Australian Practitioner: I Want to Let People Know What Is Happening in China

(Minghui.org) To mark the 27th anniversary of the April 25 appeal in Beijing, practitioners held a rally in Melbourne on April 18, 2026. Among them were Nick and his son.

Nick (right) and his son participate in the rally in Melbourne on April 18, 2026.

Nick was in his 20s when the April 25 appeal took place in Beijing. He and his family had already benefited from practicing Falun Gong and their health had improved. “Other practitioners told me there was interference in China. When practitioners went to the practice site [in China] the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] played music on loudspeakers to stop people from practicing and they sprayed practitioners with water.

“I was confused, because I come from a different continent and I learned the practice in Australia. I couldn’t understand how that could be possible. How can the government stop people from practicing Falun Gong?” Nick said.

The practitioners who went to Beijing to appeal on April 25, 1999 had three requests: release the practitioners who were unlawfully detained in Tianjin, restore the legal publication of Falun Gong books, and reinstate a normal environment for practicing Falun Gong. The gathering, which lasted from morning to late evening, was peaceful. After the representative practitioners received a positive resolution from the government, they ended the appeal and everyone went home.

“I think the appeal was completely justified,” Nick said. “Such a good practice was being mistreated. These requests were basic rights.

“When I started practicing [Falun Gong], I just jumped in and started just like all the other people who went to the practice sites and the study groups. So for me it was just about the practice and learning about the teachings. My life also experienced a positive change. When I first started practicing, I had a really bad hip injury and I had just started my landscape business. I was young and I was going to have to quit landscaping because my hip was so bad. When I went to a health festival and Falun Gong practitioners were teaching people the exercises, they asked if anyone had any illness or anything wrong with their body. I completely forgot that I had this hip injury and it just went away because I stopped thinking about it. It was amazing,” Nick recalled.

“When I was young I wasn’t the best person. I did a lot of bad things, but I have changed [because of Falun Dafa]. Now I am a family man and I have a good marriage. I meet with my parents often and I respect them. I am a good person.”

Nick often brings his son to activities to raise awareness about the persecution. “It has given me the ability to pass on to my son the true knowledge of what it is like to be a moral human being and to really be kind and open. I look at my son and I just think how blessed I am that he is not distracted by the bad things in this world.”

Nick at the rally in Melbourne on April 18, 2026

Urgency and Self-Discipline

The CCP later claimed that the April 25 appeal was “a siege of the CCP headquarters” and launched the persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999. This ongoing persecution has evolved into a transnational repression, with the CCP targeting practitioners outside of China and focusing especially on trying to sabotage Shen Yun Performing Arts.

Nick shared that ever since the persecution began in July 1999, he has felt a profound sense of urgency to expose the true nature of the CCP and to introduce the practice of Falun Gong to more people. Because mainstream newspapers and the media are saturated with propaganda from the CCP’s official outlets, he feels that Falun Gong practitioners themselves must tell people what is actually happening in China.

In early 2000, Nick traveled to Beijing with his family to submit a petition to the relevant authorities. In the days that followed, he spoke extensively with a variety of Australian media outlets, recounting their experiences. Through these interviews, Nick helped the Australian public gain a deeper understanding of Falun Gong and the reality that practitioners in China were being denied religious freedom and were subjected to severe persecution.

For 27 years—whether in Australia or in the United States—Nick has never stopped using his spare time to clarify the truth. “For the 27 years that I have been practicing, I’ve participated in countless parades, conferences, and community events. Every time we’ve gone anywhere around the world, practitioners are so respectful to the community. We might be 1,000 people at a parade, and we don’t leave any trash behind. The city councils and the police respect us because we are so peaceful and polite,” Nick said.

Passers-by learn about Falun Gong and the persecution and sign a petition to call for an end to the human rights abuses on April 18, 2026.