Originally Posted by cindy6

Yes FLG is a cult. But they did not get into trouble because of their wacky belief as they'd been around for a while. Somebody did an expose on a paper saying how wacky they were, and they retaliated by encircling the ZhongNanHai (that's White House and Capitol Hill rolled into one). So they were seen as a political challenge to the rule of the CCP.

Contrary to popular belief, China doesn't persecute religion. But the Chinese state has always persecuted religious organizations mercilessly since antiquity. And throughout our history, these organizations eventually were not content with simply leading the flock and mounted political rebellions. So the CCP was basically trying to take care of the risk at the onset.