Rally and Candlelight Vigil in Chicago Commemorate 26 Years of Peacefully Resisting the Persecution

(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioners in Chicago did the exercises, held a rally, and a candlelight vigil in front of the Chinese Consulate on July 19, 2025. They exposed and condemned the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution, which began 26 years ago. They mourned their fellow practitioners who were persecuted to death and called on the CCP to end the atrocities.

Practitioners peacefully protest in front of the Chinese Consulate in Chicago.

A candlelight vigil mourns practitioners who were persecuted to death by the CCP.

Mr. Tu, a representative of Falun Gong practitioners, addressed the rally and recounted the CCP’s various forms of persecution, including imprisonment, brainwashing, torture, rape, injection of nerve-damaging drugs, as well as organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners in the past twenty-six years. He also praised practitioners in China for their firm upholding of the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance in the face of the CCP’s violence.

“Instead of hatred and outrage, our fellow practitioners in China resist the inhuman treatments with Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, as Master has taught us,” Tu said, “A group of unarmed kind people have withstood the autocracy’s genocide and awakened people’s conscience.”

Tu also recounted the recent acts passed by the American Congress, including the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act and the Falun Gong Protection Act, which expressed the American people’s support of Falun Gong.

Dr. Lonn, an ophthalmologist, has practiced Falun Gong for more than ten years. On the CCP’s transnational repression of Falun Gong and Shen Yun, she said that it was most valuable for one’s life to find the truth and to distinguish between right and wrong in our modern society filled with expanding amounts of information and false narratives from various channels. “Only truth can bring compassion and justice,” she said.

Dr. Lonn said that the CCP continues to smear Falun Gong and Shen Yun because it fears their influence and powerful spirituality. She hopes everyone chooses to stand with the good because, “Our decisions determine our future.”

Many people were interested in practitioners’ activities. They stopped to read the displays and flyers, and some praised and encouraged practitioners.

Touched by the rally, local resident Lexi McKean expressed her admiration for practitioners’ tenaciousness. “The world will be better when all of us support the truth,” she said.

A passerby told practitioners, “I support you!”

A group of tourists from New York learn about Falun Gong.