The following film documents the events that led to the congregation of about 10,000 Chinese Falun Gong practitioners outside the gates of Zhongnanhai, the government headquarters in the capital city of Beijing. This gathering, which took place on April 25^th, 1999, is thought by many to be the cause of Jiang Zemin’s ban on the practice. This is due to the fact that the information regarding this “incident” is based on Chinese government propaganda. This film presents the facts as they happened, according to eyewitness accounts.

What Happened at Zhongnanhai?

Yellow highlight indicates “changes”, blue highlight indicates “new adds”.

InOn July 20^th, 1999, Jiang Zemin, the President of the People’s Republic of China, launched a campaign aimed at to cracking down on Falun Gong, a spiritual meditation practice with ancient roots, based on the principles of Truth, Compassion, and Tolerance.

Thus a reign of terror began in China. Fabricated lies stories against Falun Gong fill newspapers, magazines, and radio and TV media broadcasts to an extent that rivals [is this true or is “rivals” more accurate?]such an overwhelmingly intense and rampant extent that it’s broken the record propaganda set bycampaign of the Great Cultural Revolution. According to incomplete statistics, as of April 19, 2001, 192To date, hundreds of practitioners are known to have been tortured to death, and thousands; more than 1,000 have been sent to mental institutions,; over 10,000 have been sent to llabor camps, and or sentenced to prisons. terms, the longest of which is 18 years; and Thousands more millions [this doesn’t seem possible – hundreds of thousands or tens of thousands] have been detained or jailed. Many people blame this tragedy on the so-called April 25^th incident during which more than 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered outside Zhongnanhai, the central government compound, in Beijing, Zhongnanhai, to peacefully make an appeal for their right to practice their spiritual beliefs.

Was the April 25^th incident a premeditated, organized political maneuver, as the Chinese government so claims? Or was it the inevitable result response to theof a persecution carried out by the certain government agencies over a long period of time? Let us revisit this stretch of history in order to find out the facts.

Title: “Uncovering the secrets of the April 25^th Zhongnanhai incident”The Right to Appeal

Early in the morning of April 25, 1999, a large number of Falun Gong practitioners began to arrive at the Appeal Office of the Communist Party’s Central Committee in Beijing to inform the government of their situation. Around 8:35 p.m. on the same day, Premier Zhu Rongji came out to inquire about the situation and met with the representatives of Falun Gong practitioners. He ordered the Appeal Division of the State Council to handle this matter. Practitioners made three requests:

1) Release all the practitioners who were arrested in Tianjing.

2) Give Falun Gong practitioners a fair environment to practice cultivation in.

3) Allow Falun Gong books to be published via normal channels.

In the evening of the same day, an agreement was reached by both sides. The government promised to "Not promote, not prohibit, and not take subsequent revenge." Around 9:00 p.m. the crowd dissipated promptly. To the public, this sudden event seemed to have come and gone peacefully; however, most people are unaware of the fact that it was actually the direct result of the "detention incident in Tianjing" that happened two days before.

What precipitated the gathering on April 25^th , 1999, was an article that appeared Eearlier that month that month, an individual wrote an article that appeared in the Science and Technology Youth Journal published by the Tianjin College of Education. In that article, the author accused Falun Gong of causing practitioners to go mentally insanemental insanity and implied that Falun Gong would bring down the regime., as the Boxers did in the last century. Because what the author claimed wasthe author’s claims were totallyso vicious and false, untrue, many Falun Gong practitioners, following the guidelines of the " Publication Regulations" issued by the State Councils, wwent to the publication office and some other agencies in the Tianjing College of Education as well as various other government agencies to clarify the facts according to government guidelines. But on April 22^nd, the Public Security Bureau in Tianjing suddenly sent out the police force to detain peopledispatched the riot police to disperse people. Many practitioners were beaten and injured, and And on the next day, April 23^rd, they again dispatched police to beat up and disperse the people; 45 practitioners were detainedarrested. When others went to the local authorities to request their release, they were told that they had to take their appeals to Beijing.When the news spread to Beijing, practitioners decided to go to Beijing to appeal.

