A lot of pressure is put on local officials to wipe out the Falun Gong in their areas. Oppression is one of the ways they do that. The Chinese government stamped out the student uprising of 1989 in close to two months. Meanwhile, the Falun Gong protests have gone on nearly two years since the religious group was banned. It's an interesting question.
People really believe in it.
They're committed to it in the same way as when I was in civil rights movement and police beat and killed civil rights leaders. Nowadays, there's more outrage and willingness to remain engaged in China against the government. A lot of people don't support the government, and a lot of people in the party don't support Jiang Zemin, who's been using the crackdown to mobilize his support. This is the longest sustained resistance in the 50-year history of the People's Republic of China. People really believe they're being wronged, that they're being mistreated.