25 Years of Persecution: Reflections and Support


Dear Reader,


On this day 25 years ago, the Chinese regime launched the persecution campaign against Falun Gong in China. To this day, vivid memories of those times remain fixed in my mind.


I remember sitting in a hotel room in midtown Manhattan. One of the Falun Gong volunteer coordinators had checked in the night before because she feared for her life. Death threats and apartment break-ins in Chinatown had shown that the Chinese regime’s attack on Falun Gong, which had just started the day before, would be global. So there we sat on the floor of a hotel room, about 20 Falun Gong practitioners from the New York City area, trying to figure out what to do. Calls were coming in from everywhere. ABC’s Nightline wanted to interview one of us. We huddled in the corner for a brief time discussing who to send and how to help explain to the American public the nightmare that was unfolding in China.


A few days later, I remember sitting under the baking sun in Washington DC. Several hundred Falun Gong practitioners had spontaneously traveled to the nation’s capital to ask the U.S. government for help, sitting in rows in front of Capitol Hill. A young man stood with a microphone, crying over what was happening to his family and friends in China. He was calling for everyone to start a hunger strike. He was angry. He was trembling… barely able to formulate his words.


Then, from a back row another man, slightly older, walked calmly to the front, and put his arm around the first man. I had never before seen that level of calm and compassion on display, especially given the circumstances. Everyone there had loved ones now at risk of being hauled away to a labor camp, tortured, or killed.


After a while, the older man reached out to gently to take the microphone and he began to speak. “This is not our way,” he said slowly, deliberately, pausing to choose his next words. “I suggest we just go tell people who we are… let them understand us and what is happening. Once people know the truth, they will help us.” With that, he slowly put the microphone down and with his arm still around the crying man, walked with him back into the lines of Falun Gong practitioners.


I had only been practicing Falun Gong for several months, but I remember thinking, “These people are quite remarkable.”


Little did any of us know that this would be the beginning of a persecution campaign that would decimate families and communities across China for the next quarter century. And yet throughout the horror that would ensue, the spirit captured by this calm man—“Just go tell people who we are… let them understand us”—would be the hallmark of Falun Gong’s response inside China and around the world.


This basic principle has guided Falun Gong practitioners in China in the face of the regime’s widespread violence and killing, and practitioners have not retaliated with violence or hatred. This basic principle has spawned a grassroots movement in China of tens of millions of Falun Gong practitioners risking life and limb to inform fellow citizens about their plight, and the terror of the Chinese Communist Party more broadly. And it is this basic principle that guides us still today: a deeply held belief that all people have a goodness within them, and that if our story—the Falun Gong story—can reach them, that goodness will awaken and they will do the right thing.


On this tragic anniversary, we thank you for your ongoing attention, interest, and support. Together we can save lives.

Sincerely,

Levi Browde, Executive Director
Falun Dafa Information Center

FEATURE STORY

On the 25th Anniversary, Government Officials Stand in Solidarity with Falun Gong

July 20, 2024 marks the 25th year of the persecution of Falun Gong, a peaceful spiritual practice centered on the teachings of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance. Tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners from around the world held rallies, parades and public events in July to highlight the CCP’s atrocities.


Government officials from around the world have added their voices, condemning the persecution. Members of Congress, governmental agencies, and parliamentarians voiced support for the Falun Gong community by publishing letters and making public statements commending practitioners’ resilience in face of the persecution.


The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) also released their statement here on the persecution of Falun Gong.

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GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

U.S. State Department Issues Statement for 25th Anniversary

On July 20, 2024, Matthew Miller, a spokesperson from the U.S. Department of State, issued a press statement for the 25th anniversary of the persecution.


“We solemnly mark 25 years today since the People’s Republic of China (PRC) began a campaign of repression against practitioners of Falun Gong, a self-described spiritual practice.  For two and a half decades, PRC authorities have targeted Falun Gong practitioners and their families in a campaign of abuses and rights violations.


The United States will continue to speak out for human rights, including freedom of religion or belief.  We will also continue to promote accountability for those responsible for human rights abuses and violations.  We call upon the PRC to cease its repressive campaign and release all who have been imprisoned for their beliefs.”


Yesterday, a joint letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken by human rights advocates requested a public statement from the Biden Administration, as well as new sanctions on those responsible for abuses against Falun Gong practitioners.

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LIVE: Hudson Institute Holds Event on China’s Persecution of Falun Gong at 25 Years
2 hours

On July 17, the Hudson Institute in Washington DC hosted an event on “China’s Persecution of Falun Gong at 25 Years.” Nina Shea, director of the think tank’s religious freedom program, and Miles Yu, a former high-ranking State Department advisor, gave keynote addresses on the significance of Falun Gong to understanding today’s China. This was followed by two panels of experts and persecution victims, including from the Falun Dafa Information Center, sharing insights and first-hand accounts to a crowded in-person conference room and livestream audience.

Watch the Replay
Have you read this? The Diplomat: ‘In July 1999, the CCP Created Exactly What It Had Feared’

Five years ago, a piece in The Diplomat relayed the recollections of eight Falun Gong practitioners or Chinese dissidents regarding the onset of the ban on Falun Gong and its long-term consequences. As the piece notes, “One of the striking commonalities in their testimonies is how many personally know friends, neighbors, or family members who practiced Falun Gong and have died due to police abuse, offering a glimpse of the scale of human loss unleashed by the CCP.”

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