(Minghui.org) Falun Dafa practitioners held an event in front of the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles on April 22, 2025 to commemorate the April 25 peaceful appeal. They also called for an end of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) 26-year-long persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners in China.

Rally in Los Angeles on April 22, 2025 to mark the 26^th anniversary of the April 25 appeal

The practitioners sat in silence in the open space in front of the Chinese Consulate and on the lawn across the street, leaving a path for passers-by. The scene was orderly, without noise or slogans, echoing the peaceful April 25 appeal of 1999.

The CCP’s Persecution Is Ongoing

Practitioner Ms. Song addressed the rally and called on the CCP to stop the persecution and release her sister, Ms. Song Huichan, detained in China for practicing Falun Dafa.

Ms. Song Huichan was arrested for talking to people about the persecution in Tianjin on April 11, 2025. Her home was ransacked that night. She was held in criminal detention the next day. Ms. Song, who started practicing Falun Dafa in 1997, has been repeatedly arrested since the persecution began. She was incarcerated in a forced labor camp for one and a half years in 2004 and imprisoned for three years in 2015.

“My mother is 93 years old and bedridden. She needs my sister’s care,” Ms. Song said. “I call on all kindhearted people across the world to urge the CCP to release my sister and all prisoners of conscience.”

The CCP’s persecution is still rampant. At least 164 Falun Dafa practitioners died in the persecution last year. There were 764 practitioners sentenced to prison last year, among them 376 were sentenced to over three years in prison and eight were sentenced from 10 to 13 years in prison. Even elderly practitioners in their 80s and 90s are imprisoned. At least 5,691 practitioners were arrested last year. Within the first three months of this year, at least 101 practitioners over 60 years of age have been sentenced to prison.

China Will Be Better Without the Persecution

Los Angeles Chinese democracy movement leaders, including Liu Yinquan, Chairman of the China Social Democratic Party, and Dr. Zheng Cunzhu, Chairman of the China Democratic Party United Headquarters, as well as members of the China Democratic Party, participated in the rally that evening and gave speeches in support of Falun Dafa practitioners and called for an end to the persecution.

Liu Yinquan, Chairman of the China Social Democratic Party, speaks in the rally.

Liu Yinquan said he admired Falun Dafa practitioners who follow the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance when they protest the persecution. He said that for the development of human society, material and technological development alone is far from enough, and in some ways, the more technology develops, the worse the world may become, because it also needs the support of spiritual civilization.

He said that the CCP is now in deep trouble in its domestic and foreign affairs, and violence occurs often in China. If the essence of human civilization, such as Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, could be promoted, most Chinese people would follow these principles to deal with interpersonal problems. “There would be no forced organ harvesting in China now, and no one would drive a car into a kindergarten. The whole world would be a very beautiful place,” Mr. Liu said.

Falun Dafa practitioner Wu Yingnian said at the rally, “I believe that in the near future, China will usher in the day when freedom of belief and human rights will be respected. And Falun Dafa’s 26-year peaceful struggle will become an indelible part of the history of China’s journey to human rights and freedom.”

Dr. Zheng Cunzhu, Chairman of the China Democratic Party United Headquarters, speaks in the rally.

“If we are not alert, but allow the CCP’s authoritarian power to expand around the world, if Western countries do not change their strategy of appeasing the CCP and allowing the evil forces to exist, then in the end, it will spread to the world like COVID-19,” Dr. Zheng Cunzhu said.

“Everyone who pursues democracy, freedom, and faith lights a candle. This light will not go out even in the darkest moment.” He pointed out that under the CCP’s control, the annual June 4 memorial candlelight vigil is no longer held in Victoria Park, Hong Kong. Freedom and justice need to be protected, and Dr. Zheng hopes, “The candlelight can gather, like the sun, to dispel darkness, so that Chinese people can freely practice their faith in their own land.”