Fa Lun Gong
Li Hongzhi
The Communist leadership was rocked by a demonstration of 10,000 people who follw the practice and/or belief of Fa Lun Gong. They were took their case directly to the central authorities, desending upon the Zhong Nan Hai seat of the Communist Party in Beijing.
They began gathering at 4 AM on the 25th of April and stayed until 11:30 that night.
The movement was started by a fellow named Li Hongzhi (that's him above in the yellow outfit) in 1992. Li has since moved to New York, partly due to fear he'd be arrested in the PRC and partly to cultivate his movement around the world.
The protest was peacefull and well organized. It was organized over the internet and from phone calls and people from all over mainland China went to take part. One fellow even flew to Beijing from Hainan island.
The next day there was another protest over housing complaints. That was not nearly as massive as the Fa Lun Gong protest, with a hundred or so protestors, according to reports.
It is not known how the Chinese Communist will react. The Fa Lun Gongists wanted the Communist party to stop jailing their leaders. The protest came about because 50 group members were arrested in Tianjin. They had protested there over it with no result and apparently then decided to make their way to Beijing to make their grievances known and redress the people who make policy.
Rumor has it that Zhu Rongji agreed to meet them to hear their complaints. Rumor said he did meet them, but it is not known if he or a representative actually met with group leaders.
It is said the group was told the Communist party would make a decsion in three days. The group wants to be made legal.
The Communist Party is confused about how to handle this. The Public Security department says it is a Religious Affairs issue, and conversely religious ASffairs says this is a problem for Public Security.
Below are some pictures of the demonstration with a picture of the housing protest of the next day also at the end.
Below is a picture of the housing demonstration
And later the Communist Party took control
