About 1,000 Falun Gong practitioners yesterday gathered in front of Taipei City Hall to commemorate the 17th anniversary of a peaceful demonstration by more than 10,000 people in Beijing.
The group called on Taiwanese to give more support to their campaign against human rights abuses in China.
Several Falun Gong practitioners held a banner reading “Commemorating the 17th anniversary of the peaceful petition on April 25 of Chinese Falun Gong practitioners,” while others, in yellow uniforms and yellow caps, sat in meditation postures.
Photo: DAVID CHANG, EPA
“We are commemorating the April 25 peaceful demonstration here today, because though it was a campaign by Falun Gong practitioners in China, it carries very significant meaning for Taiwan as well,” Taiwan Falun Dafa Association president Chang Chin-hwa (張錦華) said.
She said that as the Chinese government has a poor human rights record, Taiwanese might fall victim to such abuses in cross-strait exchanges, especially when many Taiwanese live and work in China or do business with the Chinese.
“Also, when Falun Gong practitioners peacefully demonstrate in front of Taipei 101, there have been people sent by China to yell at them or even beat them,” Chang said. “This shows China’s authoritarian nature is now threatening Taiwanese.”
Chang said the peaceful demonstration by the group in Beijing on April 25, 1999 was a landmark event, because it was the first peaceful mass demonstration in China, adding that then-Chinese premier Zhu Rongji (朱鎔基) also took their petition according to the law.
“This shows the Chinese could freely communicate with the government according to the law,” Chang said. “It could have been an opportunity for the Chinese Communist Party to open up, but unfortunately, then-Chinese president Jiang Zemin [江澤民] insisted on launching a massive persecution against Falun Gong.”
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