Honesty and Dignity: My Experience of Attending the Peaceful Appeal in Beijing 27 Years Ago

(Minghui.org) I cannot help but recall the peaceful appeal in Beijing on April 25, 1999. Although 27 years have passed, the scene is still vivid because, to me, it wasn’t just an appeal—it was a test of my faith and courage.

Safeguarding the Righteous

On April 24, 1999, I went to the group practice site near my home as usual. A volunteer assistant told us that pro-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) scholar He Zuoxiu had just published an article in the Youth Science and Technology Expo magazine in Tianjin to slander Falun Dafa. He Zuoxiu was the brother-in-law of Luo Gan, who was the Party secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC). When practitioners went to the publisher to explain the facts, more than 300 riot officers were dispatched and they arrested 45 practitioners.

The assistant at the practice site also told us that when practitioners requested the detained practitioners be released, they were told the order came from the Ministry of Public Security in Beijing. They had to go to Beijing and appeal to have the issue resolved. The assistant said anyone who wanted to visit the Central Petition Office in Beijing could go there.

When we heard this, some practitioners discussed going to Beijing. Because I recently moved to the city, I hardly knew anyone, so I decided to go to Beijing on my own. Falun Dafa gave me good health and showed me how to be a better person. I felt it was wrong when someone defamed Dafa and misled others. I felt it was my duty as a citizen and a practitioner to tell the government about the real situation.

I did not tell my husband and child that I planned to go to Beijing. My child might worry about me; my husband did not practice and he might even try to stop me. Our parents told us about the CCP’s ruthless political campaigns throughout the decades, and we also witnessed the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989.

I barely slept that night. As soon as I woke up, I left a note for my husband and my daughter, “I have to travel to Beijing for something urgent. Sorry I was unable to tell you before I left. I will return home soon.”

I took my handbag and some money, and I left for Beijing. With trust in the government and the Constitution, I knew I was doing the right thing.

A Pure Land

By the time I arrived at Chang’an Avenue in Beijing around 9 a.m. there were many practitioners. The police led us to stand along Fuyou Street. We stood in three rows along the sidewalk and kept the path behind us clear. We heard Zhongnanhai was across the street. The line was very long and those who arrived earlier stood along the road to the Central Petition Office.

I didn’t know any of the practitioners there, but we shared the same understanding and we did not chat. Most of us just quietly stood and waited. Some were reading Dafa books and others did the exercises. Some young practitioners who looked like college students walked around and collected the trash to keep the place clean.

Police officers stood right in front of us, about 8 or 10 meters apart from each other. They initially appeared nervous. They soon relaxed since practitioners had no banners and we did not call out slogans. We were peaceful and most of us were middle aged. The police eventually ignored us and casually chatted amongst themselves.

Around 10 a.m., a rotating Falun appeared in the sky on the east side. Many practitioners looked up and were touched by sight. Some were moved to tears. Following Dafa and the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, we knew the practice is righteous, and we felt the community of Dafa practitioners is a Pure Land.

Courage Despite the Grim Atmosphere

Although that day appeared normal on the surface, there was a grim atmosphere beneath the peace. We occasionally saw black sedans with tinted windows driving back and forth. It was said that high-ranking officials were in those vehicles and they were watching us.

I stood near the police headquarters and I saw two trucks—packed with armed officers—emerging and driving out. I also heard that along Chang’an Avenue trucks came speeding in from the distance and they were filled with armed police wielding machine guns. They took up positions in concealed locations.

After noon, we heard some surprising news: the authorities might be taking action against us; everyone please stay close together and don’t panic; we were only appealing for the release of detained fellow practitioners and for a legal environment to practice Falun Dafa. This was a citizen’s legal right, and we were not causing trouble, just peacefully petitioning. We stood closer together, and quietly passed the message along the line. Some elderly practitioners were asked to move to a corner and rest.

I realized I was relatively young compared to the elderly practitioners. Seeing empty seats in the front, I didn’t hesitate to stand at the very front, just in case something happened. I thought of a poem Master wrote:

“Nothing Kept

In life, nothing sought,In death, regretting naught;Washing away all wrong thought,Buddhahood, with less adversity, is wrought.(Hong Yin)

I recited the poem repeatedly. As I recited, I suddenly felt incredibly upright and tall—I knew we were doing the right thing.

