February 9, 2006 Forbes But paranoia hit when a CCP investigation in the late 1990s estimated that the fast-growing Falun Gong movement had between 70 million and 100 million followers across the country; the CCP itself has only 63 million members. So in July 1999–a few months after a peaceful protest in Beijing by Falun Gong followers–the CCP rounded up the movement’s figureheads throughout the country and began its bloody persecution.