(Minghui.org) Being truthful is one of the fundamental values upheld and respected in any civilized society, but not so in today's China, which has been ruled by the totalitarian Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for the past 70 years. 

The CCP's Fear of Truth 

The CCP is afraid of truth and has survived by deception, violence, and the brainwashing of the Chinese people. 

In China, people are forced to echo only one voice, the voice of the CCP, however perfidious and deceitful it may be.

For those who speak their minds and stand up for justice, they most certainly suffer the consequences. Such consequences can include being invited for a “chat” by the police as a warning, being forced to make a public “self-criticism,” sacked from their employment, defamed and labeled as “anti-China” traitors, made to disappear and never be heard of again, unlawfully arrested and imprisoned, tortured or even murdered, harassed and having family members implicated and punished. The list goes on and on.

The CCP seems to be even more jittery upon hearing any voice different from its propaganda amid the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.

Recently, a frontline doctor in Hubei was given a “demerit” by the CCP Committee of Discipline and Inspection of Edong Healthcare Group, and removed from the post of director of the Quality Management Department of Edong Healthcare Group and deputy director of the Central Hospital. 

He was accused of having made “inappropriate” comments on the internet on issues such as wearing masks, home quarantine management, lockdowns, and Chinese medicine, as well as of having failed to stop his supporters from making “defamatory remarks about the state coronavirus control policies.” The official notice said that any such behavior would be dealt with severely “without mercy.” 

April 25th Appeal Set a Precedent for the Hope of China

Under the tight grip of the CCP, it is virtually unthinkable for any group of people to openly exercise their rights in a peaceful and rational manner, much less be successful. 

However, an incredible event took place on April 25, 1999 when around 10,000 people took to the streets near the appeal office of the State Council in Beijing to seek justice for and demand the release of dozens of Falun Gong practitioners unlawfully arrested by police in Tianjin a few days earlier. 

They stood quietly throughout the day, with no shouting of slogans or placards while their representatives were meeting with the then prime minister and discussing solutions to the issues in question. 

People from the local community, as well as police officers sent to monitor the petitioners, were deeply impressed by Falun Gong practitioners' calmness, integrity and self-restraint. Some of them began to take an interest in the practice and became practitioners themselves later on. 

The meeting with the prime minister ended successfully, with the prime minister agreeing to look into practitioners' requests for a peaceful environment to practice their faith and to immediately release the arrested practitioners in Tianjin. 

Upon hearing the news, Falun Gong practitioners left as peacefully as they had come, picking up every tiny piece of trash on the ground, including cigarette butts from the police. 

It was such a monumental event, never seen in China's history. 

However, the CCP's then General Secretary Jiang Zemin branded the peaceful appeal as “an attack on the central government” and launched a nationwide persecution of Falun Gong practitioners three month later.

For the past twenty-one years, Falun Gong practitioners have never stopped their peaceful resistance against the persecution in the face of tyranny. Many people in China have traveled thousands of miles to Beijing just to speak out the words “Falun Dafa is good!” 

Mr. Xie Yanyi, a Chinese human rights lawyer who has been involved in numerous rights protection cases, including Falun Gong cases, holds Falun Gong practitioners in high regard. He recently commented on the April 25th appeal, noting “Falun Gong practitioners' peaceful efforts to clarify the facts about their faith and the persecution is a great enlightened movement. This is something unprecedented, never seen throughout Chinese history.” 

The CCP Has No Regard for “The Rule of Law” or Human Life

The CCP has always placed itself above the law and often acts in complete contradiction to China's own Constitution.

The Supreme People's Court of China issued new guidelines that took effect in May 2015, which require judicial authorities to accept and process all criminal complaints submitted by individual citizens. 

Since then, as many as 200,000 Falun Gong practitioners have filed criminal complaints against Jiang Zeming with the Supreme Court, using their real names, and many of them received confirmation of receipt from the court. 

However, instead of having their complaints processed by the rule of law, the CCP launched another round of persecution of practitioners who had filed complaints. 

Falun Gong practitioners are not the only victims of the CCP's persecution; people of other beliefs outside the boundary of the CCP doctrines have also suffered tremendously under the communist regime. 

There are many cases of bloodshed in China every year – forcible demolition of private property, “black prisons” where petitioners were illegally detained and subjected to violent abuse and torture, as well as the concentration camps in Xinjiang.

People are particularly appalled at the CCP's blatant disregard for human life in its handling of the Wuhan coronavirus, both in China and overseas, and more and more people have begun to see the CCP for what it is – an evil specter with its deceptive and poisonous tentacles extended to all corners of the world, posing a real danger to the fundamental values essential for the wellbeing of all of humanity. 

People need to know the truth, the whole world needs to know the truth. The CCP must be held accountable for its unforgivable crimes against humanity. 

The spirit of the April 25th appeal will continue to shine through the darkness before dawn.