European Falun Gong Practitioners Mark 25 Years of CCP Persecution in London

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 Saturday to highlight the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’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 Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to pressure CCP leaders to release Falun Gong practitioners in China including his 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 Buddha school spiritual discipline founded by Mr. Li Hongzhi that promotes the values of “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance.”

Since its introduction in China in 1992, the practice rapidly gained popularity with tens of millions of practitioners swearing by its health and spiritual benefits. However, the CCP under then-leader Jiang Zemin turned the state apparatus on Falun Gong in 1999, leading to the imprisonment, torture, and death of practitioners.

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 the New Year’s Day in 2020 for displaying a banner in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, and police hung him by his wrists behind his back with handcuffs on a bunkbed for over ten 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 has 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 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 from Germany, Ding Lebin, who has been campaigning for the release of his father, and his mother who has now been released, called on the UK 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 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.