Since then, hundreds of practitioners have been arrested and detained in China, and at least 15 deaths have been reported while the practitioners were in police custody. President Clinton admonished Chinese President Jiang Zemin about persecution of Falun Gong members in September, but Jiang insisted that China does not repress religion, only illegal cults. Xu, one of 100 million who practice Falun Gong worldwide, said she was not trying to make a political statement with her use of Falun Gong, but was simply searching for a cure for her many illnesses. They had given me no hope. But it has been two years since I began practicing, and I no longer suffer from high blood pressure, heart problems, painful joints, and the lump in the back of my neck is gone.
Practitioners claim the exercises and meditation eliminate illness and create peace of mind.
Falun Gong, a combination of five exercises and a philosophy which espouses truthfulness, compassion and tolerance, is considered a threat to communist rule in China, where it originated. When Xu first began practicing outside with a group from Eastern China University of Science and Technology near her home, the government had not yet cracked down on it. What followed were months of surveillance, where police would enter her home, search it and stay all day. That was because they thought I might try to escape. When she confronted a policeman who was beating a practitioner in the streets, she too was beaten by the officer, thrown in the back of a truck and taken to a detention center.