On the evening of April 25, about 80 Falun Gong practitioners in Los Angeles gathered in front of the Chinese Consulate to commemorate the eighth anniversary of the "April 25" peaceful appeal. The practitioners lit candles to remember those fellow practitioners who have died in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s eight year-persecution of Falun Gong and to call for an end of this brutal persecution. They also showed support for renowned human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng.
On April 25, 1999, more than 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners peacefully gathered outside Beijing's Zhongnanhai compound (China's State Department Appeals Office) and successfully appealed for the release of 45 practitioners who had been illegally arrested in Tianjin City.
In response, then-Communist Party chief Jiang Zemin and his gang spent the next three months devising a plot to eliminate Falun Gong.
They first set up the 610 Office (a Gestapo-like organization set up specifically to identify and arrest every single Falun Gong practitioner) dedicated to the persecution of Falun Gong, on June 10, 1999. They then initiated a nationwide comprehensive persecution of Falun Gong, which began on July 20, 1999.
(Falun Gong is a traditional Chinese meditation and exercise practice. When the number of people practicing exceeded Communist Part membership, a certain faction with the Party leadership decided to ban the practice, which the Party had previously promoted for its health benefits.)
CCP Uses State-Run Media to Attack Falun Gong
The communist regime justified this pogrom through a worldwide campaign of propaganda a disinformation.
All media in China, and the majority of Chinese-language media around the world, are controlled by the CCP. The CCP began using its state-run media to vilify Falun Gong, making false accusations aimed at swaying the general public to think badly of the practice and practitioners.
Simultaneously, CCP consular officials around the world began sending packages of disinformation to governments around the world, trying to disguise the CCP's genocidal policies as efforts to maintain stability.
Falun Gong Supporters Work to Dispel CCP Propaganda
Over the last eight years, in order to explain the facts, disprove the disinformation and dispel the apathy that Jiang and his regime have sown the hearts of the world's citizens, Falun Gong practitioners have continued to tell the truth to the world's people and to expose the CCP's lies. An important part of this effort telling people what really happened at the "April 25 Appeal," and explaining why this was a significant event.
Thinking back to the April 25 Appeal eight years ago, one practitioner at the gathering said, "In the past eight years, over 3,000 people have tortured and persecuted to death, but they had not flinched or wavered. Therefore, the date of 25 April 1999 is regarded as the historical beginning of Falun Gong's peaceful protest against the Chinese communist regime."
"During these years overseas practitioners have been utilizing all possible channels to condemn the Chinese communist regime's brutality and clarify the truth of the persecution. They continue their efforts to establish an environment where practitioners can have freedom of belief in mainland China."
(The actual death toll of Falun Gong practitioners in labor camps and detention and brainwashing centers is unknown—tens of thousands have simply "disappeared." However, human rights groups and Falun Gong practitioners have complied a list of three thousand people who have verifiably been tortured to death in Chinese Communist prisons for practicing Falun Gong.)
Another practitioner said, "Many mainland citizens, especially those who were university students in 1977 and 1978—the years after Deng Xiaoping's reform and openness policy—have false hopes about the CCP. When I arrived in the United States in 1989, I followed the development of the student democracy movement through American news broadcast. I saw the photographs and the video footage of the CCP using tanks and machine guns against those students in the June Fourth Massacre. Since then, I have completely given up on the CCP."
Chinese dissidents Wu Fan and Liu Yinquan attended the event to express support.
Liu Yinquan said that the CCP flaunts itself as "the People's Government," yet it does not grant the Chinese people the freedom of religious belief as the Chinese Constitution declares: "Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief."
Gao Zhisheng: Persecuted by the CCP for Defending Falun Gong
Some attendees discussed the grave situation of internationally respected Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng.
Gao dared to represent Falun Gong practitioners, house church Christians, and other "undesirable" clients in cases against the communist regime. In response, the CCP has harassed and arrested him, arrested various members of his family, attacked his wife and thirteen-year-old daughter, and put him and his family under 'round-the-clock surveillance.
Ultimately, however, Gao was released from prison and instead given three years' house arrest.
Wu Fan said, "Gao could have been severely punished, so why was he only sentenced three years? This clearly shows that the Chinese regime doesn't dare to do that. Doesn't it talk about a harmonious society? Where is there harmony? It contradicts itself."
One attendee said, "I believe that it requires more courage for people to step forward in the early stages because they will receive the heaviest blow—The loftiest trees most dread the thunder ( Chinese proverb. ) It is praiseworthy for Gao Zhisheng who, in spite of many difficulties and obstacles, has the courage to remain in China. Urged on by Gao, many attorneys with consciences have come out boldly to defend the powerless groups. Their willingness to speak out is hope for China's future."
Additional reporting by James Fish.
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