[wtrk]

The Soviet regime ran a large system of forced labor camps. China currently runs a large system of forced labor camps. Horrible human rights violations occurred under the Soviet system and are currently occurring in China.

Here's a recent, quite representative, example of the sort of thing that can happen to someone in China:

"Chinese teacher sent to labour camp for earthquake photos" http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/30/chinaearthquake....

Excerpt:

  A Chinese teacher has been sent to a labour camp over his   
  internet photographs of schools that collapsed in the 
  Sichuan earthquake, a rights group said today.

  Liu Shaokun was ordered to serve a year of "re-education   
  through labour", according to Human Rights in China. The 
  system does not require a formal charge or criminal trial 
  and there is no appeal.

[cglee]

This quote doesn't capture the main reason for his jailing. When looking at superficial reasons, it seems unrelated (taking a photo, reading a book, eating ice cream, joining a religion, etc), but the root reason is "causing social unrest". He was taking pictures to expose possible government corruption in the building of the school. This would have caused people to protest and blame the local government for the students' deaths.

Likewise with Falun Gong. Suppressing religion isn't the end goal. It's the fear of someone having influence over a large number of people, and thereby possibly causing social unrest.

Don't read this as a defense of the Chinese government. I'm just trying to clarify the quote to prevent the "how can they jail someone for THAT?" response.