(Clearwisdom.net) Five years ago, on April 25, 1999, over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners peacefully appealed to the Chinese government in downtown Beijing for three things: release of the 45 Falun Gong practitioners in Tianjin, a guarantee of practitioners' Constitutional right to practice Falun Gong and a lifting of the ban on publishing Falun Gong books. They peacefully reached a consensus with the government on that day, and all the Falun Gong practitioners went home that evening. Little did they expect that several months later, Jiang Zemin would order the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners on July 20, 1999 and call the April 25th Appeal in his propaganda "Falun Gong's April 25 Siege of Zhongnanhai [headquarters of the Chinese Central Government.]" Five years have passed since the April 25th Appeal in 1999. To this day, there are still some unresolved doubts about and speculations over the controversial April 25th Appeal. Minghui reporter Ms. Cao Zhen has interviewed several Falun Gong practitioners who were at the State Council Appeals Office that day as historical witnesses to this event. Hopefully the following descriptions of the April 25th Appeal from the witnesses' perspective will help the readers put together an accurate picture of the event.

I. Why Did So Many Falun Gong Practitioners Go to Beijing?

According to the Chinese government's propaganda, approximately 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners went to Beijing on April 25, 1999, whereas the actual number was much larger according to some witnesses. The direct cause of the April 25th Appeal was the so-called "Tianjin Incident." Mr. He Zuoxiu published an article on April 11, 1999 titled "Teenagers Should Not Practice Qigong" in Teenager Expo Magazine, which slandered Falun Gong with information that had already been proven to be untrue. Between April 18 and 24, Falun Gong practitioners in Tianjin went to the Tianjin Teacher's College (the publisher of Teenager Expo) to clarify the truth about Falun Gong. On April 23 and 24, the Tianjin Public Security Bureau sent in 300 S.W.A.T. policemen and arrested 45 Falun Gong practitioners. The Tianjin police told the local Falun Gong practitioners that they did not have the authority to release these practitioners because they had received an order from the Public Security Bureau in Beijing. The police also suggested that they try to get this issue resolved in Beijing. The next thing we knew, over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners went to Beijing for the appeal. The most frequently asked question by the general public is: How did so many people learn about the news and go to Beijing the next day?

According to Dr. Shen, a local resident in eastern Beijing, she heard from fellow practitioners that the police arrested and beat up Falun Gong practitioners in Tianjin and that they had told other practitioners in Tianjin they must go to Beijing to get these practitioners released. As soon as Dr. Shen heard the news, she relayed the news to those she had been practicing the Falun Gong exercises with every day. Dr. Shen added that some practitioners suggested they should try to visit the State Council Appeals Office, while others didn't feel like going. Everyone made his or her own decision, she said.

Ms. Liu, a local Falun Gong practitioner living in the western suburbs of Beijing, said that one of the fellow practitioners she was close to knew a practitioner in Tianjin and relayed the news of the "Tianjin Incident" to her.

Among the interviewed Falun Gong practitioners in this report, some heard about the "Tianjin Incident" on April 23 and 24 and others heard of it on the morning of April 25 when they went to join the group Falun Gong exercises practice in the morning.

Tianjin is less than 60 miles from Beijing. It is no trouble at all for Falun Gong practitioners in Tianjin to relay the news of the arrest to their fellow practitioners in Beijing. It took no more than a few phone calls to do so. Besides, it is easy to verify the news when these two metropolitan cities are so close to each other.

Between 1992 and 1999, Falun Gong was promoted solely through word of mouth. When a person discovered the magnificence of Falun Gong after he started to cultivate in it, he would naturally introduce Falun Gong to his friends, family, relatives and neighbors. It follows that there have always been casual yet continuous communications between Falun Gong practitioners.

When such a sudden and large event as the "Tianjin Incident" occurred, Falun Gong practitioners who learned the news would naturally take but a few minutes of their time to call or email their friends and families. For those Falun Gong practitioners living in the same neighborhood, they often saw each other every day when they practiced the exercises together in the morning or read Falun Gong books together in groups. They would naturally tell each other the news about the "Tianjin Incident" when they met the next day. In some neighborhoods, practitioners might meet each other up to twice a day in the morning group practice and the evening group study. Therefore, it was not unusual that the "Tianjin Incident" would be known to Beijing and other nearby cities within two days.

