This article was first published in April 2010.
(Minghui.org) Editor's Note: To commemorate the eleventh anniversary of the April 25 Appeal, Clearwisdom presents this as one of a series of republished articles from years past. The April 25th Appeal was notable not only for its size, but also because it was remarkably peaceful and orderly. Some 10,000 practitioners gathered in central Beijing that day, peacefully protesting for their civil rights. The CCP propaganda machine, however, in its quest to crush Falun Gong at the bidding of then Party Chairman Jiang Zemin, twisted the facts to serve its own motives. To this day, CCP propaganda accuses Falun Gong of "laying siege to the Zhongnanhai Central Government Compound" on April 25, 1999, falsely alleging that the 10,000 gathered posed a violent threat to the nation and its leaders. Nothing could be further from the truth, of course, as this series of articles documents from various angles.
On April 25, 1999, over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners went to Beijing to appeal against the mistreatment of over forty Falun Gong practitioners in Tianjin. They exercised their lawful rights by telling the authorities the facts about the long-term mistreatment of Falun Gong. That event captured the world's attention.
However, it was not CCP's leader Jiang Zemin's desire to resolve the issues. Less than three months later, his will to persecute Falun Gong was accepted and acknowledged by other high level CCP leaders. They declared that the April 25 peaceful appeal of 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners was an act of "surrounding Zhongnanhai." Thus the brutal persecution of Falun Gong and its practitioners began, and has lasted for 11 years.
"April 25" is a special day. It has become a day for practitioners to demonstrate Falun Gong's goodness to the world.
However, what happened on that day was the result of a plot designed by the CCP. But most Chinese never learned of this, and even most of the world's media were deceived. The set-up to the persecution of Falun Gong has a long history. It began with slanderous articles published in the CCP's newspapers, to openly banning the publishing of Falun Gong books, to the secret involvement of the police, to finally the CCP declaring Falun Gong to be an "evil cult". During the entire process, the CCP never found a legitimate basis from which to persecute Falun Gong. Failing that, the plan to persecute Falun Gong was designed by a small group of people within the CCP's highest leadership.
Falun Gong practitioners were not aware they were being set up. They were cultivators following the standards of Truth-Compassion-Forbearance, and openly dealt with all the unjust treatment. If there was a slanderous report about Falun Gong in the newspapers, they would go to clarify the truth. If the police arrested some practitioners, they would go to report the issue. When they were told that the suppression in Tianjin was on orders of the central government, they then went to Beijing. The police set up the situation which they could later use as an excuse to persecute Falun Gong by guiding the practitioners to stand along the wall of Zhongnanhai, thereby "surrounding" it. All the practitioners did was to obey the direction of the police.
Of course, when people cannot understand that Falun Gong is a spiritual discipline and has nothing to do with politics, they cannot immediately see through the CCP's true nature either. However, once the CCP targets a group for persecution, they will always find an excuse to attack.
In fact, during the past ten years of persecution, none of it is related to the appeal of Falun Gong practitioners. Whether or not there was an "April 25" event of over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners appealing, the CCP's suppression of Falun Gong would have still followed Jiang's plan.
From the CCP's standpoint, the April 25 appeal was set up to provide an excuse to launch the full-scale persecution of Falun Gong. But at this time, as people compare the CCP with Falun Gong practitioners' great compassion and forbearance, and especially as people gradually see through the CCP's evil nature, the set-up designed by the CCP in 1999 only planted the seeds of its own destruction. This is what the evil CCP never imagined back in 1999.