NEW YORK CITY—Thousands of Falun Gong practitioners held a parade and rally in Flushing, New York, on April 19 to commemorate the anniversary of a key event in China and support the 440 million people who have quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The event in Queens comes ahead of April 25, a date 26 years ago upon which 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners turned out in a spontaneous peaceful appeal for the practice near the ruling party’s compound in Beijing.
The appeal to the regime to allow freedom to practice wasn’t heeded and on July 20, 1999, the CCP launched a violent persecution of Falun Gong practitioners overnight.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice that teaches the three principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance, as well as five meditative exercises. It was introduced to the public in the early 1990s and became widely popular through word of mouth, so much so that official state estimates put the number of practitioners in China at around one in every 13 people.
In response to the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong and propaganda about the practice, The Epoch Times published “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party” in Chinese in 2004 to help clear up the falsities spread about Falun Gong. It led to a global “Quit the CCP” movement and online portal where Chinese people quit the CCP and affiliated organizations, which now numbers more than 440 million.
“This is a sign that the Chinese nation is awakening and that the evil communist forces that have entrenched China are disintegrating. And this process is creating great history,” said Wang Zhiyuan, chair of the Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP and president of World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG), speaking at the April 19 rally in Flushing.
Organizers said more than 3,000 people attended the event.
At the rally, some Falun Gong practitioners who had participated in the historic April 25 appeal shared their stories, 27 people received certification of officially quitting the CCP, and human rights advocates gave speeches.
Rally speakers included Zhang Erping, spokesperson for the Falun Dafa Information Center; Martha Flores-Vazquez, New York State Assembly District Leader for Flushing; Jacqui Phillips, entrepreneur and international speaker; Wei Libin, New York director of the China Democracy and Human Rights Alliance; Ren Guoxian, a participant of the April 25 appeal; Zhang Guiying, an eyewitness to the events that led to the appeal; and An Qiang, who quit the CCP.
The rally was preceded by a parade that included a marching band, dragon dance team, Falun Gong practitioners demonstrating the practice’s meditative exercises, dozens of banners and flags, drum teams, and more. The Epoch Times, which has extensively covered human rights abuses in China, also participated in the parade.
What Happened on April 25?
On a sunny Sunday, April 25, 1999, more than 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners turned out in front of Beijing’s Zhongnanhai, where the regime’s senior leadership and State Council is seated.
The CCP has referred to the large-scale gathering as pretext for its whole-of-state persecution of Falun Gong, but Falun Gong practitioners say, and documentary evidence show, that the gathering had been an orderly and peaceful queue of people intending to make an official appeal.
Ren Guoxian, born and raised in Beijing, began practicing Falun Gong in 1998. At the time, large groups of Falun Gong practitioners would meditate together in public spaces like parks and squares across the city, Ren said during the rally.
But in 1999, “the atmosphere suddenly became tense,” Ren said. In March and April, there were reports of Falun Gong practitioners being harassed, and on April 24, “a vicious incident occurred in Tianjin, a city adjacent to Beijing, where police beat and illegally arrested more than 40 Falun Gong practitioners.”
Ren heard from Falun Gong practitioners she meditated with at a park that the police had told them that the only way to appeal the arrests was to “report the situation to the central government,” and practitioners suggested doing just that.
Ren said that, being aware of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, she was hesitant to get involved with the regime, but had reservations about doing nothing.
“I am also a Falun Gong practitioner. I have benefitted both physically and mentally from practicing Falun Dafa. It is as if I have been given a second life and have escaped the desperate situation caused by illness. If I were arrested for no reason, would I also hope that other practitioners would lend a helping hand,” Ren said at the rally.
The next day, Ren and one other Falun Gong practitioner took a bus together to get to the State Council’s Letters and Calls Office. She thought to ask for directions after walking to the approximate street from his bus stop, but when she turned the corner she saw a many people were there already, and police were directing them to queue on the sidewalk and wrap around Zhongnanhai.
“I was a little puzzled at the time. Is the State Council’s Letters and Calls Office inside Zhongnanhai?” Ren said at the rally. She later learned that the regime intended to use the situation as a photo-op, and falsely claim that the surrounding of the political headquarters was evidence of a potential uprising.
Ren said that word spread around 8 a.m. that then-Premier Zhu Rongji was sending a few representative to speak with the Falun Gong practitioners.
“During the process, everyone was very quiet. Some practitioners standing in the front row were reading [Falun Dafa books], while some practitioners in the back row were doing the exercises. The older ones, tired of standing, sat on the ground to rest for a while,” Ren said. “Although the number of petitioners exceeded 10,000 and lasted a whole day, from beginning to end, no one shouted slogans, no one held up banners, no one gave speeches, no one distributed leaflets, no one made loud noises, and there was no extreme behavior.”