According to the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, citizens have the right to enjoy freedom of speech, freedom of association, and freedom of demonstration. They also have the right to appeal in regard to injustice. The branch of the government where people are allowed to make appeals and file complaints is called the Appeals Office.

“Actually, we didn’t go to Zhongnanhai. We went to the Central Government Appeals Office in Beijing to present our case. Since most of the people were from out of town and didn’t know where this Appeals Office was and since the sidewalk was full of people, they just all stood there. There were a lot of people.”

“The government always says that they’re a government for the people, and a government by the people. So on the day before April 25^th we talked about it at our morning practice site. We felt that we needed to go to the Appeals Office of the State Council to let the situation be known. So the next day, we all kind of went there, hoping that the Premier would come out to talk to us.”

Premier Zhu Rongji did go out to meet the crowd. And along with some other officials, he held a meeting inside the State Council with several Falun Gong representatives, who requested that the practitioners in Tianjin be released, that practitioners have a fair environment to practice in, and that the ban be lifted on Falun Gong books.

“Actually, we didn’t go to Zhongnanhai. We went to the Central Government’s Appeal Bureau in Beijing to present our case. Since most of the people were from out of town and didn’t know where this Appeal Bureau was and since the sidewalk was full of people, they just all stood there. There were a lot of people.” -- Male interviewee #1

“No one sat down. For instance, the gentleman standing next to me was an old man in his seventies, but he stood there from morning to night. Later, if someone got tired, he would go to the back rows. In this way, people in the front always remained standing. Our only worry was that the government might misunderstand us as conducting protests.” -- Female interviewee #1

Practitioners indicated that at the time they only wanted to go to the Central Government’s Appeal Bureau to present their case, in compliance with Article 4 of the People's Republic of China’s Constitution, which grants citizens the right to appeal. And only if they had complete trust in the government and believed that the leaders would resolve the problem on the basis of truth and fact would they have ventured to make an appeal. Around 8:00 p.m., only after seeing Premier Zhu Rongji and the vice chairman of the Appeal Bureau come out to visit Falun Gong representatives, did practitioners feel a sense of relief, thinking that the government was finally listening to its people's voice.

“We heard that we could continue to practice, and that the government would not intervene. In addition, we were told that the representatives could continue the dialogue with the leaders on the following day. So, upon hearing this, we felt that the leaders had taken this issue seriously and when they could resolve the problem this way, we felt satisfied. To continue the dialogue was no more than to let the leaders know the truth so that they could handle this problem in a fair and just manner.” – Male interviewee #1

The peaceful resolution of the April 25^th incident drew great attention from the world. Various wWestern countries highly praised the rationality and restraint displayed on both sides for their handling of the during the incident and considered April 25^th a milestone in the Chinese government’s pathway to democracy and openness.

After the April 25^th incident was over, iHowevert seemed that everyone was satisfied – things went on as usual. But, on July 20^th, 1999, less than three months later, Jiang Zemin ordered a nationwide crackdown on Falun Gong.

This unexpected, sudden change once again in attitude shocked the world. Falun Gong practitioners had used legal channels to express themselvesir heart-felt opinions to the government, having a very and resolve the issue. It wassimple goal; what is ha hard for people to understand is how something like this could be the cause of such widespread persecution.

In fact, “it takes more than one cold day to make the river freeze.” The April 25^th appeal was the inevitable result of long-standing suppression by Chinese government.

