Recalling the Peaceful Appeal of Falun Gong Practitioners in Beijing 27 Years Ago

(Minghui.org) Three months before the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to suppress Falun Gong in July 1999, about 10,000 practitioners gathered in Beijing on April 25 to peacefully appeal.

The spontaneous appeal occurred after practitioners were illegally arrested in Tianjin. What they did showed that practitioners trusted the government and had faith in the common good.

A Peaceful Appeal

As Falun Gong became increasingly popular in China, the CCP attempted to shift public opinion against the practice months and even years before the appeal was held in 1999. After pro-CCP scholar He Zuoxiu openly criticized Falun Gong in a newspaper article published in April 1999, Tianjin police arrested practitioners on April 22-23, when they went to the publisher to explain what Falun Gong is.

When practitioners approached the Tianjin government and requested that the detained practitioners be released, they were told to go to Beijing since the order to arrest them came from Beijing. Practitioners in Beijing and nearby regions spontaneously gathered near the State Petition Office on Fuyou Street on April 25, 1999.

Based on eyewitness accounts the practitioners who went to Fuyou Street behaved according to Falun Gong’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. They stood quietly, did the exercises, and even picked up the litter on the ground, including the cigarette butts discarded by the police officers. Their calm demeanor and good manners impressed the police and passersby.

Police Direct Practitioners to Surround Zhongnanhai

Practitioners had no political agenda—they simply wished to go to Beijing and tell the government the facts about Falun Gong, so they went to the Petition Office on Fuyou Street. But some police officers directed them to line the streets around Zhongnanhai.

In a recent article published on Minghui, the author wrote: “On April 25th, around eight o’clock in the morning, we got off the bus on Chang’an Avenue. Police officers escorted us to the area just outside the red walls of Xinhua Gate. We later learned that this was in fact a trap to frame Falun Gong. The trap was laid by Luo Gan, then Party secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC).”

The police officers were relaxed. “We stood approximately thirty to forty meters east of the southern gate of Xinhua (this appears in video footage of the April 25th event). Across the street stood armed soldiers, spaced about three to five paces apart,” the author continued. “Unlike sentries standing guard at an entrance, they did not remain motionless; instead, they walked around—some smoked, others chatted among themselves, and a few walked up to us to inspect the items we were holding in our hands. Some of them appeared impatient. On our side, however—men and women, young and old, ordinary citizens hailing from every corner of the country—stood quietly, our faces were serene; not a single person displayed any sign of anxiety or agitation.”

Ten Thousand Out of 100 Million

According to CCP propaganda Falun Gong is organized; otherwise, how could 10,000 practitioners suddenly gather outside Zhongnanhai? This claim is misleading. In 1999 there were approximately 100 million practitioners in China (around 8% of China’s population). Beijing (a city of over 20 million people) alone would have 1.6 million practitioners, and many had heard about the arrests in Tianjin. As practitioners shared the information at practice sites or by word of mouth, a voluntary event could easily attract 10,000 practitioners from Beijing and nearby regions.

With China’s dense population it’s not unusual for 30,000 to 80,000 people to attend a major sports event or concert. So when approximately 10,000 practitioners participated in the appeal on April 25, 1999, it should not be a great concern.

Practitioners assumed that the CCP arrested the practitioners in Tianjin because the authorities misunderstood Falun Gong. The practitioners had faith in the government, so they went to the State Petition Office to tell officials the facts. Former Premier Zhu Rongji met practitioner representatives that day and the issue was resolved. Media outlets outside of China praised the large-scale event, and some said it represented the Chinese government’s openness.

However, the authoritarian CCP regime would not yield to the common good. Weeks later, in July 1999, CCP head Jiang Zemin ordered the nationwide persecution, which continues today.

Related Articles in Chinese:

https://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2026/4/5/“四·二五”-我们在长安街上-508461.html