SAN FRANCISCO—Hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners and supporters held a rally on July 20 in Harry Bridges Plaza on the 25th anniversary of the beginning of the persecution of Falun Gong in China.
On July 20, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched a violent campaign to suppress the spiritual practice. Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, had become well known in China for its health benefits by ‘99, and the CCP viewed its growing popularity as a threat to the atheist communist regime.
“Over the past 25 years, millions of Falun Gong practitioners have been detained or imprisoned. The documented death cases due to persecution have surpassed 5,000,” states a press release by Friends of Falun Gong, the organizer of the series of events.
Falun Gong includes five slow-moving exercises as well as teachings based on the universal principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. As soon as the persecution began, practitioners inside and outside China began to resist the CCP’s oppression using nonviolent means such as raising awareness and collecting petition signatures.
Both the persecution and the peaceful resistance are still ongoing.
Mr. Dongwu Dai, a rally attendee, called for people worldwide to care about, support, and protect Falun Gong practitioners who are being persecuted, and to take actions to end the persecution of the group.
As Falun Gong practitioners themselves, Mr. Dai and his wife experienced torture and long-term incarceration in China before they escaped to the United States in September 2023.
Mr. Dai said that after he was arrested in 2014, he was deprived of sleep for 10 days and 10 nights when CCP police officers put a metal barrel to his head and sporadically hit the barrel with a steel ruler. The loud noise caused Mr. Dai to suffer from hallucinations and severe hearing loss. He was later sentenced to a prison term of three and a half years.
His wife suffered from a brain hemorrhage after being persecuted and still has not recovered. She now uses a wheelchair. When Mr. Dai gave his public speech, she burst into tears.
“The brutal persecution is still going on in China under [the] CCP’s ruling; the righteous belief of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance still being suppressed. Tens of thousands [of] Falun Gong practitioners are facing the risk of being kidnapped, tortured, and even organ-harvested,” Mr. Dai said at the rally.
Minghui.org, a website run by Falun Gong practitioners, has collected documentation for 5,088 deaths due to persecution as of July 11, which is likely just the tip of the iceberg considering the CCP’s censorship of data.
On June 25, the U.S. Congress passed H.R. 4132, the Falun Gong Protection Act. If it becomes law, the bill will require the president to impose visa- and property-blocking sanctions on foreigners who are “knowingly responsible for, are complicit in, or have engaged in the involuntary harvesting of organs in China.”
It is now well-documented that the Chinese regime has created a mass industry worth billions of dollars out of murdering Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience by extracting their organs to sell to deceived recipients.
U.S. congressional candidate Sam Liccardo, a former mayor of San Jose, expressed deep concern about these reports.
“In the United States, organ harvesting would constitute the crime of mayhem, subject to the most severe criminal penalties,” Mr. Liccardo said in a statement. “The Chinese government’s participation constitutes a grave violation of human rights, and I condemn it in the strongest terms.”
Scott Shields, associate producer of the documentary “Finding Courage,” called for politicians and business leaders to support H.R. 4132. “Finding Courage” tells the story of Falun Gong practitioners’ experience of persecution and their perseverance. Mr. Shields started to practice Falun Gong in 2018.
Tiananmen Square Massacre survivor Zheng Fang, director of the Chinese Democracy Education Foundation, attended the rally as a supporter and he too called for the end of the persecution.
“Today everyone present here are all victims of persecution by the CCP. We have to consider how to end the persecution. The only way to achieve that is to disintegrate the CCP and terminate the regime’s ruling,” Mr. Fang said.
Wendy Huang, a candidate for the Union City council, said at the rally that she didn’t realize the brutality of the persecution until she saw pictures displayed by Falun Gong practitioners in Chinatown.
“I knew there were persecutions, but I didn’t know it was that bad,” Ms. Huang said. “And that really kind of touched my heart. At the same time, it was [so] horrific that it was the point you just want to turn away, but I’m just so thankful that these practitioners have faith and also the courage.”
The rally was followed by a parade from the Ferry Building through Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Wharf along Embarcadero Street to the Maritime Garden.
