United States: Rally Held to Commemorate Eight Years of Falun Gong Practitioners' Peaceful Resistance to Persecution

At noon on July 17th, 2007, Falun Gong practitioners in the Greater Dallas area held a rally at the West End Station in downtown Dallas, exposing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s eight years of unjust persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. They also commemorated Falun Gong practitioners' peaceful journey of resisting the persecution and called on people from all walks of life to see clearly the evil nature of the CCP, abandon the CCP and choose a bright future.

Falun Gong practitioners demonstrate the exercises

Passersby learn about the persecution of Falun Gong happening in China

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Wang Haiyan recounts her persecution experience in China

Steve Sun recalls Falun Gong practitioners' eight years of peaceful journey of resisting the persecution

People signing the petition to call for an end to the persecution

At noon, it was very crowded at the West End Station. Falun Gong practitioners demonstrated the exercises and reenacted the harvesting of organs from living Falun Gong practitioners conducted in the CCP's system where hospitals collude with government authorities, prisons, military and judiciary systems. Passersby were attracted by such stark contrast between peaceful demonstration of the exercises and bloody persecution. They stopped to watch and enquire about the situation. People who learned the facts signed the petition to call for an end to the persecution.

A Western young man learned about the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and said that he had been to China, and Chinese people are very kind. He asked the host of the rally if he could express his concern to passersby through the microphone. He said that in the U.S., freedom of belief, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly are regarded as heavenly endowed human rights, and the rights that people ought to enjoy. But in China, people are subjected to brutal persecution for remaining steadfast in their belief. He called on people to pray for those who have suffered unfair treatment. He said God is watching everything, and will protect these kind people. Though they may lose their lives in this human world amid the persecution, their souls will arise into heaven.

Falun Gong practitioner and software engineer Steve Sun introduced how Falun Gong has brought to 100 million people physical and mental wellbeing and upgrading of their moral standards. He talked about how the CCP and some base persons were jealous of Falun Gong's popularity and the CCP authorities motivated all national machineries to start a genocidal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners that has persisted for eight years. Mr. Sun said that recently, a Canadian investigation team conducted an independent investigation into the allegations that the CCP harvested organs from living Falun Gong practitioners. Thirty-three pieces of evidence indicated that the allegation is true. While the CCP suppresses Falun Gong, it also mobilised propaganda tools to spread lies and demonise Falun Gong in an attempt to justify its persecution.

Steve Sun said that under such circumstances, Falun Gong practitioners started their peaceful journey of resisting the persecution. They have taken the risk of being arrested, detained, tortured and even lost their lives, and used their savings to make flyers to clarify the facts to people and to call for an end to the persecution.

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Wang Haiyan who was just rescued to Dallas this June by the UN Refugee Organization recounted her experience during the rally. Ms. Wang was once an excellent chief designer of Hong Kong Fei Da Fashion Co., Ltd. She was also once a manager of the Marketing Development Department at Culier Fashion Co., Ltd. She said that prior to practising Falun Gong in 1996, she had suffered rheumatoid arthritis, faucitis, neurasthenic, maladjustment of internal secretion and other illnesses. After practising Falun Gong, all these symptoms gradually got better. She went from being physically weak and depressed to becoming healthy and happy. However, since the CCP started the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, she has been illegally arrested, detained and sentenced to forced labour six times by the authorities for clarifying the facts to people, and petitioning to the government hoping to stop the persecution of Falun Gong. During that time, her home was ransacked, and she lost her freedom for over 340 days. In 2002, when she was detained at the Chatou Women's Forced Labour Camp in Guangzhou City, she was brutally tortured, resulting in blindness in her right eye.

Wang Haiyan said that if she continued to reside in mainland China, she might have once again been arrested and persecuted, and even may have lost her life. She did not want to be subjected to the CCP's persecution, and had to leave her home. After having gone through many difficulties and tribulations, she managed to go to Thailand. She obtained protection from the UN Refugee Organization and help from the U.S. government, and came to Dallas this June. Wang Haiyan expressed her gratitude to the UN and U.S. government, and at the same time called on more people to stand up to help rescue practitioners who are still suffering the persecution in mainland China.

Falun Gong practitioner Emmy Hu said that the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong, and its suppression of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance has completely exceeded the baseline of human morality. The Epoch Times' series the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party deeply and systematically exposes the CCP's evil nature. More and more Chinese people have seen clearly that the CCP's evil nature is the root cause of all of their social problems, and abandoning the CCP is to choose a bright future. She said that 24 million Chinese people have courageously quit the CCP and its affiliated organisations. She encouraged more people to be awakened from the CCP's lies and not to follow the CCP to be weeded out by history.