Around 3 or 4 p.m., news came from Xinhua Gate: the Premier came out and told everyone to send a few representatives in to discuss the matter. Several representatives went in with the Premier and his staff. We all agreed we shouldn’t leave yet, and we should wait for our representatives to come out. We waited quietly and remained calm even though we didn’t know how the discussion was going.

As darkness fell, around eight o’clock, I heard practitioners quietly relaying the message: “Tell each other, the government agreed to our request and practitioners detained in Tianjin have been released. Everyone can go home now. Please don’t wander off, follow the group westward along Chang’an Avenue. Vehicles are coming to pick us up.” I followed the orderly crowd westward along Chang’an Avenue. We walked for nearly two hours, until I saw many large buses parked along the road. It seemed that Beijing’s public transportation system, following instructions from above, was transporting practitioners to areas further away from Beijing.

The practitioners I stood with were taken to an open grassland. It was already past midnight, and we were told to get out and wait. We were in overgrown grassland and it was the middle of the night. There were no villages or shops, and we had no idea where we were. We waited there for a full two hours before we were picked up by several large buses sent by the local authorities, and we were taken back to our hometowns. Around 8 a.m., the cars were stopped on the side of a road in the suburbs. Two people who claimed to be from the petition office got in, blocked the door, and said that in order to understand our demands and make it easier to contact us, we needed to register our names, work addresses, or residences before we left.

At the time, I didn’t think much of it. I just felt exhausted because I hadn’t slept for about a day and two nights. So I was the first to walk to the door and give my name and home address. Little did I know that registering names and addresses was a common tactic used by the CCP—to settle scores later.

The Coming Storm

Perhaps because I was the first to report my home address, the list quickly reached my workplace. When I went to work that afternoon, I heard that the Party secretary of the company was extremely anxious, checking various subordinate departments to inquire whether any Falun Dafa practitioners missed work the day before, or whether anyone participated in the “siege of Zhongnanhai” or the “riot.”

I was the deputy director of a department, and our department Party secretary knew the seriousness of the matter. Because I had a good reputation at work and he was afraid I would be punished, he covered for me, saying, “So-and-so asked for leave that day due to some urgent matter at home.” Later, I heard that two practitioners from other departments in our company faced consequences for petitioning in Beijing—they received warnings and their bonuses were suspended for two months. Afterward, another leader in my department said, “You got away with it!”

My company was relatively lenient. I heard some practitioners were intercepted before they returned home. With police and police vans guarding major intersections, some practitioners were directly pushed into police vans and taken to the local liaison office in Beijing, followed by detention at local police stations. Some employers hosted brainwashing centers where practitioners were kept for one month. Practitioners were not allowed to go home, and they were forced to write statements that they renounced Falun Dafa. Other types of mistreatment include home ransacking, fines, and job termination.

The Importance of Genuine Kindness

This was my experience while I participated in the peaceful appeal on April 25, 1999. I recently read some articles on Minghui that showed a slaughter of practitioners had actually been planned that day.

“According to the CCP official, Jiang, General Secretary of the CCP and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, secretly ordered military personnel to be put on standby. To conceal their identities, these soldiers were dressed in police uniforms. With weapons loaded, they were ready to kill the petitioners for the crime of ‘besieging Zhongnanhai,’” wrote the author of a Minghui article published in February 2026.

“According to the source, numerous high officials within the Party tried to stop the slaughter. They suggested holding a meeting to resolve the petitioners’ grievances and avoid a shooting if the petitioners agreed to leave. In the end, Premier Zhu Rongji and other officials met with practitioners’ representatives on that day, and the incident was peacefully resolved. Practitioners quickly left the site, and they even cleaned up trash as they did so. This way, a tragedy similar to the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre was averted,” the article continued.

Looking back at the decades since the CCP took power in 1949, the regime has a track record of political campaigns consisting of brutality and killing. The appeal on April 25, 1999 could have become another Tiananmen Square Massacre. However, the peaceful and rational manner of Falun Dafa practitioners prevented it.

That also explains why the CCP has been unable to eradicate Falun Dafa, even though the regime succeeded in all its previous political campaigns. The answer is simple: Falun Dafa is apolitical and practitioners have no agenda. With honesty and dignity, they are safeguarding the common good—the foundation of humanity. This is important for both China and the world.