The founder of Falun Gong, Li Hongzhi, has received a large amount of greetings from people in mainland China over Chinese New Year, the most important holiday for Chinese families. Li brought the ancient spiritual practice of Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, to the public in 1992. It helps relieve stress and increase energy with five slow-moving exercises and moral teachings based on the principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance. Its following in China grew to 70 to 100 million people by 1999. Then the Chinese regime, deeming the practice’s popularity a threat, launched a nationwide persecution campaign to eradicate it. Despite the regime’s ongoing persecution, members of the Chinese public wished Li a happy Chinese New Year on Feb. 1. Because of the persecution, they are only identified by their surnames. A woman in her 60s, surnamed Zhao, from the city of Yongzhou in central China’s Hunan …