(Clearwisdom.net) On April 23, 1999 in Tianjin, police officers beat and arrested some Falun Gong practitioners. Two days later, more than 10,000 Dafa practitioners went to the National Appeals Office near Zhongnanhai [Chinese Communist Party headquarters] in Beijing to peacefully appeal for Falun Gong. Later on, it was viewed as the trigger for the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong. So what happened in Tianjin?

We interviewed Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Li Hui, who witnessed the Tianjin event and who later risked her safety to get this information out of the country.

On April 11, 1999, He Zuoxiu wrote an article entitled, "I Do Not Recommend Young People to Practice Qigong" in a magazine published by Tianjin Education Institute. In the article, He Zuoxiu slandered Falun Gong and said that it would make people become insane. He blamed Falun Gong for things not related to it and railed against Falun Gong's principles. Many Falun Gong practitioners felt that if the facts were not clarified, the practitioners' legal right to practice would be threatened.

On April 19, 1999, thousands of Falun Gong practitioners went to the editorial office of the magazine. Li Hui said, "This magazine is distributed throughout the whole nation. We practiced Falun Gong and had first-hand experiences with the practice. We felt that the article did not describe the facts. Moreover, we really wanted to kindly clarify the truth to the editorial office in the Tianjin Education Institute. Our intention was totally out of kindness. We wanted to tell them how we had benefited from practicing Falun Gong."

"I remember clearly that a mother brought her child who previously had leukemia and the hospital had pronounced the case incurable. After practicing Falun Gong, the child quickly recovered. Even the doctors thought it was a miracle."

"We told the staff member in the editorial office about our own personal experiences after practicing Falun Gong. The attitude of that staff member was very nice, as well, because he saw we were sincere. Moreover, we told him that since we practiced Dafa and cultivated 'Truth-Compassion-Forbearance', our minds had become more peaceful. I felt that he could see this in us. His attitude was very good. He felt that the article was far from the truth and wanted to discuss how to make corrections."

Li Hui recalled, "However, the next day they told us higher authorities had given orders saying that they should not make any corrections. At that time, there were practitioners from other places gradually arriving at the institute to clarify the truth. We all practiced Dafa and cultivated Truth-Compassion-Forbearance. We were well-behaved, and the streets were very clean. The road was not blocked and we left some space on the sidewalk for people to walk by."

On April 23, the Tianjin City government suddenly dispatched over three hundred riot police, who beat up Falun Gong practitioners that had gone to the editorial office. The police arrested 45 practitioners, and many Falun Gong practitioners were injured. Tianjin City government officials told practitioners who had gone to appeal that the suppression order was from Beijing, and they told practitioners to go to Beijing to appeal.

Li Hui recalled, "In the evening of April 23, they blocked the intersection of two roads and people could only go in, but not out. At night, several armed police cars went in and began to forcefully drive away peaceful Falun Gong practitioners. They were trained professionals and were very harsh in beating people. We were practitioners and we believe in 'Not Striking Back When Beaten, Not Swearing Back When Sworn At.' It was a difficult situation. The police beat up practitioners, and some practitioners' teeth were knocked out and blood was all over their faces."

Three months later, Xinhua.net, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party, lied in stating that "In the evening of April 23, in order to safeguard normal social stability, Tianjin City Police Station persuaded those Falun Gong practitioners, who had been surrounding and attacking the Tianjin Education Institute, to leave. The Falun Gong practitioners gradually left. The entire action was peaceful. The police station did not arrest anyone and neither did any other problems occur."

Li Hui said, "After driving people away, those police told the Falun Gong practitioners, 'You should appeal through normal channels.' We came to clarify the truth. Since the police used force to drive us away and then told us to appeal through normal channels, we went to the Tianjin City government to appeal. At the Tianjin City government, we maintained good order from beginning to end. They told practitioners to go to the Appeals Office the next day. After hearing that, the practitioners left."

Li Hui continued, "The next day, it was the morning of April 24. A few representatives from the practitioners went to the Appeals Office of the Tianjin City government. A police car was already waiting there. The police arrested them before they could even enter the door."

"He said it was a decision from above. If you have any questions, you can appeal through normal channels, such as higher governmental departments above the Tianjin City government, meaning the central government. You can go there. They arrested practitioners and beat them up. We practitioners are cultivating compassion. At that moment, we truly held hope towards the government and thus we went to Beijing."

After hearing about the Tianjin event, on April 25, more than 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners went to Beijing to appeal. They hoped that they could tell the nation's leaders the facts about Falun Gong and went to the National Appeals Office.

The National Appeals Office is located at Fuyou Street and Xi'anmen Street, and is very close to the CCP's political center of Zhongnanhai. Falun Gong practitioners were led by the police and walked to the Zhongnanhai area from all directions. Police told practitioners to stand along the sidewalk next to the wall of Zhongnanhai, thus creating an impression of the practitioners "surrounding" Zhongnanhai.

After the event, Ms. Li Hui and several other Falun Gong practitioners gathered eyewitness accounts from the Tianjin event, including records of about 45 Falun Gong practitioners who were beaten and arrested in Tianjin. They transferred those documents and sent them abroad to be published. A Falun Gong practitioner named Wang Chunxiao, who worked with Ms. Li Hui in gathering those records, has already been persecuted to death. Another person involved was Professor Yu Changxin, a former member of the Falun Dafa Research Association.

Retired Air Force Commander Mr. Yu Changxin (Picture of him before the persecution)

Professor Yu Changxin was once a Division Commander of the Air Force in the 1970s. He was later transferred to the Commander Academy in order to train high-ranking officers. At present, he is still illegally detained in prison and suffering persecution. At the beginning of the CCP's frenzied suppression of Falun Gong, Professor Yu Changxin was secretly sentenced to 18 years in prison. His wife was secretly sentenced to 10 years in prison. Mr. Yu Changxin is being detained at the Air Force Xiaohongmen Detention Center located in Chaoyang District, Beijing.