(Clearwisdom.net) World Journal reported (in Chinese) on April 26 that 60 to 70 Falun Gong practitioners in the San Francisco area gathered on the afternoon of April 25 at Chinatown's Garden Corner Plaza to commemorate the Zhongnanhai event (the April 25 appeal) that happened five years ago.
According to the report, several people among the attendees of the gathering personally participated in the Zhongnanhai event. They said the event five years ago was completely peaceful and gentle. Because more than forty Falun Gong Falun Gong practitioners in Tianjin were arrested, on April 25, 1999, over 10,000 practitioners went to Zhongnanhai (1) where Chinese highest leaders reside (to appeal).
The report quoted Falun Gong practitioner Sherry Zhang who accepted a telephone interview on April 25, "According to attendees of the April 25, 1999 appeal, the appealers did not stand on the side next to the Zhongnanhai compound. They gathered on the small road opposite Zhongnanhai. Later, police officers came and led them to go around the Zhongnanhai compound. Thus came out the saying of "besieging". It's likely that (the authority) used this excuse to frame Falun Gong."
Sherry Zhang also pointed out that a movement to safeguard citizens' rights appeared in China. Falun Gong practitioners' appeal in 1999 was also an event to uphold their rights.