At around 9 p.m., Ren went to a nearby store to call home and check in, and by the time she returned she saw the practitioners were dispersing, as police said the 40 Falun Gong practitioners would be released and the state would respond to other issues after discussion.
“Tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners dispersed in a very orderly manner. I was shocked by the speed, quiet order and cleanliness of the scene. I found it incredible. How come so many people dispersed in such a short time? Even the cigarette butts thrown on the ground by the police were picked up, and there was not a single piece of paper left on the ground,” Ren said.
Ren’s account is similar to many others that have been published about this day.
April 24, 1999
Speaking at the rally, Zhang Guiying, a doctor, said she was a Tianjin Normal University and an eyewitness when 45 Falun Gong practitioners were arrested on April 24.
After a libelous article about Falun Gong was published in the Tianjin Normal University journal from April 21 to April 23, Falun Gong practitioners at the university went to the editorial department of the journal to meet with them on April 23; Zhang was among them.
“There were no slogans or signs, and no loud noises. They just waited quietly for the editorial department to meet them,” Zhang said. “At around 6 p.m., the Education College administration started shouting through a loudspeaker, demanding that we leave, otherwise we would bear the consequences.”
The same day, a CCP official was at the university, and after the official left by car, Zhang said a large group of riot police came at the practitioners, roughly pushing through a crowd of people as they did so.
“No matter whether they were young or old, women or children, the police beat and kicked them,” Zhang said. “At that time, an old lady in her sixties with gray hair was pushed and beaten fiercely by the police. After a while, the old lady fainted. Four policemen lifted another old lady out, two by her feet and two by her arms … Her bare back was dragged on the ground, and she was dragged all the way from the school to outside the gate and thrown out.”
Falun Gong practitioners live by the principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance, Zhang said, so faced with such violence they peacefully told the police why they were there and tried to persuade them to do good. The violence continued. Zhang recalled a young man intervening after a young woman was harshly beaten; police smashed his face into the wall. Contrary to these events, Chinese state media reported that no one was beaten or arrested.
Zhang said they later learned a total of 45 Falun Gong practitioners were arrested without reason, and she and other practitioners were directed to the Tianjin Municipal Government where they petitioned for their release. They were told, “Go to Beijing” and petition with the State Council.
Quitting the CCP
An Qiang came to the United States in July 2023 as a refugee. He had quit the CCP and at the rally said he wanted to share why.
“As early as when I was a student, I was brainwashed by the Communist Party and educated that there would be no new China without the Communist Party, and we are the successors of communism,” An said.
While he was in elementary school, he crossed paths with a Falun Gong practitioner, “an old lady [who] put a small CD in my hand on the way home from school.”
“It had he words ‘Freegate’ written on it,” he said, and it would turn out to be software allowing the user to bypass the CCP’s internet censorship wall. This eventually led to An learning about the CCP’s bloody history, including the Great Famine and other major events in which the regime caused tens of millions of deaths, which they then called natural disasters or swept under the rug, he said.
An said that the Chinese people were not only beaten down by the CCP physically, but the regime “also distorted our thoughts,” including how it incites hatred against other nations such as the United States and Japan after these countries provided various forms of aid.
“Under the rule of the CCP, kind people in society have become the objects of oppression, while evil people are at ease,” he said. “A few years ago, my aunt told me that because of the CCP’s family planning policy at that time, I had a sister who was forced to give away when she was very young, and now I can’t find her back. The CCP has destroyed our family.
“There was also a period of lockdown during the epidemic when I was locked in the room and almost starved to death. I came to the United States to seek asylum, and they also went to my home to threaten my father and family.”
Wang encouraged all Chinese who are members of the CCP and its affiliate groups to withdraw from these organizations. Wang is also president of WOIPFG, a U.S.-based organization founded to investigate the persecution of Falun Gong. The group has published more than 600 reports as of June 2023.
He said the April 25 appeal was emblematic of how Falun Gong practitioners have responded in the face of persecution since then.
“Throughout history, when faced with oppression from powerful tyranny, human beings have either risen up and used force to end tyranny. Or, endure it in silence and allow it to destroy and ravage you.
“Facing the CCP’s brutal persecution, Falun Dafa practitioners neither resisted violently nor endured it in silence. Instead, it is to clarify the truth, expose the evil, and save all living beings from danger,” Wang said.
With reporting by Sarah Lu and Linda Lin.
From The Epoch Times
