Falun Gong Practitioners Rally in San Francisco to Commemorate 25 Years of Anti-Persecution Efforts

SAN FRANCISCO—Hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners and supporters held a rally on July 20 in Harry Bridges Plaza on the 25th anniversary of the beginning of the persecution of Falun Gong in China. On July 20, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched a violent campaign to suppress the spiritual practice. Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, had become well known in China for its health benefits by ’99, and the CCP viewed its growing popularity as a threat to the atheist communist regime. “Over the past 25 years, millions of Falun Gong practitioners have been detained or imprisoned. The documented death cases due to persecution have surpassed 5,000,” states a press release by Friends of Falun Gong, the organizer of the series of events....