Originally Posted by mikado

Thanks GoChina and pug_ster for replying. I've heard Falun Gong described as a cult, but i know very little about it. I read a while back that the authorities originally tolerated Falun Gong, but turned against it when Falun Gong started mobilising large numbers of people to protest certain issues. The implication of course is that the CCP could not tolerate any challenge to their authority. This was the view of an Anerican journalist who spent many years in Beijing - perhaps your view would be different?

Anyway, that was an interesting article you linked to pug_star. If I understand it right, the HRW article was not criticising Falun Gong, it was criticising the Chinese authorities, in particular psychiatrists empoyed by the state to assess perceived troublemakers. The suggestion was that the psychiatrists only consider two options - "guilty" or "insane" - and did not consider the possibility that the person was both sane and acting reasonably. Here's the Introduction to the report:

Dangerous Minds

The report paints a rather sinister picture of a state where mental health provisions are used to lock up perceived troublemakers. Still, as you said, HRW is far from "pro-China".