Looking Back to the “Beginning”

Falun Gong is a Buddha School cultivation way that cultivates both the mind and the body. In addition to cultivating xin-xing [mind nature, moral quality], it also includes practicing exercises and transforming Benti [physical bodies in various dimensions]. The founder of Falun Gong, Mr. Li Hongzhi, has clearly pointed out that his goal is to bring people toward higher levels, which is in fact cultivation. He has told his students to follow the characteristic of the universe, Zhen-Shan-Ren (Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance), in their everyday conduct, and to care less about various desires and attachments. In other words, cultivation of xin-xing is of the foremost priority and the exercises are supplementary. The result in purifying the body and uplifting the mind is significant among practitioners. Among Falun Gong practitioners in China, many are elderly people. They have been through many years of social tumult and experienced many ups and downs. They have worshipped blindly, have had their faith, have been zealous before, and have felt lost. It is not so easy for them to believe in something again, yet many believe in Falun Gong.

“Nowadays, there’s so much corruption in China, and problems such as embezzlement, bribery, and prostitution are so widespread. To be frank with you, whenever I mention these things … I just want to cry…. Seeing that some of my fellow countrymen have become corrupt to such an extent, people of my age really feel sad deep inside. That’s why I was thinking at that time, ‘If everybody learned Falun Gong and conducted himself according to Zhen-Shan-Ren (Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance), society wouldn’t have gone down like this.” – Female interviewee #2

Since its publication, Mr. Li Hongzhi's work, Zhuan Falun, had been the best seller consecutively for years in Beijing. In 1996, Zhuan Falun was rated one of the top ten best selling books in China by The Beijing Youth Daily. The State Sports Commission also estimated that there were between 70 million and 100 million Falun Gong practitioners across China.

Even though Falun Gong is notedknown for its gentle, meditative exercises, the focus of the practice is on havingliving by high moral standards and living according to the principles of Truth, Compassion, and Tolerance – or Zhen, Shan, Ren.

When Falun Gong was first introduced to the public by Li Hongzhi, it was done so under the auspices of the state-run China Qigong Research Association. At that time, the practice, and won many awards. Since its publication, Mr. Li Hongzhi's work, Zhuan Falun, hadwas been the best seller for several consecutive years in Beijing. In 1996, this book was rated one of the top ten best-selling books in China by The Beijing Youth Daily. The State Sports Commission also estimated that there were between 70 and 100 million Falun Gong practitioners across China, and praised the practice for reducing national healthcare costs.

[Interview about woman who got Healthy Citizen Award]

But Falun Gong’s popularity But in a Communist country with only 60 million party members, many of whom were practitioners themselves, was cause for alarm and deeply unnerved the Chinese leadershipleaders.like China, those few people in power were deeply unnerved by the fact that Falun Gong practitioners outnumbered Communist Party members. This anxiety was due to their lack of knowledge about Falun Gong. If they had understood that Falun Gong requires its practitioners to seriously cultivate benevolence and never get involved in politics, they would most likely have had second thoughts about using so many of the country’s resources to persecute good citizens. But, as can be seen many times throughout history, the few in power often choose to persecute innocent people in order to protect their own interest, thus imposing great suffering on the populace.

Later iIn 1996, the Jiang Zemin regime banned Zhuan Falun.

“Government officials should take care of the people. And people like us merely want them to get to know the facts and govern accordingly. However, after they get to know the facts, they don’t support people in practicing Falun Gong but instead issue orders contrary to the public’s knowledge and opinion. For example, we think Zhuan Falun is a wonderful book, and we find it very hard to understand why such a good book is prohibited from being published while so many bad books, pornographic books, are circulating in society and nobody does anything about them. We wrote directly to Jiang Zemin, Premier Zhu, to the Department of Public Security, the Department of Public Relations, and to the News and Publication Administration, but none has ever gotten back to us.” –Male interviewee #1

At the beginning of 1997, accusing Falun Gong of being engaged in illegal religious activities, Bureau Number One of the Chinese Ministry ofthe Public Security Bureau ordered local branches public security departments nationwide nationwide to conduct investigations ofinvestigate Falun Gong.

