Falun Gong grew through the 1990s largely through informal networks and free public exercise sessions, without the temple, clergy or fixed congregational structure of an established religion, which made its scale difficult for Chinese authorities to measure or control through the mechanisms used for registered religious bodies.
Tension had been building through the decade between Falun Gong practitioners and local authorities and state media over increasingly critical coverage, and matters came to a head on 25 April 1999, when an estimated ten thousand or more practitioners gathered silently outside the Zhongnanhai central government compound in Beijing, an unusually large and disciplined demonstration that unsettled Communist Party leadership. Less than three months later, on 20 July 1999, the government moved from surveillance to open suppression, banning Falun Gong outright, arresting practitioners nationwide and beginning a propaganda campaign in state media that framed the movement as a dangerous, foreign-manipulated cult.