European Falun Gong Practitioners Mark 25 Years of CCP Persecution With London March

An asylum seeker who was a prisoner of conscience in China for a total of 10 years over the spiritual practice told the crowd how he had been tortured.

Falun Gong practitioners from Europe marking 25 years of CCP persecution at an event at Trafalgar Square, central London, on July 20, 2024. Yanning Qi/The Epoch Times

Hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners from across Europe marched in central London on July 20 to highlight the Chinese Communist Party’s ongoing persecution that has lasted for 25 years.

One practitioner attending the event, who’s seeking asylum in the UK, told the crowd how he had been tortured in a Chinese prison, while another called on British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to pressure Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leaders to release Falun Gong practitioners in China, including the practitioner’s own father.

Attendees of the event also heard statements from a number of MPs and peers, who expressed support for their freedom of belief and condemned the CCP’s human rights violations including forced organ harvesting.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice rooted in traditional Chinese beliefs in the divine. The practice includes moral teachings centered on the principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance, and a set of meditative exercises.

The practice quickly gained popularity in China after its introduction in 1992, with an estimated 70 million to 100 million people taking up the practice by the end of the decade. Deeming that popularity a threat to its authoritarian control, the communist regime unleashed a whole-of-society campaign aimed at eliminating the faith group.

According to Falun Dafa Infocenter, the persecution officially began on July 20, 1999, when practitioners across China were arrested in the middle of the night.

Two days later, the Ministry of Civil Affairs declared Falun Gong to be illegal, and the Ministry of Public Security banned followers from congregating, displaying signs of Falun Gong, promoting the practice, and appealing or protesting against the decree.

In a document banning CCP members from practicing Falun Gong, the party’s central committee said the practice “fundamentally contradicts” Marxist theory, which is atheistic or anti-theistic in nature.

The start of the suppression was also accompanied by an around-the-clock media campaign to discredit and demonise Falun Gong practitioners.

Tortured and Medically Screened

Speaking at the event in London, Tian Xin, a Chinese Falun Gong practitioner seeking asylum in the UK, said he was imprisoned for a total of 10 years over his beliefs.

According to Mr. Tian, he was first arrested on New Year’s Day in 2020 for displaying a banner in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, and police hung him by his wrists, secured behind his back with handcuffs, on a bunkbed for more than 10 hours, strangled him with his tie, and punched and kicked his face.

On other occasions, Mr. Tian was subject to various ways of torture, including beatings with electric batons, and forced labour, he said.

Falun Gong practitioner Tian Xin speaking at an event marking 25 years of CCP persecution at Trafalgar Square, central London, on July 20, 2024. Yanning Qi/The Epoch Times

Mr. Tian said he witnessed the torture and disappearance of other Falun Gong practitioners in prison. He also said he and other prisoners went though medical examinations of their blood and organs, including one time in 2003 when the exams were carried out in a military vehicle equipped with medical devices.

According to the findings of the China Tribunal, a people’s tribunal led by prominent judge and barrister Sir Geoffrey Nice, KC, the Chinese regime committed torture and crimes against humanity in the state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience. He said the victims were mainly Falun Gong practitioners, and that it had been carried out on a significant scale.

The tribunal also said members had “no doubt whatsoever” that physical acts had been carried out that are indicative of the crime of genocide, including three of the five actions listed in the Genocide Convention, but it stopped short of ruling that genocide had happened because they couldn’t separate the regime’s stated intention to destroy Falun Gong and the apparent intention to reap huge profit from selling practitioners’ organs.

Falun Gong practitioners meditating opposite the Chinese embassy at an event marking 25 years of CCP persecution, in central London, on July 20, 2024. Yanning Qi/The Epoch Times

Call on Government to Pressure the CCP

Another practitioner, Ding Lebin, who has been campaigning for the release of his father and previously for his mother, who has now been released, called on the British government to “condemn the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and strongly urge China to immediately end the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, while publicly condemning China’s state‑sanctioned forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience.”

Falun Gong practitioner Ding Lebin speaking at an event marking 25 years of CCP persecution at Trafalgar Square, central London, on July 20, 2024. Yanning Qi/The Epoch Times

Mr. Ding, who lives in Germany, also urged Sir Keir to take a range of actions, including condemning transnational repressions and espionage activities against Falun Gong practitioners, suspending extradition treaties with communist China, investigating forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience, and sanctioning individual perpetrators and entities that have contributed to this persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.