The number of practitioners who went to Beijing for the appeal on April 25, 1999 can hardly be called large given the total number of practitioners. According to the Chinese government's official statistics, there were approximately 100 million Falun Gong practitioners in China. Given that the severity and implication of the "Tianjin Incident" and based on the instruction of the Tianjin police, only 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners from Tianjin, Beijing, and their nearby cities out of 100 million Falun Gong practitioners in China went to Beijing for the appeal. In other words, only one out of every 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners went to Beijing for the appeal, a tiny fraction of the total.

Then the next question is: How did these Falun Gong practitioners decide where and who to appeal to? The following interviewed witnesses gave their explanations on where they had actually gone for the appeal that day.

II. Was their Destination the Headquarters of the Chinese Government or the State Council Appeals Office?

One of the most controversial issues concerning the April 25th Appeal was why did Falun Gong "send" so many practitioners to Zhongnanhai where many top leaders of the Chinese Central Government resided? Many people thought it would only create a lot of tension between Falun Gong and some political leaders, and would not help get those Falun Gong practitioners in Tianjin released. In fact, the appeal was even reported as "Falun Gong practitioners' siege of Zhongnanhai" later on and became one of the excuses for Jiang Zemin to order and justify the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners.

Over the past five years, Falun Gong practitioners have very consistently explained that they had never gone to, or even thought of going to, Zhongnanhai, the Chinese Government's Headquarters. They went to the State Council Appeals Office located on Fuyou Street in downtown Beijing, to the west of Zhongnanhai.

[Note: The State Council Appeals Office is an organization that is completely independent of all the branches of the Chinese Communist Government. It is an organization open to every Chinese citizen who wishes to seek justice that he has failed to obtain in the Chinese government. It is the State Council Appeals Office's responsibility to listen to every Chinese citizen's appeal and conduct an investigation of the reported cases.]

Some speculated that the rumor might have arisen due to the small entrance of the State Council Appeals Office and the close proximity between these two places. After all, the State Council Appeals Office is practically next-door to Zhongnanhai, the Chinese government headquarters. Since the State Council Appeals Office is located on the narrow Fuyou Street and cannot accommodate 10,000 people standing on its sidewalks, the long line of Falun Gong practitioners naturally extended to the street where Zhongnanhai is located. This does sound like a reasonable and credible explanation. Besides, Zhongnanhai is a lot more famous than the State Council Appeals Office. Since Zhu Rongji, the Chinese Premier at the time, came out to meet Falun Gong practitioners that day, it was likely that the Chinese media made the mistake of associating the Premier with Zhongnanhai, the Chinese government's headquarters, in their reports. Thus the theory of the long line of 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners who had no choice but to extend from Fuyou Street to the front of Zhongnanhai became a plausible one. However, a witness to the April 25th appeal raised a good question: "With the top security surrounding the headquarters of the Chinese Central government, it is beyond anyone's wildest imagination that 10,000 people, hundreds of people, or even just several dozen people would be allowed to stand in front of it for an hour. They would be dispersed by security right away. Don't you find it extremely odd that the Chinese media claimed that over 10,000 people gathered in front of Zhongnanhai and were allowed to stand there for the entire day?"

When Ms. Liu from the western suburbs of Beijing recalled the April 25th Appeal during the interview, she felt there was something strange about this event. Ms. Liu said, "Around 4:00 and 5:00 A.M. on April 25, several Falun Gong friends and I arrived at the northern entrance of Fuyou Street and met many policemen, who didn't even ask us why we were there early in the morning. This is the first thing that I found rather peculiar. Later on, additional Falun Gong practitioners kept arriving at Fuyou Street. Then the police led us to cross the street and walk southbound on Fuyou Street and then to the west gate of Zhongnanhai. There I saw the police leading another group of Falun Gong practitioners walking northbound from Fuyou Street to meet us at the west gate of Zhongnanhai. Besides the fact that the police didn't ask us early arrivers why we came here, another thing I found strange is that the police not only didn't try to disperse us, but also led us to outside the west gate of Zhongnanhai. Fortunately all the Falun Gong practitioners are very conscious of displaying good manners. Although most of us didn't know each other, we were very well behaved towards each other and many of us volunteered to keep the lines looking neat and orderly."

