(Minghui.org) On April 25, 1999, over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners from Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei Province went to the petition office near the Zhongnanhai Compound to appeal to the government about the continued harassment of Falun Gong practitioners' cultivation environment. They tried to clarify the truth about Falun Gong to government officials and made three legitimate requests: 1. Release all detained Falun Gong practitioners. 2. Allow the press to publish Falun Gong books. 3. Grant Falun Gong practitioners the right to practice cultivation freely. This was the well-known “April 25 Appeal.” Thirteen years have passed. Some people are still being misled by the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) lies and propaganda, and resent Falun Gong. Yet there are many people who have learned about Falun Gong through the April 25 Appeal and even came to the path of cultivation practice in Falun Gong. Ms. Tong Yu is one of them. 
Tong Yu is a high school teacher. She started practicing Falun Gong in September 1999. When she was asked whether she had heard about the April 25 Appeal before she began the practice, she said yes, and she is thankful for the April 25 Appeal because it triggered her curiosity about Falun Gong. At that time, she thought, “Why has Falun Gong spread so fast and wide? It must have something very precious.” After that, she took up the practice. The greatest benefits she has noticed after taking up the practice were the changes in her children and her own physical and moral improvement.
Upgrading Xinxing and Rebirth of My Children
Ms. Tong Yu stated that before she practiced Falun Gong, she had a very bad temper. She was unhappy with her life, especially her marriage. She felt she was being treated unfairly. After she began practicing Falun Gong, which taught her to always put others' interest first, her temperament underwent a significant change. She began seeing things in a more positive way than before.
When Ms. Tong Yu talked about her two children, she gratefully said, “In the past, my two children used to give their teachers a lot of headaches. (They were hyperactive).” Their teachers recommended that she take them to a doctor. In raising them, she had painstakingly tried to give them a good education. Because Tong Yu thought that medicine was not good for the brain, she would not let her children take it. Instead, she asked her children to practice Falun Gong with her. A few years later, her two sons, one in high school and one in junior high, were no longer mischievous. They became very gentle and polite. Friends and relatives who watched them grow up noticed and said, “A total rebirth!” They knew that it was due to practicing Falun Gong.
From a Sense of Responsibility to a Mission
Tong Yu is concerned because Falun Gong is still being persecuted in China. She believes that people can understand the truth and goodness of Falun Gong only under the environment of uncensored media. People in China have no opportunity to get to know Falun Gong because they can't reach out to them. As a Falun Gong practitioner, Tong Yu said, “I want to tell people in China what Falun Gong is really about. If they know that Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is what Falun Gong advocates, I believe they will make the same choice as millions of Falun Gong practitioners. Even as non-practitioners, they would think that Falun Gong is good.” That's why Ms. Tong Yu has been making phone calls to let the deceived Chinese people learn the truth of Falun Gong. She has been doing this for six to seven years.
What Is Her Motivation?
Ms. Tong Yu said that in the beginning, she felt that clarifying the truth was her responsibility. She was in charge of the “phone-call team” that makes telephone calls to clarify the truth to people in China. She felt that she needed to work hard. When faced with some mainland Chinese people who cursed at practitioners, she felt wronged and grieved. However, when they said, “Thank you!” or “Falun Gong is good,” her feelings could not be contained by a sense of responsibility, but instead grew to a sense of mission, thinking that she must do more. When she saw that people who had been deceived by the Chinese Communist regime choose light and goodness, she felt all that she had done was worthwhile and meaningful. Because of this, she has continued non-stop.
Compassionate Calls Bring Notable Changes
Like Ms. Tong Yu, there are now many people around the world who tirelessly make phone calls to China to tell people the facts about Falun Gong and the persecution. In just a few years, people have undergone some changes.
Ms. Tong Yu said that in the past, when people heard about “quitting the party,” they would hang up the phone immediately. When they heard about Falun Gong, they would start yelling. But now the number of people quitting the party has accelerated. We don't need to spend seven or eight minutes to explain the truth to people before they understand. As soon as we tell them that there are over 100 million people who have quit the CCP, in less than a minute, we can help them quit the Party. We can convince about ten people to quit the Party in a half an hour. More and more people in China know that the CCP is bad, and they don't want to have anything to do with it. In the beginning, people responded to us with a short “Ah” or “Oh.” But now, they actively and sincerely say “Thank you!” The greatest changes we see is in people from police stations and other public security offices.
In the past, when the police picked up the phone, they would say something negative. But now, they often say “Thank you!” They even use their real names to quit the CCP. If the public security officers dare to use their real names to quit the CCP, it means they know the evilness of the CCP. They want to protect themselves and have a bright future. Ms. Tong Yu said that examples like these are too numerous to count. We can see that the CCP has lost people's loyalty.
The CCP political climate is undergoing a dramatic change. Ms. Tong Yu said that if she has a chance to call the CCP's high-ranking officials, she would tell them, “Your position is a high-ranking official. You can do a great thing. As long as you have a clear understanding of the truth, your decision can affect a lot of people. Wang Lijun, Bo Xilai and Zhou Yongkang now face a very tragic end, not to mention that most of the officials' positions are less than that of those three people. If you are not clear-minded, you may face the same end. This is the critical time to make that decision. And your decision will affect the people under you. Cherish this moment and what Falun Gong practitioners tell you. Only Falun Gong practitioners know how precious the Chinese people are. The practitioners risk their own safety to stand up and tell our precious Chinese people the truth: Grasp this critical moment and choose a bright future.”
We Are Working to Save Precious Lives
Ms. Tong Yu also said that there are elderly ladies in their seventies and young men in their thirties who are also making phone calls to China. In the beginning, they timidly recited the manuscript. They have gotten hung-up on many times. But they still compassionately thought, “Let's give them another chance.” They can now naturally and fluently clarify the truth to people in China. Some people had hung up seven times before they finally quit the party on the eighth call.
An average person would easily give up upon being rejected like that. But practitioners can't bear to see precious lives being buried by lies. In order to help people understand the truth, practitioners always use compassion to awaken them and give them the opportunity to choose. They don't want to give up on any lives. The people have knowing sides that will make the right choice. Practitioners' aspiration is to help more people choose their own future. For this purpose, practitioners persist in doing what they do and won't give up.
A Brief Background
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, or Dafa, is a high-level cultivation practice which was first taught to the public in May 1992 by Mr. Li Hongzhi. The practice is based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. The practice has been proven by millions of people to lead genuine practitioners to high levels, while stabilizing society and upgrading peoples' health and morality.
The rapid growth in the number of Falun Gong practitioners soon attracted the attention of the CCP leadership. In 1997, Luo Gan, secretary of the CCP Central Political and Law Committee, abused his power and ordered the public security system to conduct a secret investigation of Falun Gong in an attempt to ban the practice. Headed by Luo Gan's relative, He Zuoxiu, they began to publish articles that defamed Falun Gong on a national scale.
On April 11, 1999, He Zuoxiu published an article entitled “I Do Not Approve of Young People Practicing Qigong” in the Youth and Technology Review Magazine. In the article, He implied that practicing Falun Gong would lead to mental illness. Additionally, he implicated Falun Gong by blaming it for many problems. Many practitioners felt that if the truth was not clarified, not only would their cultivation environment be jeopardized, but practitioners would also be dragged into a dirty political struggle by those politicians who had ulterior motives. Subsequently, a series of events took place leading to the April 25, 1999 Peaceful Appeal, when over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners peacefully went to Beijing to appeal for the practice, which shocked the international community.
