United Kingdom: April 25th Commemorative Press Conference and Chinatown Appeal in London

On Sunday April 24th 2005, UK Falun Gong practitioners gathered opposite the Chinese Embassy in London to hold a press conference, calling for the end of the persecution against Falun Gong that was initiated by the leader of the Chinese Communist Party, Jiang Zemin.

On April 25th 1999, 10,000 Chinese Falun Gong practitioners went to peacefully appeal to the Chinese Government at the Zhongnanhai government compound in central Beijing. This is the place where Chinese people are supposed to go to appeal if they are treated unfairly. Jiang Zemin was jealous of the number of people practising Falun Gong, which was 100 million and more than the membership of the Communist Party, so he immediately used the peaceful appeal as an opportunity to deceive the Chinese people and create lies about Falun Gong. Jiang’s call to persecute the peaceful practice after this so-called “siege” was unpopular among other members of the government but, due to the tyrannical nature of the communist system in China, they were forced to follow.

The speakers at the London press conference included the chairman of the UK Falun Gong Association and the vice chairman of non-governmental organisation European Friends of Falun Gong. They spoke of the massive increase in illegal arrests of Falun Gong practitioners and the declaration of martial law in parts of China that has happened in the week leading up to the April 25th anniversary. (For more information, see Practitioners Pursued and Arrested as CCP Launches Largest Nationwide Assault on Falun Gong Since July 20th 1999.)

On the same day, a demonstration of the Falun Gong exercises took place in London’s Chinatown. A TV showed passers by the true facts about the persecution and people stopped to watch in detail. An elderly Indian man sat down on the ground to try the sitting meditation exercise. People gathered to look at the practitioners and to read the posters explaining about the exercises and showing the methods of torture used against Falun Gong practitioners in China.