(Clearwisdom.net) I am a Falun Gong practitioner from Beijing, China. I moved to a small residential community in Zhaogongkou in the Fengtai District of Beijing at the end of November 1998. Fengtai Stadium is just outside our residential community. Before July 20, 1999, every morning over 100 people practiced the Falun Gong exercises together in the stadium. Falun Gong's peaceful and graceful movements and music attracted a lot of attention. It was becoming an early morning tradition in Beijing.

The Unexpected Arrests of Falun Gong Practitioners in Tianjin

On the afternoon of April 24, 1999, a fellow practitioner informed me that Tianjin police had roughed up and arrested many Falun Gong practitioners. I was invited to the home of a volunteer assistant of Falun Gong in the Fengtai District to discuss the incident. A group of practitioners were gathered in a small room. The volunteer assistant showed us the Chinese magazine Youth Technology Expo and read the article "I Disapprove of Youth Practicing Qigong." When he finished reading it we unanimously agreed that the misguided PhD referenced by the author couldn't have possibly ever practiced Falun Gong, because the things described in the article directly contradicted the cultivation principles of Falun Gong.

The assistant then explained to us that other practitioners had come to the same conclusion. They decided to pay a visit to the publishing company located in Tianjin and ask them to retract the false report. When they did, they ended up getting arrested. The practitioners were told that only the Beijing Public Security Bureau had the authority to release them. At the end of our discussion, we decided that their mission in Tianjin should be our mission in Beijing. Beijing is only about 100 miles from Tianjin. It fell on our shoulders to exercise our constitutional right to report the misguided arrests to the State Appeals Office located on Fuyou Street near the Zhongnanhai Compound. We had faith that the State Appeals Office would rectify the injustice. None of the practitioners in our group was asked to visit the State Appeals Office, as each person made his or her own decision.

Note: Zhongnanhai is a complex of buildings in Beijing, China, adjacent to the Forbidden City, which serves as the central headquarters for the Communist Party of China and the Central Government of the People's Republic of China.

On the morning of April 25, 1999, we practitioners from the Fengtai District left our homes and traveled to the State Appeals Office on Fuyou Street. We went in small groups of two to five. We traveled by bicycle, bus, or on foot toward Fuyou Street.

The Police Led the Alleged "Siege of the Zhongnanhai Compound by Falun Gong Practitioners"

I went by bicycle. On my way there, I was able to identify many fellow practitioners traveling in the same direction, as they were wearing a button with the Falun Gong emblem on their shirts. I also saw many uniformed and plainclothes police officers near Zhongnanhai. Some of the officers were talking on their radios, and some were corralling practitioners toward a designated area. On both sides of Fuyou Street and nearby streets, practitioners sat or stood in long, orderly lines. Some were reading Falun Gong books. There were elderly folks in their 70s and 80s, pregnant women, mothers with babies in their arms, and even men in military uniforms. The streets were full of practitioners, yet the streets were quiet, and no one was blocking the traffic. In fact, cars and pedestrians were able to travel freely on the streets despite the many practitioners waiting in line for their turn to appeal at the State Appeals Office.

The hateful propaganda orchestrated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began a fraudulent campaign claiming that Falun Gong practitioners had Zhongnanhai Compound under "siege" on April 25, 1999. If the orderly practitioners waiting in lines on the streets near Zhongnanhai Compound were labeled a "siege," then it was the Chinese police that orchestrated the siege, because it was the police that told practitioners where to stand that day.

A map showing the relative location of Zhongnanhai Compound and Fuyu Street

"Look! This is Falun Gong! This Is a Manifestation of Morality!"

From that morning to that evening, Falun Gong practitioners stood quietly on both sides of the streets, waiting. An expression of peace and serenity could be seen on their faces. During the long wait, some chatted with local residents and police officers and told them about the rapid growth of Falun Gong in China. I saw officers in police cars reading Falun Gong books that they borrowed from practitioners. I also saw practitioners collecting trash and putting it in plastic bags, including cigarette butts that had been thrown in the street by the police. A policewoman looked on for a long time, then, with a sigh, she told her subordinates, "What is morality? What is Falun Gong? Look! This is Falun Gong. This is a manifestation of morality! It is morality that today's Chinese people need the most! You guys need to learn a few things from Falun Gong."

I witnessed another incident that morning. A luxury sedan knocked down a practitioner near Fuyou Street. The practitioner got up calmly and told the chauffeur, "I am okay. You may leave." There was a moment of silence from the man sitting in the back of the car before he told his chauffeur to go on. Later a practitioner identified the man in the sedan. He was a high-level official from the Ministry of State Security. He was on his way to the Zhongnanhai Compound, most likely for a meeting where they would discuss how to deal with Falun Gong. I could scarcely believe that he was not impressed by the calm manner of the forgiving practitioner whom his chauffeur had hit.

We Went Home with Trash Bags

We left Fuyou Street that evening after we were told that the practitioners in Tianjin had been released. In order to prevent any disruption to traffic, we left Fuyou Street in an orderly manner. When it was my turn to leave, the majority of practitioners had already left the area near Zhongnanhai Compound. A few others and I were riding on bicycles when we noticed that nearby trash cans were filled with trash and many more trash bags were piled up against the trash cans. We decided to stop and pick up as many trash bags as our bicycles could carry. We dropped off some of them in trash cans that were not full further away; the rest we just brought back to our homes. We stood on the street for an entire day, but we felt very relieved. We chatted and laughed, having faith that the Chinese government would allow people to practice Falun Gong freely.

Afterward

The Chinese government won international praise for the way it responded to the appeal by Falun Gong practitioners on April 25, 1999, so I would never have imagined that the CCP would start the suppression of Falun Gong just three months later. It also began a full-fledged, worldwide hate propaganda campaign against Falun Gong to justify its suppression. Since July 20, 1999, the number of Falun Gong practitioners arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and persecuted to death grows each year. As a result, practitioners worldwide have commenced a long journey to spread the facts about Falun Gong and expose the brutal persecution.