04/29/2026
➡️ Flushing, New York: Grand March Commemorates Peaceful Appeal in China 27 Years Ago
🌏 (Minghui.org) Falun Dafa practitioners around the world held events to commemorate the peaceful appeal that took place in Beijing on April 25, 1999.
🔹 On April 25, 2026, practitioners in the Greater New York area held a grand march and rally in downtown Flushing, home to New York City’s largest Chinese community, to commemorate the 27th anniversary of the peaceful appeal. After the march, practitioners held a rally next to the Flushing Library, during which community leaders and other speakers gave speeches. They expressed their support for practitioners and praised their efforts to expose the persecution.
⚡️ Twenty-seven years ago, 10,000 Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) practitioners went to the State Council’s Central Petition Office in Beijing on April 25, 1999 to peacefully appeal. They requested that the practitioners recently detained in Tianjin be released, a legal environment to practice Falun Gong, and that the Falun Gong books allowed to be published. This event was regarded by many in the international community as the largest peaceful protest in Chinese history. However, it was subsequently distorted by then Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Jiang Zemin as an “attack on Zhongnanhai,” and a nationwide suppression was soon launched in July.
✨ As the resounding music of Tian Guo Marching Band filled the streets with powerful drumbeats, people stopped to watch, and some took out their phones to take photos.
🔸 The march included many people from different backgrounds. Martha Flores-Vazquez, a Flushing community leader who has long supported practitioners, and her friends, walked alongside practitioners and carried banners. Many Chinese supporters also walked in the march and carried banners that read “Support Falun Gong.” Some said they took time off work or came in from out of state to join the event and uphold the freedom of belief.
➡️ Chinese Teacher: Profound Significance in Awakening Civic Consciousness
🔹 Mingzhou De, a Chinese teacher, came to the United States from Inner Mongolia two years ago.
🔹 Chinese teacher Mingzhou De made a special trip to the rally to show his support. Speaking about the April 25 appeal in 1999, he believes it was a starting point for the awakening of the Chinese people. Due to the event’s great significance for China, he feels that future generations will definitely commemorate what happened on April 25, 1999.
🔹 He said that the practitioners’ demands were reasonable. “They are inherent human rights and are consistent with the Chinese Constitution. However, the CCP brutally suppressed them and even made up propaganda to defame the group.
🔹 “Like a rare glimmer of light in the darkness, the peaceful appeal in 1999 rekindled hope in the hearts of many Chinese people. The persecution also made the Chinese people completely despair of the CCP,” De continued. He mentioned that many horrific events occurred afterward, such as the 27-year suppression of Falun Gong, including live organ harvesting.