Los Angeles: Candlelight Vigil Commemorates the Lives of Falun Gong Practitioners Killed During the 23 Years of Persecution

(Minghui.org) Local practitioners gathered to light candles in front of the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles on July 18, 2022, to commemorate the thousands of practitioners killed during the 23-year-long persecution of Falun Gong in China.

A rally was held before the candlelight vigil, and several Falun Gong practitioners spoke about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) brutal persecution. They called for the release of practitioners in mainland China and demanded that the culprits of the persecution be brought to justice.

Falun Gong practitioners from the greater Los Angeles area held a candlelight vigil in front of the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles on July 18, 2022.

Professor Yingnian Wu, spokesperson for the Falun Dafa Association in Los Angeles, said that the CCP’s evil and dictatorial nature means that it can’t tolerate a group of people who follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

Professor Wu said that according to available statistics from Minghui.org, 4,828 Falun Gong practitioners have been confirmed killed during the persecution since July 20, 1999. In the first half of this year alone, 92 Falun Gong practitioners died because of the persecution, and at least 2,707 Falun Gong practitioners were kidnapped and harassed.

“Even if this group of people are kind and honest people who practice Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, the CCP will not tolerate it. This is determined by the the evil and dictatorial nature of the CCP,” he said.

Professor Yingnian Wu, spokesperson for the Falun Dafa Association in Los Angeles

Professor Wu said that persecution has extended to other people in mainland China. For example, thousands of people who recently demanded the banks return their deposits in Zhengzhou, Henan Province were violently suppressed by the CCP. Similar situations will increasingly happen to China’s people. Professor Wu appealed to every Chinese person to learn the truth about the persecution of Falun Gong, and at the same time, help and support Falun Gong practitioners’ efforts to end the persecution.

Families Broken by the Persecution

Ms. Xinhua Dong, a resident of Los Angeles, is one of the thousands of practitioners whose families have been broken apart by the persecution.

Xinhua had a big happy family before the persecution started. Her mother had regained her health through practicing Falun Gong, and her mother’s rheumatism, high blood pressure, and vertigo were cured. All seven of her brothers and sisters started cultivation practice one after another, and every one enjoyed happy families of their own. But after the beginning of the persecution of Falun Gong, each of their families were destroyed.

Xinhua Dong holding a sign that reads “Release my younger brother Yiran Dong immediately”

“My eldest brother Xinran was killed by the persecution. My other siblings were arrested and detained in brainwashing institutions. My mother died from fear and from the suffering,” Xinhua said.

Her younger brother Yiran, who was an engineer at the technical department of Shenyang City Municipal Police Department in Liaoning Province, was dismissed from his job, detained in a forced labor camp twice and imprisoned once, for a total of seven and half years. He was subjected to torture, such as beatings, humiliation, being deprived of sleep and made to stand for prolonged periods under the scorching sun. He changed from a strong middle-aged man to a white-haired scrawny old man in just seven and a half years.

Xinhua continued to worry about her brother after his release because local authorities keep him under surveillance and frequently harass him.

Xinhua had a message for those who were still actively carrying out the persecution and harassment of her brother Yiran, “Look at the changing situation and stop persecuting Falun Gong. Having kind thoughts toward Falun Gong practitioners will ensure the safety of yourself and your family.”

Calling for an End to the Persecution

Call for the immediate release of illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners

Ms. Guoxiu Song, who currently lives in Los Angeles, spoke at the rally and revealed the details of the brutal persecution of three practitioners, Xuezhen Wang, Jiageng Zeng and Xianming Lu in Guangzhou City, China.

Ms. Xuezhen Wang, a retiree of the Guangdong Provincial Drug Administration, was sentenced to four years in Guangdong Provincial Women’s Prison by the Guangzhou Haizhu District Court in 2021. She is now 78 years old and has been diagnosed with hypertension, a compressive bone disease of the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae, and degenerative osteoarthropathy of the lumbar spine. She is receiving treatment in prison.

Mr. Zeng Jiageng, 80, a graduate of South China University of Technology and a former senior engineer of Guangzhou Zhujiang Tire Co., Ltd, was incarcerated into Guangzhou No. 1 Detention Center on July 10, 2019. After two court hearings, he was illegally sentenced to five years in prison and fined 10,000 yuan on July 28, 2021.

Mr. Xianming Lu, 55, a Falun Gong practitioner from Liwan District, Guangzhou City, was arrested for petitioning for Falun Gong in Beijing and incarcerated at a forced labor camp for two and a half years where Mr. Lu suffered a great deal of torture, including sleep-deprivation, denial of the right to use the toilet, his legs were tightly bound, he was subjected to force-feeding through a tube in his nose, and unknown drugs were mixed into his food.

He was sentenced to five years imprisonment by the Guangzhou Liwan District Court after he was released from the labor camp. After years of illegal detention, torture and imprisonment, Mr. Lu became mentally ill.

Ms. Song said that what happened to these three Falun Gong practitioners is just the tip of the iceberg because the CCP strictly censors information. There are thousands of practitioners who have been tortured in prisons and lost their lives.

Hailun Li, head of the Los Angeles Center for Quitting the CCP, said that Falun Gong practitioners have helped millions of people understand the evil nature of the CCP and the benefits of Falun Dafa during the 23 years of peacefully standing against the persecution. As of July 18, 2022, nearly 400 million Chinese have declared their withdrawal from the Chinese Communist Party, Youth League, and the Young Pioneers on The Epoch Times website.

Now more and more dignitaries from all over the world have come forward to condemn the persecution. The United States has begun to sanction senior CCP officials and their families who have participated in the persecution of Falun Gong.