(Clearwisdom.net) To mark the Tenth Anniversary of the "April 25" Peaceful Appeal when over ten thousand Falun Gong practitioners went to appeal at Zhongnanhai (the headquarters of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party), practitioners and supporters in Los Angeles went to the Chinese Consulate to hold a candlelight vigil to mourn the practitioners who lost their lives as a result of the inhuman torture and to expose the crimes committed by the CCP.

Practitioners and Supporters in Los Angeles Held a Candlelight Vigil in front of the Chinese Consulate to Mark the "April 25" Peaceful Appeal

Dr. Qu Zheng, a Falun Gong practitioner and a scientist from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory chaired the rally. Professor Wu Yingnian from California University, Mr. Wu Fan, President of the China Interim Government, Mr. Liu Yinquan, Secretary of the China Social Democratic Party and Ms. Li Hailun from the Los Angeles Quit the CCP Service Center spoke at the rally.

Professor Wu Yingnian from the California University clarified two issues. First, the "April 25" Peaceful Appeal was a group appeal outside the State Council Appeal Office, Zhongnanhai at Fuyou Street, but not what the CCP described as "besieging Zhongnanhai." The practitioners did not have any banners, there was no parade and they also sent representatives to talk to the then Premier Zhu Rongji. It was a very peaceful and rational event.

Secondly, the peaceful appeal should have never been used as an excuse for the CCP to persecute these practitioners. He sited former President Gorge Bush's first inaugural ceremony as an example. At that time more than 20 thousand people went to protest and at his second inaugural ceremony someone even carried a coffin as protest. However, the United States government did not crack down on the protesters. The CCP which calls themselves the "servants of the people" began a crackdown when the masters of the county talked to the servants in a genial manner. This revealed the true nature of the bandit-like government.

Professor Wu said the direct cause of the "April 25" appeal was the "Tianjin Incident." At the time, the magazine of the Tianjin Education Institute Science and Technology for Youth published an article which slandered Falun Gong. Local practitioners went to the office of that magazine to clarify the facts to them. Forty-five practitioners were arrested and some practitioners were injured as a result of beatings by the police.

Someone argued, "Didn't the media have the right to publish these articles?" Professor Wu said, "All the media in China are controlled by the CCP. When the CCP used the media to publish slanderous articles against Falun Gong, practitioners had no place to express their views. There were no independent media and the practitioners were unable to run their own media or radio stations to clarify the facts, therefore, the only place for them to clarify facts to, in order to redeem Falun Gong's reputation, was the CCP's media.

Since the Chinese media were all official, the local police took it as the official opinion and used it as an excuse for persecution. Therefore, these practitioners were worried. However, their only way out was to try to clarify the truth. In western countries, nothing like this would have happened. If some kind of media published a slanderous article, we could clarify the facts to that media or use our own media to do that or even write to that media to refute it. However, it is a totally different situation in China.

Practitioner Qu Zheng is a scientist. He said in his speech that fame and gain of the secular world are things practitioners try to let go, therefore they have no interest in politics. "Over the past ten years, everyone saw clearly that Falun Gong had no agenda to set up a political power, had no agenda to promote democracy. Their only request is to stop the persecution. In its campaign against persecution Falun Gong exposed the true nature of the CCP, so more and more people want to quit the CCP and its subordinate organizations."

He said, "If the CCP did not sabotage Falun Gong it might cover its heinous crimes against the Chinese people a bit longer. However, owing to its persecution of Falun Gong the practitioners let more people know the hideous history and the true nature of "deceit, evil, strife" of the CCP during their campaign against the persecution. Why has the CCP failed to wipe out Falun Gong in the last ten years and how has Falun Gong grown ever stronger and spread to over eighty countries despite the persecution? This is because no one is able to wipe out "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance" from the hearts of the people."

The President of China Interim Government said, "April 25" has a profound influence in the changes in China and is the Waterloo of the CCP. "I learned about the 'April 25' Peaceful Appeal from the Internet ten years ago and that was the first time I heard about Falun Gong. Looking back it was 'April 25' that guided me onto the path of learning more about Falun Gong. Besides me, many other people also began to pay attention to Falun Gong as a result of the 'April 25' event."

He said, "The large number of people came forward to appeal is deep-rooted. It represented the struggle between atheism and theism as well as the struggle between the CCP's totalitarianism and the request for freedom. No matter what tricks the CCP used to lead people from Tianjin to Beijing and set up various traps, it was only its own intention. The fact was that 'April 25' became its Waterloo. After the Cultural Revolution people hoped that the CCP would change for the better, even after the June 4 massacre people still wanted to give it one more change. However, the CCP did not change, but began to persecute Falun Gong. People gave up all their hope for the CCP, so I describe 'April 25' as the Waterloo of the CCP which went downhill ever since."

