Nine years ago in Mainland China, facing unfair treatment, tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners arrived at the central government compound in Beijing to hold a peaceful appeal and ask the related government departments for fair treatment. After that, a full scale persecution of Falun Gong was launched by the CCP, which has now lasted for nine years.

Ms. Pfoehler said that the show "brought the land of China in a more positive manner to the West." Up until now, she saw China as a military type environment, which was highly disciplined. This show brought another side of China to her attention -- the artistic side, somehow playful with a completely different trait. "This was such a strong contrast to what I ever imagined," said Pfoehler.

Mr. Xu Linshan, a fifty-seven-year-old practitioner, never stopped believing in the principle of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" and strove to be a good person. Since the onset of the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, he was arrested seven times, detained, sentenced to forced labour, sentenced to prison, and tortured many times. On April 25th, 2002, the Qiqihar police arrested him, ransacked his home and he was sentenced to five years in prison. Mr. Xu Lishan was subjected to various brutal torture methods there, such as being stabbed with a needle and force-fed with highly concentrated salt water. He then developed the following symptoms: oedema, liver cirrhosis, liver ascites, renal failure, and meningitis. Mr. Xu's family took him home in December 2005. He was bedridden until his death on February 11th, 2008.

A few days ago, I learned that Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Zhou Huimin passed away at Qingyang People's Hospital in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, on March 15th, 2008. My heart broke, and tears ran down my face. She was a good person and was very kind and considerate to others. She died after 198 days of brutal torture. She hoped for the persecution to end soon and for everyone to have a bright future. She lost her precious life because she guarded her beliefs and strove to be a good person.

Xian Rumei is a Falun Gong practitioner from the Xiliu Farm in Danzhou City, Hainan Province. On March 10th, 2008, her younger brother (also a practitioner) was arrested by police. On March 11th, Xian Rumei, her husband, practitioner Xue Zhaoshun, and her mother, all went to the local police station and requested to see her brother. The police officer in charge agreed and had them sent to the Xilian Police Department in a police vehicle. Yet instead of being allowed to see her brother, Ms. Xian and her husband were held at the Xilian Police Department and only her mother was able to go home.

After going to Beijing in April 2000 to appeal for justice for Falun Gong at Tiananmen Square, 46-year-old Ms. Wang Guixiang was arrested and detained in Banqiao Forced Labour Camp for one and a half years. Ms. Wang was severely tortured at the labour camp. She was shocked with three or four high-voltage electric batons simultaneously all over her body, brutally force-fed, and put in solitary confinement. One of her teeth was knocked out during a beating. Later she was forced to stay away from home for nearly three years to avoid further persecution. Her husband could not bear the persecution any more, and divorced Ms. Wang in 2001. In March 2008, police took Wang Guixiang into custody off the street. She has been sentenced to forced labour for two years and is detained in Shijiazhuang Women's Labour Camp.

The purpose of the April 25 peaceful appeal was to make the most of Chinese citizens' fundamental rights and to give the CCP an opportunity to mend its ways and listen to the will of the people. However, Jiang Zemin and the CCP regime missed this opportunity, and instead used extreme actions to crush belief in "Truth, Compassion, Tolerance." This has now continued for nine years.

The peaceful resolution of the 10,000-strong Zhongnanhai appeal on April 25th, 1999 is mainly attributable to the sincerity, kindness and tolerance that practitioners have derived from their Falun Dafa cultivation. For the good of China and its people, with the best intentions to resolve problems peacefully, trusting the government and not seeing any other alternatives, we chose to appeal as a group to the government. Throughout the entire process, we maintained good order and did not incite a riot or uproar, we did not chant any slogans nor raise our voices.

On the afternoon of April 25th, 2008, Falun Gong practitioners in Queensland, Australia held an activity to commemorate the ninth anniversary of April 25th appeal in front of Chinese Consulate in downtown Brisbane. They called for an end of Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s brutal persecution of Falun Gong.