According to Mr. Bian who used to live in eastern Beijing, they went to the State Council Appeals Office to clarify the truth about Falun Gong. Someone created a rumor later on that we "laid siege to Zhongnanhai" to start and justify the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners.

III. The Motivation Behind the April 25th Appeal

In terms of why more than 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners decided to appeal to the State Council Appeals Office, all of the interviewed Falun Gong practitioners shared the same reason and sentiment. They have benefited immensely from cultivating in Falun Gong. When they saw that someone (Mr. He Zuoxiu) slandered Falun Gong, that the Chinese government banned the publishing of Falun Gong books prior to 1999, and that the government had deprived Falun Gong practitioners in Tianjin of their freedom of practicing Falun Gong and arrested 45 Falun Gong practitioners, they felt they should share their experiences with the Chinese government in order to clarify the truth about Falun Gong and ask the government to bring justice to Falun Gong.

Ms. Liu used to work for a university in China. She used to suffer from many illnesses, but all the illnesses were gone after she practiced Falun Gong for several months. Ms. Wang, an engineer from Haidian District of Beijing, used to suffer from a uterine tumor and breast caner. The doctor told her that she needed to have an operation to remove both breasts. After she cultivated in Falun Gong for several months, the cancer and the tumor both disappeared on their own.

Dr. Shen is a medical doctor, but she used to be very sick and was bedridden for a full year. Dr. Shen's husband had to carry her to a Falun Gong group practice site for the first practice, but Dr. Shen immediately felt better and walked back home on her own from the practice site right from day one.

Ms. Wang added the spiritual improvements from cultivating in Falun Gong. Ms. Wang and her husband had medical insurance as government employees, but the insurance did not cover their children. Before Ms. Wang started to cultivate in Falun Gong, she used to purchase medicine for her children and report it as her own medical expenses. After she started to practice Falun Gong, she decided that she should not cheat the insurance company anymore. When she took her daughter to the hospital, a doctor friend offered to report her as the patient in order to reimburse the medical expense. Ms. Wang politely declined.

Ms. Liu said, there were actually many harassment cases prior to 1999. Several fellow practitioners and she had written the corresponding government organizations and leaders many letters, but they never received any type of response. Meanwhile, they continued to hear about cases of harassment in many different group practice sites. Ms. Liu said, "Since it was useless to write letters to the government and the Tianjin police told them that they had no authority to release these practitioners, she had but one choice: Appeal to the State Council Appeals Office."

In terms of the harassments prior to 1999, Ms. Wang said that the police had once laid siege to a group practice site in Haidian District of Beijing. She has written many letters to the government, hoping to clarify the truth to the government with her personal testimony, but no one responded to her plea. Ms. Wang said, "When I heard that the Tianjin police arrested 45 Falun Gong practitioners, I thought, 'They arrested Falun Gong practitioners in Tianjin today, will it be my turn tomorrow?' That's why I decided that I must go clarify the truth to the State Council Appeals Office."

IV. Had These Falun Gong Practitioners Thought About the Potential "Trouble" They Might Bring to Themselves Beforehand?

I asked these Falun Gong practitioners three additional questions. First, did you plan to pressure the Chinese government to resolve the problem with a presence of a large group of Falun Gong practitioners? Second, had you thought about what type of impression you would make when you appealed to the State Council Appeals Office with so many other Falun Gong practitioners? Third, had you thought about the potential "trouble" you might bring to yourselves?

Ms. Shen replied, "I didn't think about any of these questions. I just wanted to clarify the truth. I didn't even know beforehand how many fellow practitioners would show up, because everyone made his own decision whether they would go appeal for Falun Gong or not." She added that many Falun Gong practitioners who had arrived at the location had a change of heart. Some of them left right away and some stood away from other practitioners and watched from a distance when they saw a large number of armed police and cameras.

