U.S. State Department officials met six representatives of the spiritual discipline Falun Gong on April 25 for an update on the decades-long ongoing persecution in China.
The day marks the 23rd anniversary of a peaceful appeal dated back to 1999, when an estimated 10,000 adherents of Falun Gong, a meditation practice that was first introduced to the public in northeastern China in the early 1990s, gathered around the Chinese communist headquarters in Beijing.
The attempt to appeal to authorities for an environment to practice their faith without state interference or harassment, however, turned out to be in vain and the regime soon launched a long-lasting campaign to eradicate the spiritual group, which continues today.
…