(Minghui.org) Practitioners held an event in Philadelphia’s Chinatown on April 26 to introduce Falun Gong to the public and commemorate a peaceful appeal in Beijing 27 years ago. After some practitioners were arrested in Tianjin, about 10,000 practitioners went to Beijing on April 25, 1999, and asked that they be released.

Ms. Wang, a local resident from Beijing in her 80s who walked past the event, said she saw the appeal in 1999. She was impressed by the peaceful scene and felt that Falun Gong was good.

After hearing how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) mistreated Falun Gong practitioners for their belief, 43 Chinese people agreed to renounce their memberships in the CCP organizations, including the Youth League and Young Pioneers. Some Westerners also signed petitions that called for an end to the persecution in China.

Practitioners held an event to commemorate the peaceful appeal in Beijing 27 years ago.

Alex explained to people why the event was held.

“I Don’t Practice Falun Gong, But I Am Against the Persecution”

Ms. Wang said she knew many practitioners when she lived in Beijing. “My residential area was home to various central government agencies and state-owned enterprises under the Ministry of Metallurgy. Many residents practiced Falun Gong, and they were good people,” she recalled. On April 25, 1999, she went to a place near the Beijing Zoo to meet a friend. When she rode her bike and passed Zhongnanhai, she saw many people quietly standing along Fuyou Street.

“There were reporters commenting on the scene, which made me think they were making a film. But on my way back, the entire area had been placed under martial law,” Ms. Wang explained. “Falun Gong practitioners kept the street very clean. I saw there were also practitioners near Beihai Park. Then the 103-Line trolleybus arrived and picked them up.”

Several of her coworkers practiced Falun Gong, and they all had good reputations, Ms. Wang continued. “But after my employer learned an accountant practiced Falun Gong, she was removed from the office and assigned to the warehouse,” she said. “The situation is much worse with many other employers—some practitioners were terminated. I could not understand it. They [those practitioners] just practiced to improve their health; why treat them so badly?”

After the CCP began to suppress Falun Gong in July 1999, they arrested numerous practitioners who were detained and imprisoned. When Ms. Wang went on a business trip to Hebei Province, she was asked numerous times on the train and at security gates whether she was a Falun Gong practitioner.

“When that happened, I told them I don’t practice Falun Gong, but I am against the persecution,” she said. In fact, former CCP leader Jiang Zemin wanted people to listen to him, and no one else; that was why he targeted Falun Gong, which was very popular. Ms. Wang learned that the CCP made up many lies to defame Falun Gong, including the notorious staged self-immolation incident on Tiananmen Square.

“By then, I realized the CCP was indeed very vicious. My friend told me some of her neighbors were military generals, and they also practiced Falun Gong. Some even lost their jobs because they practiced,” Ms. Wang added. “That is why I think the suppression is wrong and I support Falun Gong.”

Stopping the CCP’s Transnational Suppression

Practitioners passed out information about Falun Gong and collected signatures calling to stop the suppression in China.

Two members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Republican Senator Ted Cruz and Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley, jointly introduced the Falun Gong and Victims of Forced Organ Harvesting Protection Act on March 11, to hold the CCP accountable for forced organ harvesting and human rights violations.

During the rally in Chinatown, practitioners collected signatures on a petition urging the Senate to pass the legislation, so that the human rights abuses would end. Barry Entlock, a former government contractor from Virginia, was visiting Philadelphia with his wife and two daughters. After learning the facts about Falun Gong in Chinatown, all four family members signed the petition to help end the persecution.

Barry Entlock and his family.

Entlock said that his wife was of Cambodian-Chinese descent, so she knows how vicious communism is. Having studied communism extensively for many years, Entlock himself found many people were still misled by communism, and they did not realize the huge losses the regime brought across the world.

He said it is wrong for the CCP to persecute people because of their faith. “Whether they are Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghur Muslims, or Christians, they all have the right to practice their faith,” he said.

Entlock’s daughter Ipporah, is a student at Liberty University in Virginia. She said the experience of her mother’s family under communist tyranny opened her eyes to the evils of communism. “I believe that people in every country should be able to practice what they believe in and enjoy freedom of speech. That is, they should be able to say what they want to say and learn what they want to learn.”

Regarding the CCP’s recent export of repression overseas—specifically its transnational repression, Ipporah hopes Falun Gong practitioners can obtain the freedom and protection they need. “I wish they could break free from the influence exerted by the Communist Party—not only within that nation’s borders, but in every country,” she explained.

Police Officer Praises Practitioners

Ms. Wang, who now lives in Philadelphia, was admitted to Tsinghua University in 1996. Two years later, she began practicing Falun Gong at the university with her teachers and other students.

“Early in the morning on April 25th, a group of students from Tsinghua and I left the campus, and took a bus to Fuyou Street, which is located near the Central Petition Office. When we stepped off the bus, we saw many Falun Gong practitioners were already there,” she recalled. “Two rows of practitioners stood shoulder-to-shoulder along the outer edge of the sidewalk, leaving the center walkway open to avoid obstructing pedestrian traffic; further inside, many other practitioners were meditating, or doing the exercises, or reading the Falun Gong teachings.”

Ms. Wang said the police soon cordoned off Fuyou Street. “Occasionally, luxury sedans drove by, carrying high-ranking officials who observed us. Some vehicles had cameras mounted on top, and they were recording us. We waited there all day. Practitioners reminded each other to follow Falun Dafa’s teachings and remain calm,” she continued.

As night fell, she and the others learned that the practitioners who were arrested in Tianjin had been released, and that the practitioners who entered the Zhongnanhai compound also left, so practitioners began to leave Fuyou Street.

“As we were leaving, just as we did at our practice site, everyone picked up the trash and left the ground spotless. I also carefully checked the ground as I walked along to ensure it was clean. Indeed, it was —not a single plastic water bottle or scrap of paper remained,” Ms. Wang recalled.

She noticed a few sunflower seed shells, so she walked over and picked them up. A female police officer standing nearby witnessed this and, visibly moved, exclaimed loudly, “You even pick up tiny little seed shells!? You people are so good!” Ms. Wang was glad the police officer understood what kind of people Falun Gong practitioners are.