“But the investigations revealed that Falun practitioners conducted themselves very well and that there was no illegal activity. On the contrary, because practitioners behaved so well, some secret agents involved in the investigation joined them and started practicing too. It turned out that after these people got to know the facts, they realized that the accusations against Falun Gong, such as its being "superstitious” and “pseudo-science" coming from top authorities, weren’t true at all.” – Male interviewee #1

Without finding any There was no evidence that incriminated Falun Gong, yet in 1998 another wave of investigations began. Tthe local Public Security departments in some areas started to openly disrupt Falun Gong activities. In some regions, police even banned Falun Gong activities, ransacked practitioners’ homes, imposed fines, and detained practitioners – all in violation of the Constitution. The sState-controlled newspapers in many regions also started publishing articles that criticized and slandered the practice.

and place practitioners under surveillance. In Beijing, police started going to many practice sites to monitor practitioners.

We realized that the government, right around the spring of 1999, wanted to control the practice. After April 25^th it became very obvious. Police cars and motorcycles always accompanied us during our morning practice. We practiced from 5:30 to 8:00 in the morning, and during that time, police always surrounded us. Only after we finished the exercises would they leave, and they started to investigate each one of us. This situation lasted until July 20, 1999 when the persecution began nationwide.”

In some regions, police even banned Falun Gong activities, ransacked practitioners’ homes, imposed fines, and detained practitioners. The state-controlled newspapers in many regions also started publishing articles criticizing and slandering Falun Gong. Beginning in 1998, police started going to many practice sites in Beijing to monitor practitioners. Stories abound about how practitioners were being tailed or harassed.

Consequently, some senior government officials, former Red Army soldiers, and noted figures in intellectual circles jointly wrote a letter to Premier Zhu Rongji to report the wrongdoings by the Department of Public Security in handling Falun Gong. Premier Zhu then issued a written memo criticizing the Department of Public Security for using the most severe measures in spying on law-abiding citizens while neglecting real criminals. However, Premier Zhu's memo was withheld by a few individuals with ulterior motives and wasn’t distributed among the ranks. This subterfuge against Falun Gong was only a tip of the iceberg.

Falun Gong practitioners had neither power nor influence, -- yetand they were up against an entire government and its propaganda machine.organizations and the state-controlled media. For Falun Gong practitionersthem to publish an article to defend themselvesin defense of their beliefs was wishful thinking. ¾ it was totally impossible. Their actions were limited only to what their country’s Constitution guaranteed them -- the right to only making appeals to several such organizations by and present officials ing them with the facts about Falun Gong, hoping that the truth would be publicized. With this hope, they had gonewent to Tianjian and Zhongnanhai. ButHowever, in order tTo justify the crackdown that followed on Falun Gong, the authorities labeled reported that practitionersthese activities such lawful activities as "besiegeding" the government. And it was It was uuUnder this dark shadow that the world media first heard about Falun Gong.

But looking at these appeals to the front offices of state-controlled newspaper agencies, which took place over a period of several years and were always peaceful, it’s hard for one to imagine these activities as being “sieges.” In the Tianjin incident, practitioners went to the editor’s office completely out of good will to inform people there of the facts. Such an act is permitted by state publishing regulations. Yet Tianjin authorities sent police to beat and arrest practitioners. Because Tianjin is a municipality directly under the control of the central government, practitioners had no other choice but to go to the central government in Beijing to appeal.

Title: “Exposing the false coverage of the April 25^th incident by Chinese Central TV”

False Reports by Chinese Central TV

Once the crackdown on Falun Gong was in full swing, the state-controlled media used every possible tactic to discredit the practice. On August 13, 1999, CCTV broadcasted a show called "The Truth of the April 25 Illegal Appeal." It reported that the appealgathering outside the government headquarters had been a political move personally organized by Mr. Li Hongzhi. personally. The program contained some footage about members of the former Falun Dafa Research Society in China. However , tThe footage was full of loopholes and looked highly especially suspicious.

in the eyes of professional TV producers.

