(Minghui.org) Mr. Gao Qigang, a retired professor from a Canadian university, learned about the peaceful appeal of 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners on April 25, 1999 from his wife, who is a Falun Gong practitioner. On that day, about 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners across China went to the National Appeals Office in Beijing, to call for the release of 45 fellow practitioners who had been arrested in nearby Tianjin two days before.
Mr. Gao said that he was very impressed by the peace and calmness shown by the Falun Gong practitioners during the unprecedented appeal outside the government complex. Some were reading books, some were meditating, and some were talking to each other quietly. “It’s really, really touching to see the inner peace and compassion coming out of them during the appeal.” he said.
Mr. Gao Qigang feels that the spirit of the “April 25 Appeal” should be known to the world.
Mr. Gao believes that the Falun Gong practitioners’ peaceful and rational demonstration, which reflected their compassion, should be made known to the entire world, and that if people were like Falun Gong practitioners, many things could be resolved peacefully.
After then premier Zhu Rongji personally came out and met with practitioners, he promised a peaceful environment for the practitioners to practice their faith. It could have simply ended like that. But three months later, Jiang Zemin, then chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, launched a nationwide campaign against Falun Gong, and the persecution has continued to this day. Mr. Gao said that the appeal itself tells the world what kind of regime the Communist Party is and what it is capable of doing for the sake of its own benefit.
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Category: April 25 Events
