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The Events
On April 25, 1999, more than 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners held a legal, peaceful gathering in Beijing outside the Chinese leadership compound, Zhongnanhai. The assembly was prompted by reports of violence and harassment previously inflicted upon Falun Gong practitioners by Chinese police in the city of Tianjin, as well as an unjustified ban on publishing Falun Dafa materials. The assembly was peaceful and orderly, and after participants presented their case before Mr. Zhu Rongji, Premier of the Chinese State Council, they quietly returned to their homes.
The event clearly shook the Chinese leadership because they hadn't anticipated that so many people could have gathered so quickly in the heart of the capital. Not since the Cultural Revolution Tiananmen Incident in 1989 involving many Beijing students had so many people gathered together to make an appeal to the government, and the government's reaction to that particular incident was, of course, swift and brutal.
On the night of July 19th, 1999, police raided the homes of hundreds of practitioners and dragged them off to prison.
The next day, Falun Gong was officially declared illegal in China. From that moment forward, a massive government campaign was formed to suppress and destroy Falun Gong. The state-controlled media worked overtime to spread false information to the public, and they also sent out their propaganda through the Chinese embassies stationed around the world. The purpose was to mislead the public and cover up their severe human rights abuses against Falun Gong practitioners as thousands were rounded up and held in detention for interrogation, torture, and so-called "reeducation."
To date, the Chinese government has used any method available to terrorize and pressure people to renounce their faith. They have pitted society and family members against each other through threats and heavy fines, and thousands have lost their jobs and their homes. And the list goes on.
Millions of Falun Gong books and tapes have been publicly burned and destroyed. Access to all Internet websites regarding Falun Gong have been blocked or jammed in China, and those who send out accounts of the beatings and abuse they experience while in detention have been arrested and jailed for "leaking state secrets." Practitioners are denied legal representation and have received sentences up to 18 years in prison in show trials. Thousands of others are sent to forced labor camps with no trial at all.
Even worse, many Falun Dafa practitioners are being committed to psychiatric wards and forcibly medicated with powerful psychotropic drugs causing serious harm to their bodies. This is a tactic used in the Soviet Union under Stalin as a way to make the public think that the victims are mentally insane and therefore they deserve to be locked up.
To date, there are more than 2862 documented cases of otherwise healthy practitioners being beaten and tortured to death while in detention.
During these months of violence and torture, Falun Dafa practitioners have shown unparalleled kindness and forbearance. Not a single practitioner has struck back or physically retaliated against police. Worldwide, all practitioners have used only non-violent, peaceful, and legal means to appeal. This kind of conduct, in the face of such torment and injustice exhibited on such a large scale, has spoken eloquently to the world about the fundamentally peaceful and compassionate nature of Falun Dafa.
