NEW YORK—In the years before leaving China, Chen Weijie relished writing one message more than any other.
On rocks, trees, and chairs, he left his penmark visible everywhere.
“Falun Dafa is good. Truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance is good.”
But he found this “the right thing to do—and sorely needed.”
“I know Falun Gong is what the CCP fears the most,” the 35-year-old said at a rally on April 21 marking the 25th anniversary of a peaceful appeal by the group in Beijing, which took place months before the communist regime unleashed a full-scale persecution that has now killed thousands by conservative estimates.
“Whatever the CCP fears the most, this is what I want to do.”
The tally of people who have participated in the movement, using real names or aliases, is now approaching 430 million, according to the New York-based Tuidang Center, the host of the rally as well as an earlier parade in the city’s Asian-dominant Flushing neighborhood.
Activists and freedom advocates voiced their support for the movement.
Martha Flores-Vazquez, a Democratic district leader from Queens, said that she’s gotten emotional each time she’s attended a Falun Gong rally.
“I’m not crying because I’m happy. I’m crying because we need to end the persecution. It needs to stop—families are divided, organs are harvested while people are alive,” she said in a speech, thanking the hundreds of Falun Gong adherents in the crowd for their perseverance and strength.
“I have never in my life met individuals as strong and as courageous as you are.”
Cecilia Crowley, managing director at investment company Newcomb and Associates, described those who withdrew from the CCP as “warriors.”
“It’s almost like the fish swimming upstream,” she told The Epoch Times. “But they’re peaceful warriors.”
“The oppressive influence that seeks to eliminate truth is only 75 years old,” she said at the rally, referring to the CCP.
Her husband, Fred Newcomb, an investment banker and honorary chairman for the World Human Accountability Organization of the United Nations, echoed her sentiment.
“Whether China, the United States, or countries around the world, the celebration against tyranny and oppression is always well founded and deserved,” he said in a speech.
What they are doing, he said, is in line with the spirit of America, a country founded by people who thirsted for freedom.
“I’m a citizen of a country that goes around the world fighting for other countries, putting the lives of our soldiers on the line, people who die for us and those countries,“ he told The Epoch Times. ”I think I feel fairly strongly about it.”
Gong Kai, who narrowly survived the now-abandoned One Child Policy as a third child, credited the software Falun Gong practitioners developed for Chinese people to circumvent the regime’s “Great Firewall,” called Freegate, for opening his eyes to the free world. By using the tool to get past the internet censorship in college, he saw that he had been “living in a fake world” for 20 years, he said.
When he was watching a video version of the Nine Commentaries in the college dorm, he said his eight other roommates dropped their video games and joined him. After finishing it, they stopped participating in the Communist Youth League activities and Party ideology classes, according to Mr. Gong.
Cai Yuanxing, a retired public servant who had worked at a Chinese state firm, formally renounced his 21-year Party membership in a pre-written speech.
“A Chinese saying goes that ‘everyone gives a shove to a falling wall,’” he said. “I want to be a part of this, to push down the CCP.”
It’s telling that communist leader Xi Jinping has made reference in recent years to breaking through the “cyclical nature of history”: the rise and fall of the rulers, he said.
The regime leader saw that “the communist party is falling,” he said. “It’s in a panic.”
“The communist party is very weak now,” he said. “All that’s left is the last straw.”
Eva Fu is a New York-based writer for The Epoch Times focusing on U.S. politics, U.S.-China relations, religious freedom, and human rights.
Reprinted with Permission from The Epoch Times – By Eva Fu
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.