SAN FRANCISCO—More than 300 Falun Gong practitioners and supporters rallied at Harry Bridges Plaza in San Francisco on July 15, followed by a grand parade through the city, all to commemorate the upcoming date of July 20 which marks 24 years of anti-persecution efforts in China.
On July 20, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched its persecution campaign against Falun Gong. The spiritual practice, also known as Falun Dafa, is based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance and teaches a set of slow-moving meditative exercises. By 1999, the practice had spread by word of mouth to reach an estimated 70 million to 100 million adherents in mainland China.