Ms. Wang said that, based on her experiences as a Beijing resident for several decades, she somehow sensed the appeal might bear an ill boding. Between the potential conflict between righteousness and personal interest, she chose to follow her conscience and pursue righteousness.

Mr. Bian was a supervisory staff member at a government organization. He heard that some fellow practitioners got their personal and legal affairs in order before they appealed to the State Council Appeals Office because they were prepared to face the worst response from the Chinese government.

Ms. Yang is a young resident in the Chaoyang District in Beijing. She had a more positive expectation towards the appeal. She said, "First of all, we are not involved in politics or have any political agenda. Secondly, we are not against the government. What can the government do to us even if they are trying to pick on us?"

Ms. Liu who worked in a science laboratory said that she had no concept of how many Falun Gong practitioners would turn up at the State Council Appeals Office. She said, "We thought of nothing but to clarify the truth about Falun Gong. We had confidence in the Chinese Central government so we went to the State Council Appeals Office. Between 1992 and 1999, Falun Gong was spread rapidly in China and was met with very positive feedback by various strata of society. In fact, many high-level government officials and their families cultivated in Falun Gong. That's why we had never expected that anyone would harbor negative feelings towards Falun Gong."

Ms. Liu added that there were two inaccurate and slanderous media reports about Falun Gong and each time Falun Gong practitioners clarified the truth and resolved the misunderstanding peacefully. On June 17, 1996, Guangming Daily published an editorial article entitled, "A Loud and Long Alarm Must Be Sounded Against Pseudo-Science," which claimed Falun Gong promoted superstition, and was a "Pseudo-Science." In May 1998, Beijing TV's "Fast Forward" program aired an interview with Mr. He Zuoxiu, who attacked Falun Gong as being superstitious. Following each of these two incidents, Falun Gong practitioners shared their personal testimonies about Falun Gong with TV editors and staff from the Beijing TV station. The visited newspaper and TV staff members were all very receptive to the truth about Falun Gong. The Beijing TV Station even had an interview with Falun Gong practitioners and broadcast a positive report about Falun Gong afterwards. This is why Ms. Liu thought it was necessary and worth the effort to clarify the truth when Falun Gong practitioners were wrongfully treated or when Falun Gong was inaccurately reported. A neighbor told her after the April 25th Appeal that, given what had happened, Falun Gong would encounter an even larger tribulation. She didn't want to believe her neighbor's prediction, but unfortunately it came true three months later on July 20, 1999.

Mr. Bian has worked as a government employee for several decades. But he hesitated to appeal for Falun Gong not because of the potential danger to himself, but out of a concern as a Falun Gong practitioner who was trying to follow Falun Gong's teaching.

Mr. Bian said that the founder of Falun Gong Mr. Li Hongzhi said on September 3, 1996 in an article titled "Cultivation Practice Is Not Politics," "Other than doing a good job with his work, a cultivator will not be interested in politics or political power of any sort." That's why he contemplated cautiously and seriously beforehand on whether it was an action with a political agenda to appeal for Falun Gong. Mr. Bian said that he came to a conclusion in May 1998 after the Beijing TV Station aired a slanderous report about Falun Gong. At that time some Falun Gong practitioners were talking about going to the Beijing TV Station to clarify the truth. Since June was approaching, he thought, "The next sensitive political holiday [referring to the June 4th Student Democracy Movement Anniversary] is coming. If we appeal for Falun Gong right before that day, would our action be marked with a political implication and result in additional misunderstanding? Mr. and Mrs. Bian sat at home for one day contemplating this issue. Eventually he came to this conclusion. He said, "We are just going to share our personal testimonies as Falun Gong practitioners with TV producers, reporters and the department head of the Beijing TV Station so that they can understand Falun Gong better. It is a very straightforward matter and has nothing to do with politics."

In the end, Mr. and Mrs. Bian went to the Beijing TV Station to clarify the truth about Falun Gong. Hence, they felt it was a natural thing to appeal to the State Council Appeals Office on April 25th after the Tianjin police arrested 45 Falun Gong practitioners.