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Victims of 20-Year-Long Persecution Remembered Near the Hudson River

July 20, 2019 |   By a Falun Gong practitioner in New York

(Minghui.org) Twenty years ago on July 20, 1999, the former Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin and his regime launched the persecution of Falun Gong. Falun Gong is a mind and body improvement practice that quickly gained popularity in China in the 1990s. Practitioners have been subjected to illegal imprisonment, torture and many have been killed for their organs. Nonetheless, the practitioners in China have stood their ground and upheld their faith despite the dangers they face on a daily basis.

Hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners from the New York area came to attend a rally and candlelight vigil opposite the Chinese Consulate beside the Hudson River on Monday, July 15, 2019. Several practitioners at the rally spoke of the horrors they had suffered in China and called for an end to the persecution. As night fell, they held a candlelight vigil in memory of those who had died in the persecution.

Falun Gong practitioners gather opposite the Chinese Consulate in New York and hold a rally to protest the 20-year-long persecution of practitioners in China. A banner reads: “End 20 years of persecution of Falun Gong.”

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has used the most brutal torture methods to try to stop practitioners from upholding their faith. Minghui has reported 4,326 verified deaths, but because of the censorship and severity of the persecution, the number of deaths is likely to be a lot higher.

Two practitioners who spoke at the rally asked the CCP to release their family members who are imprisoned in China and being tortured for not giving up Falun Gong.

Another practitioner, Ms. Han Yu, described how her father Mr. Han Junqing died two months after he was sent to a detention center. Ms. Han saw his father’s remains, how he had a long incision from his throat to his abdomen that was roughly sutured up. His organs had been removed for transplant. The organ removal was performed against his will and while he was still alive.

After night fell, practitioners sat quietly, holding candles and lotus flower lights to mourn those who had passed away during the persecution. The vigil was framed by a huge banner at the back of practitioners that read “Stop the Persecution of Falun Gong in China.” Candles at the front of the rally were arranged to form the Chinese characters Zheng Fa or “Righteous Fa.”

Call for CCP Leader to Dissolve the Party

Ms. Yi Rong, chairperson of the Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP, spoke at the rally. She said that many practitioners have died over the past 20 years due to torture. The CCP has also systemically harvested organs for transplant from unwilling practitioners who were incarcerated for their belief.

Ms. Yi Rong, chairperson of the Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP

Ms. Yi asked that those who had participated in the persecution of practitioners to quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. She said they should also expose the crimes that they had committed for the CCP. This was the only way they could redeem themselves. She also called on the CCP’s current leader Xi Jinping to dissolve the Communist Party, because it has committed too many unspeakable crimes.

Judgment Day for the CCP Coming Soon

Dr. Wang Zhiyuan, president of the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG), said that Jiang and his regime have committed crimes of genocide. The atrocities of live organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners have been a new low in human history.

Dr. Wang Zhiyuan, president of the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) and a former research scientist at Harvard Medical School

Dr. Wang said that the latest investigative report from WOIPFG shows that organ harvesting from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners still continues.

“The CCP has been slaughtering its people nationwide since the end of 1999 and has made enormous profits. The extent of the evil is unspeakable,” Dr. Wang said, “One day the CCP will face justice for its crimes of genocide against Falun Gong.”

People Are Ready for the Persecution to End

US-based political commentator Li Tianxiao said that people are fully prepared to end the persecution. WOIPFG has gathered evidence of Jiang’s involvement in the crimes against Falun Gong. On June 17, 2019, an independent tribunal based in London ruled that crimes against humanity in the form of illegal detention, torture, forced organ harvesting, and the killing of prisoners of conscience have been committed in China. The judgment found that the illicit organ trade in China specifically targets Falun Gong practitioners.

Dr. Li Tianxiao is a US-based political commentator.

Dr. Li said the US State Department has established a Commission on Unalienable Rights and will start investigating the CCP’s human rights violations. “People are ready to put the culprits of the persecution on trial and want justice to be served.”

Nine courageous Chinese people who quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations participated in the rally to show their support. They wanted to demonstrate that they did not agree with nor want to be part of the crimes committed by the CCP.

Nine Chinese people openly declared their withdrawal from the CCP.