Over 200 Falun Gong practitioners gathered in front of the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles for a candlelight vigil Sunday evening, commemorating the peaceful appeal of over 10,000 practitioners to Beijing for their legal rights to continue the spiritual practice in China in 1999.
The event on April 23 also calls for an end to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) 24 years of persecution of Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa.
Wearing yellow shirts printed with “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance”—the core principles of the spiritual practice—attendees sat in rows, quietly holding candles and portraits of those who lost their lives in the persecution. Others held banners that read “Reject CCP,” “China: Stop Murdering for Organs,” and “Stop Persecution of Falun Gong in China.”
“Today we stand here just like 24 years ago, telling people the truth [of the persecution] and the beauty of Falun Dafa with the same calmness, peacefulness, and kindness,” said Youfu Li, president of the U.S. Southwest Falun Dafa Association.
“The calmness, peacefulness, and kindness that those 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners displayed are truly remarkable in today’s chaotic society. It’s a rare scene,” he added.
Former CCP Chairman Jiang Zemin, who died last November, launched a nationwide persecution against Falun Gong in July 1999, which is still ongoing in today’s China. The April appeal earlier that year was to stop the harassment of practitioners already started at the time in various regions of China.
Li also praised the courage of Falun Gong practitioners in China, who stand at the forefront against the CCP’s oppression.
“Tens of millions of [Falun Gong] practitioners have wakened up countless people, allowing them to see the evilness of the Chinese Communist Party, thereby setting a foundation for universal values [to thrive in society],” he said.
Xiaohua Yan, at the time a doctoral student at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, recalled her experience at the appeal 24 years ago. The line outside of the central government building was so long that one could not see the end of it, she said, and many police officers were guarding the site.
“But the entire rally was enveloped in a harmonious atmosphere, and even the police on site were moved by the peacefulness and rationality of the Falun Gong practitioners,” she said. “Some police even started chatting with us.”
Yingnian Wu, a professor at the University of California–Los Angeles and a practitioner, said that the appeal was to stop the suppression of the spiritual practice and was never political. The annual rallies in Los Angeles were the same, he said.
“We have come here every year for 24 years already and have always done it in a peaceful and non-violent way,” he said.
Michael Ye, host of the vigil and a professor of public policy at the University of Southern California, said that the appeal took place because of the absence of freedom of belief and religion under the communist regime.
“We truly hope that all the Chinese people and all the counties and governments around the world can see through the lies of the CCP and resist this brutal persecution that lasted 24 years too long,” Ye said.
Rui Tang, a practitioner who came to the United States four years ago, said her father, who still lives in China, was sentenced this February to four and a half years in prison because of practicing Falun Gong. Another practitioner that got arrested at the same time was sentenced to eight years with about $15,000 in fines.
“We firmly protest the illegal arrest, sentencing, and persecution of my father, and we demand the release of him and all the fellow Falun Gong practitioners that were illegally detained,” she said.
Among those who attended the event in support of Falun Gong is Jianbin Huang, vice president of the Chinese Democratic Party Los Angeles Division.
“The Falun Gong that I came to know truly teaches people to gain a healthier body and raise moral standards,” Huang said. “There are many top intellectuals that are well-educated and have strong mental faculties—like university professors, doctors, and elites from all walks of life—that practice Falun Dafa. They all benefit from the practice.”
Huang said the CCP controls the media and uses it as “a tool to spread its propaganda and fake news against Falun Gong out of fear [of its popularity].”
“The CCP itself is a cult that abuses its power to slander good people. …,” he added. “This is an act of crime and political persecution that severely violates human rights.”
When the persecution first began, around 70 to 100 million people were practicing in China, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center.
According to incomplete statistics by Minghui.org, a U.S.-based website reporting on the persecution of Falun Gong in China, over 116 practitioners have been put in prison this March alone, and among them, 25 people were killed during the process. In 2022, over 7,000 practitioners were arrested or harassed. Since 1999, at least 4,900 practitioners have been persecuted to death.
