off as disingenious. Nowadays FG is very much a shadow of its former glory these days in China thanks to both supression efforts as well as improved economic prospects. Its influence has aged much better outside China because the Chinese diaspora's world view is more or less stuck in the 1990s, like it was the end of history according to Francis Fukuyama.