Practitioners From Japan Did Group Practice on the Tiananmen Square to Celebrate the New Millennium

On the eve of the new millennium, a dozen of practitioners from Japan gathered on the Tiananmen Square to practice Falun Gong and were arrested by the Chinese police. Six practitioners with Japanese passports and one practitioner with Taiwan passport were deported and sent back to Tokyo on the afternoon of January 1st, 2000. Those practitioners with Chinese passports were still being detained when the news was posted.

These practitioners from Japan have started to go to Beijing at the end of December. They thought that on the coming of the new century, every Falun Gong practitioner should walk out of home and practice Falun Gong in an open and dignified way. Especially when Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) is defamed and the teacher is still being slandered at, it means a lot for practitioners to go to Beijing to practice on the Tiananmen Square.

Over 40 practitioners from Japan volunteered to go to Beijing. Some with Chinese passports were denied the entrance to China at the Beijing or Shanghai customs. When being questioned for the reason, the officers in the customs said perfunctorily that they were simply following the order of their supervisors. Practitioners lost their personal freedom for more than 12 hours and were stuffed into the Airplane flying back to Japan on the next day.

On December 31, practitioners who successfully arrived Beijing came to the Tiananmen Square. When it was approaching the midnight, thousands of people gathered on the Square. The practitioners started to practice Falun Gong as soon as the new millennium arrived. Some practitioners even brought cassette players and started to play the Falun Gong practice music. Japanese practitioners also found many practitioners from China and Hong Kong practicing Falun Gong near them. Since they had had no contact with each other, they practiced Falun Gong separately at different locations of the Square. Some locations had 5 to 6 practitioners; some locations had a dozen of practitioners; some places had dozens of practitioners. Some groups started with the first set of exercise; some groups started with sitting meditation. As soon as the police noticed them, they rushed to the practitioners and dragged them onto the police vans by kicking or beating. Many female practitioners were thrown into the vans with their hair being dragged. A lot of hair could be found on the vans. The police force seemed not adequate because a group of Japanese practitioners had not been taken away until they had practiced Falun Gong for about ten minutes. They were sent to the detention centers in Beijing. Some police officers' hands become swollen or even bleeding from beating up practitioners. Many police officers became very tired. Many people and foreign journalists witnessed police officers beating up practitioners.

Practitioners with Japanese passports were sent back o Tokyo after being detained for 12 hours while practitioners with Chinese passports remained in custody. When this news was written, Zhang Yu-fu and his seven-year-old son were on their way of being escorted back by police to their hometown in Harbin. Zhang Yu-fu's mother-in-law had been informed to pick up the child. Zhang's wife is also a practitioner and she had been denied the entrance to China twice. The whereabouts of other arrested practitioners are unknown.

January 2nd, 2000