“The whole program lasted for about 37 minutes, but there are many fake spots in it. If you aren’t a professional, you might not be able to detect it. But if you have good skills or good equipment, you can detect them. Now let’s take a look at the CCTV film. In the film, Mr. Ji Lie-wu (a member of the former Falun Gong Research Society) said, ‘I made a few phone calls to Li Hongzhi.’ However, if we play the film in slow motion and take a close look at his mouth, we can see that Mr. Ji actually said, ‘I made a few phone calls to Li Chang’ ([another member of the Falun Gong Research Society)], because he was pronouncing ‘Chang’, instead of ‘Hongzhi’. To change the sound is something very easy to do in film editing.” – Female interviewee #3

Moreover, CCTV reported that practitioners never saw Premier Zhu Rongji, despite the fact that many witnesses actually did see him come out to talk to some of them in person. The film also failed to offer any proof of its claims.

This is only one of the many loopholes in the CCTV film. This film completely ignored the suppression of Falun Gong that had been going on for years and totally denied the fact that practitioners in Tianjin had been beaten by police. Moreover, practitioners who went to appeal saw Premier Zhu Rongji, who came out from the Xinhua Gate and personally talked to some practitioners. But the CCTV film said that this never happened. However, there were too many witnesses to prove the contrary. Premiere Zhu can testify, the guards at Xinhua Gate can testify, and the hundreds and thousands Falun Gong practitioners who were there can also testify.

“According to CCTV's interview of Ji Lie-wu, Ji was reported as saying that he made nearly two dozen phone calls to Hong Kong and talked to Teacher Li. If CCTV believes that this is such a piece of strong evidence, why aren’t they able to provide any phone records to substantiate it? An even more important argument is that it was impossible, out of respect, for a veteran practitioner to call Teacher by name. So under what kind of circumstances did these interviewed practitioners call Teacher by name? I think the answer is something not difficult to imagine.” – Female Interviewee #3

Then, the question is whether or notDid Mr. Li really organized this mass appealdemonstration.?

“I think many practitioners were just like me and wanted to go themselves. When I got up in the morning that day, it wasn’t 6 a.m. yet. We usually begin practicing the exercises everyday at 4 a.m. But I didn't feel like practicing at all that day because such an incident had happened and I felt that I had to say something about it and tell the true facts to government officials since I had benefited so much from Falun Dafa.”

In fact, the Public Security Bureau knew about the mass petition before hand. In the evening of April 24^th, some practitioners working in the Public Security Bureau expressed to the leaders in Zhongnanhai their wish to discuss the situation. And aAccording to anone eyewitness, at 6 a.m. on April 25^th when he arrived at the north intersection of Fuyou Street at 6 a.m. on the morning of April 25th, police were blocking the intersection leading to Zhongnanhai. Yet no Falun Gong practitioner pushed forward or collided with the police. But immediately, something unthinkable happened: [Can this be put more simply – I’m not sure what the unthinkable is – that police herded the petitioners? – let’s drop the reference to directions and replace with summary statement] And it was Tthe police who first guided a line of Falun Gong practitioners from the east entrance to the west entrance of the compound, and then guided them to move southbound toward the front entrance. of Zhongnanhai. Meanwhile, another line of Falun Gong practitioners was moved northbound and the two crowds met at the front entrance. In other words, Falun Gong practitioners did not initially and intentionally target Zhongnanhai. What appears to be Falun Gong practitioners taking Zhongnanhai under siege was actually done under the purposeful guidance of the police.

“The policemen told us we couldn't stay here or there and wanted us to move. So we moved to wherever the policemen wanted us to. In the end I was petrified: The police wanted us to form a line and they led us to move toward the front entrance of Zhongnanhai. We walked from north to south and we were very close to the front entrance. I saw that police led a line of people coming from the Minzhu Palace. One came from south and one came from north, and then we met there.” -- Female interviewee #1

Eventually, more and more practitioners showed up and gathered quietly outside the gates of Zhongnanhai as directed.