Falun Dafa Information Center invites you to their event
About this event
On April 25, 1999, over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners held a historic appeal in Beijing for the right to freely practice their belief. It was the largest such gathering since the sit-ins that preceded the Tiananmen Square Massacre a decade earlier. The appeal was prompted by a period of growing repression and the arrest of 45 Falun Gong practitioners in the city of Tianjin, raising nationwide concerns about believers’ freedom to practice their faith.
On that day, high-ranking officials initially released the detained practitioners and stated that there would be no ban on Falun Gong. But this promise was abruptly revoked on July 20, when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) banned Falun Gong and launched a brutal, nationwide campaign to wipe it out. The regime's propaganda apparatus then tried to retroactively frame the appeal as a "siege" on the government.
25 years later, the violent persecution continues, but so too does Falun Gong practitioners’ peaceful dissent in China. From simply practicing their faith to challenging unjust prosecutions with the help of rights lawyers to engaging in an underground Samizdat-like effort to educate the public and counter CCP propaganda and deception, Falun Gong practitioners across China are taking great risks to stop the persecution and bring greater freedom to all Chinese citizens.
Join us on April 25 for a webinar with torture survivors who were present on that historic day and experts on religion in China to discuss the event and the current state of religious dissent in China.
Moderated by Levi Browde, executive director of the Falun Dafa Information Center.
Hosted by
Deputy Director of Government and Advocacy @ Falun Dafa Information Center
Tsinghua Doctorate Student in 1999, Survivor of Chinese Prison and Torture
Independent Researcher, Author of Freedom House's "Battle for China's Spirit"
In 1999, the Chinese Communist Party ignored the law and ordered a ban on Falun Gong, a popular meditation discipline. Since then, millions of people in China have faced detention, torture—or worse. The Falun Dafa Information Center works to end this unjust persecution.