He sighed with emotion at last, "In recalling the last ten years, Falun Gong has walked a very hard path. However, the practitioners must feel very proud. The future is shown and the CCP's days are numbered. Maybe this is God's will. Heaven eliminates the CCP!"

Mr. Liu Yinquan, Secretary of the China Social Democratic Party, said, "It is a year of people defending their human rights, which is surging forward in China. It is also a year when the Chinese people become ever awakened during the wave of the 'three withdrawals.' Therefore, marking the anniversary of the 'April 25' Peaceful Appeal is even more important."

He said, "'April 25' was a turning point when the CCP began to rapidly go downhill and it was also a turning point for Falun Gong to enter into the international arena. At the time I was in Weifang City, Shandong Province. A lot of practitioners went to the office of the City's Chinese Communist Party Committee and the City Government to appeal. I also went and saw practitioners being very peaceful. From then on I began to pay attention to Falun Gong."

"As a matter of fact the CCP itself admitted that 'April 25' was a very civil and peaceful appeal. Only when the persecution started on July 20 did they claim that the appeal was 'illegal'. This was directly related to Jiang Zemin's personal opinions. At that time a group of people within the CCP advocated peaceful coexistence. If this had happened then China would have a totally different situation. However, Jiang insisted on suppressing Falun Gong. He even went as far as striking the desk in front of Zhu Rongji (the premier at the time) and accusing him as being muddleheaded. Actually he himself was muddleheaded and acted purely for his own personal interest. The totalitarian system of the CCP decided that the repetition of such errors would occur. There is no scientific and democratic decision-making mechanism in China. Instead all the decisions were made by someone who was impetuous and the opinions of the clearheaded people did not play any role in the decision-making."

"What's more, once the CCP makes a wrong decision it will stick to it and carry it out through to the end since there is no mechanism for correcting errors. Though Jiang Zemin stepped down, his followers that he put in the leading positions when he was in power are still functioning. Therefore, Hu Jintao still worries about the influence from Jiang's clique. Even if he wanted to correct the errors he could not take any action because he is worried about the backfire, which might be detrimental to his own interest."

Mr. Liu specifically expressed his heartfelt respect to the practitioners who are still suffering from the persecution in China and his condolences to the families of the practitioners who died as a result of the inhuman persecution. "They made great contributions for a bright future of mankind and for spreading the universal values of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance. They are the ones that people will respect most."

Ms. Li Hailun said in her speech that in the past ten years Jiang Zemin and the CCP used each other to persecute Falun Gong. However, it was quite unexpected that they failed to wipe out Falun Gong in its persecution but instead helped to push Falun Gong into the international arena. They also did not expect that practitioners would start a campaign to clarify the truth about the persecution of Falun Gong. Practitioners distributed the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party far and wide to awaken the Chinese people. As of today, 53 million Chinese people declared their three withdrawals and the number is increasing by 50 thousand per day. If the Chinese people are allowed to express their opinions, the CCP would collapse instantly.

She sited as an example Li Fengzhi, a former CCP intelligence officer, who announced that he withdrew from the CCP at the quitting the CCP rally in Washington. She said Li Fengzhi represented the aspirations of the tens of millions of Chinese people. In his own words, his brave decision came from his understanding of Falun Gong and his contact with Falun Gong practitioners. When welcoming Li Fengzhi's decision to quit the CCP, Ms. Li Hailun hoped more and more Chinese compatriots would withdraw from the CCP, the Youth League and the Young Pioneers to make contributions to the future of the Chinese nation.

A young man named Arsen who had just came to America attended the rally. He said his uncle sold a few iron pots to pay for his tuition, so that after he passed the entrance exam, he could enroll in Wuhan University, when the entrance examination was reintroduced in China. (It was stopped during the Cultural Revolution) He was accused by the local government as doing "speculation and profiteering." He was arrested and suffered from schizophrenia. Therefore, Arsen believed the CCP would dare to do anything including live organ harvesting of practitioners.

He recalled a day in the summer of 1999 when the CCP began to suppress Falun Gong. He was selling political books to government organizations as a part-time job while studying at the university. One day (July 20) he phoned the officials of the government organizations but no one answered the phone since they all went to a meeting. He learned that the Party School of the CCP Central Committee had sent a lot of people down. Ever since then television and newspapers began to slander and attack Falun Gong day and night. He said he only learned the true situation after he left China.

Even though the CCP boasted that Falun Gong had been wiped out, he could find Falun Gong signs on the walls very often back in China. The signs were torn down during the day, but were reposted at night. He said, "You can kill a person, but his spirit will live forever. The government can seal off the mouths of the people, but it can never seal off their minds.