FLUSHING, N.Y.—Brass horns, bright banners, and bustling dragon and lion dance troupes formed part of an hour-long parade on Flushing’s Main Street on the afternoon of April 23.
Pedestrians on the busy sidewalks paused and peered at the banners. “Falun Dafa is good,” one read. “Bring Jiang Zemin to justice,” another read. Passersby whipped out smartphones to snap videos and photos of the passing military band, colorful floats, and cheery ladies beating on Chinese waist drums.
The parade was held by about 1,000 New York-based practitioners of Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, a traditional Chinese spiritual discipline that is currently suppressed by the Chinese regime. The parade marked the anniversary of a peaceful appeal by practitioners in China nearly 18 years ago.
On April 25, 1999, 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered in Beijing to petition the Chinese authorities to restore the safe and legal environment they had enjoyed for the previous seven years.
Jiang Zemin, then leader of the Chinese Communist Party, chose to interpret the peaceful appeal as a challenge to the Chinese regime. Three months later, he launched a persecution campaign against Falun Gong, which remains arguably the most severe human rights issue in China today.
But “Falun Gong was never anything bad toward China,” said parade participant Sterling Campbell. “It was always about rising to spiritual enlightenment, which is the basis of Chinese culture.”
