United Kingdom: Practitioners in Northern England Commemorate April 25 Appeal

Falun Dafa practitioners in northern England held activities in Leeds on April 25, 2021, to commemorate the April 25 Appeal in Beijing 22 years ago. They exposed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution, especially its forced organ harvesting from imprisoned practitioners. Several people signed a petition calling for an end to the CCP’s atrocities.

Practitioners in northern England demonstrate Falun Dafa exercises during an event held in Leeds on April 25, 2021.

Many people stopped to watch practitioners’ exercise demonstration. An elderly man told a practitioner that he admired Falun Dafa and he sometimes meditated. “Your exercises are great. Such a great belief and a group of great people shouldn’t be persecuted! The Communist Party is evil!”

Many people signed the petition calling for an end to the human rights abuses.

Background
Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong) was first taught to the public in 1992. Nearly 100 million people across China soon began practicing after experiencing improvements in their health and morals.

On April 23 & 24, 1999, police officers in Tianjin, a city near Beijing, assaulted and arrested dozens of practitioners who had gathered outside a magazine office to discuss errors in a recently-published article attacking Falun Dafa. As word spread of the arrests and more practitioners talked with officials, they were told they had to take their appeal to Beijing.

The following day, April 25, some 10,000 Falun Dafa practitioners spontaneously gathered at the Central Appeals office in Beijing, as they had been instructed by Tianjin officials. The gathering was peaceful and orderly. Several Falun Dafa representatives were called in to meet with Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji and members of his staff. That evening, practitioners' concerns were answered. The arrested practitioners in Tianjin were released and everyone went home.

Jiang Zemin, former head of the CCP, perceived the spiritual discipline's growing popularity as a threat to the CCP's atheistic ideology and issued an order to ban Falun Dafa on July 20, 1999.

Minghui.org has confirmed the deaths of thousands of Falun Dafa practitioners due to the persecution over the past 22 years; the actual number is suspected to be much higher. More have been imprisoned and tortured for their faith.

There is concrete evidence that the CCP sanctions the harvesting of organs from detained practitioners, who are murdered to supply the organ transplant industry.