On April 25, 1999, 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners a made peaceful appeal at the National Appeals Bureau near Zhongnanhai, the Chinese Government’s leadership compound.
At that time, Falun Gong adherents all over mainland China had been harassed by local police for practicing their exercises in parks. Officially controlled TV stations, newspaper, and magazines published false reports on Falun Gong, and Tianjin police illegally arrested and beat practitioners, yet local governments turned a deaf ear to their appeals.
Hoping to appeal to government officials, Falun Gong practitioners went to the National Appeal Bureau to make three requests: release the 40 Falun Gong practitioners illegally detained in nearby Tianjin, allow for the publishing of Falun Gong books, and an open environment for Falun Gong adherents to freely practice their exercises.
China’s then Premier, Zhu Rongji, met with Falun Gong representatives that morning, and had handled their issues appropriately. Known as the “4.25 Appeal” this peaceful resolution won admiration throughout the world. However, out of jealousy, Jiang Zemin, the then General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), spent the next three months planning a full-scale crackdown on Falun Gong.
Jiang Zemin, Luo Gan and Zhou Yongkang distorted the “4.25 Appeal” as a siege of the Chinese government, and used this as the reason for banning the practice. On June 10, 1999, the “610” office was established specifically to eradicate Falun Gong. On July 20 of the same year, a full-scale persecution on Falun Gong began across mainland China.
With experience accumulated through several decades of various political movements, Jiang’s gang brainwashed people with propaganda demonizing Falun Gong, and carried out a systematic persecution of the practice.
Since then, over 50 million Chinese people have recognized the true nature of the CCP, openly declaring their withdrawals from the CCP and its affiliated organizations. Through the persecution of Falun Gong, Jiang opposed over 100 million Falun Gong practitioners and their families and friends.
Not only did the CCP’s crackdown fail to eradicate Falun Gong but it inadvertently helped the practice spread across the world. Falun Gong had spread to over 30 countries and regions by 1999, and now practitioners can be found in over 80 countries.
Read original article in Chinese.
