Toronto Falun Gong practitioners gathered outside the Chinese Consulate on April 25 to commemorate the anniversary of a historic peaceful appeal by adherents in Beijing 24 years ago.
On April 25, 1999, more than 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered outside the Chinese regime’s headquarters in the heart of Beijing to appeal for fellow adherents who had been wrongfully arrested in the city of Tianjin, and for practitioners all over the country who were being harassed and investigated by the police. They also wanted a ban imposed on Falun Gong books to be lifted.
A senior official met with some of the practitioners and promised them he would see what he could do, and the situation looked encouraging.
Just a few months later, however, the Chinese regime launched a full-scale persecution of the practice on July 20, 1999. Since then, millions of Falun Gong adherents have been held in labour camps, mental asylums, unofficial black jails, and other detention facilities where they are subject to mental and physical torture in efforts to force them to renounce their faith. Untold numbers have died.
Many practitioners who gathered in Toronto to commemorate the anniversary were among those forced to flee their homeland due to the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution campaign against Falun Gong adherents. They called on the CCP to end the ongoing persecution and also called on the Canadian government to put a stop to the interference by agents of the regime targeting adherents in Canada.
Pan Xuefeng, who was jailed for three years by the CCP for taking part in the appeal in 1999, said she witnessed how the regime had corrupted Chinese officials, leading them to participate in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners for monetary rewards, and used state propaganda to spread lies about the spiritual practice.
“Today, the CCP has extended its influence to Canada, and is becoming increasingly aggressive over the past few years,” Pan said in Chinese. “Some Falun Gong practitioners have been subject to repeated harassment, with some even being tracked to their homes and threatened.”
She also said that CCP agents have been threatening the practitioners’ family members back in China and that individuals who sympathize with the regime have launched verbal or physical assaults against Falun Gong practitioners in Canada.
“I implore the Canadian government to stop the CCP from doing evil in Canada and to protect people’s freedom and safety,” Pan said.
Another adherent, Irene Ma, who left China in 2017, said while the CCP and its police exert power and control over Chinese society, Falun Gong practitioners want to speak out for the people, drawing courage from their faith.
Persecution
Falun Gong is a spiritual practice rooted in Buddhist teachings that incorporates meditative exercises and moral principles based on truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. After its introduction in 1992, the practice grew rapidly, with an estimated 70 million to 100 million adherents across China by 1999.However, Falun Gong’s widespread popularity was viewed as a threat to the totalitarian rule of the late CCP leader Jiang Zemin. In July 1999, he launched a far-reaching persecution campaign, vowing to “eradicate” the practice from China.
