SAN FRANCISCO—Hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners from the San Francisco Bay Area meditated in Harry Bridges Plaza on April 22. This was the first in a series of events held to commemorate the 24th anniversary of a peaceful appeal made in Beijing on April 25, 1999.
Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, is a Chinese spiritual discipline that includes meditative exercises and moral teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. It was first taught in public by Mr. Li Hongzhi in China in 1992.
In the 1990s, the number of Falun Gong practitioners in China grew quickly due to its health benefits. However, in 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began persecuting Falun Gong practitioners for their faith….